Aristotle - Thomas Binkley - Theodore Roosevelt - Plato - Samuel Butler - Voltaire - Trumphobia: What Both Sides Fear TV -
Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art. Aristotle
The duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without arts or systems to guide us, in the hearing of persons who cannot take in at a glance a complicated argument or follow a long chain of reasoning. Aristotle
The rhetorical process functioned in many areas other than speech: Curtius wrote about ‘rhetorical landscape representations’ while Serpieris speaks of ‘la retorica al teatro’ (the rhetorical use of theatrical space), and music historians have learned that the language and approach of musical theory in the Middle Ages were borrowed directly from medieval grammar and rhetoric. Thomas Binkley, 1997
Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big. Theodore Roosevelt
Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men. Plato
For rhetoric, he could not ope
His mouth, but out there flew a trope;
And when he happen’d to break off
I’ th’ middle of his speech, or cough,
H’ had hard words, ready to show why,
And tell what rules he did it by;
Else, when with greatest art he spoke,
You’d think he talk’d like other folk,
For all a rhetorician’s rules
Teach nothing but to name his tools. Samuel Butler, Hudibras
The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say; but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work. Voltaire