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"True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary and nothing but what is necessary."
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Exlpore more Rhetoric quotes
"You know, to address crowds and make promises does not require very much brains."
"It is absurd to hold that a man should be ashamed of an inability to defend himself with his limbs, but not ashamed of an inability to defend himself with speech and reason; for the use of rational speech is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs."
"I prayed aloud, less to plead for divine favor than to intimidate the tribe with articulate speech."
"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."
"Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided."
"You aren't in the ivy halls of your miserable literature pursuit now. Without wasting more time, will thou cometh to the pointeth? Dost thou wanteth us to stayeth or leaveth?"
"It is this simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences-makes them, as the poets tell us, 'charm the crowd's ears more finely.' Educated men lay down broad general principles; uneducated men argue from common knowledge and draw obvious conclusions."
Explore more quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves."
"Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples."
"What we call generosity is for the most part only the vanity of giving; and we exercise it because we are more fond of that vanity than of the thing we give."
"When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness."
"Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with."
"No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will."
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