Rhetoric
The art of persuasion by speech and writing.
Works to read
- Richard II by William Shakespeare, c. 1595 · Great Books
- Gorgias by Plato, c. 387-385 BC · Great Books
- Meno by Plato, c. 385 BCE · Great Books
- The Art of Poetry (Ars Poetica) by Horace, c. 19-10 BC
- Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, 1599
- Collected Poems 1934–1952 by Dylan Thomas, 1952
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn, 1962
Passages
From the texts
The orator's demonstration is an enthymeme, and this is, in general, the most effective of the modes of persuasion.
— Aristotle, Rhetoric
Verified quotations
Rhetoric is the counterpart of Dialectic
— Aristotle, Rhetoric
Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion
— Aristotle, Rhetoric
For physic, especially as it is now professed by most men, is nothing but a branch of flattery, no less than rhetoric
— Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly
It was his conviction that while cleverness is appropriate to rhetoric, and inventiveness to poetry, truth alone is appropriate to history.
— Procopius of Caesarea, History of the Wars, Books I-II (The Persian War)
But his forbidding masters of rhetoric and grammar to instruct Christians was a cruel action, and one deserving to be buried in everlasting silence.
— Ammianus Marcellinus, The Roman History
Passages are verified quotations from the library that use one of these words: rhetoric, orator, eloquence, persuade. Sentences under “From the texts” are copied word for word from the full texts in this library. Read each in its context on the work's page.