Rhetoric Quotes - page 2

For my own part I have never been able to understand how he [Hitler] was capable, with his unmelodious and raucous voice, with his crude, often un-Germanically constructed sentences, and with a conspicuous rhetoric entirely at odds with the character of the German language, of winning over the masses with his speeches, of holding their attention and subjugating them for such appalling lengths of time. (Victor Klemperer)
Scientists are used to debating with one another about the finer points of new research. But increasingly, they find themselves battling their televisions and computer screens, which transmit ever-more-heated rhetoric from politicians, pundits, and other public figures who misinterpret, misrepresent, and malign scientific results. View quote
Lewis M. Branscomb
The disease concept of homosexuality-as with the disease concept of all so-called mental illnesses, such as alcoholism, drug addiction, or suicide-conceals the fact that homosexuals are a group of medically stigmatized and socially persecuted individuals. ... Their anguished cries of protest are drowned out by the rhetoric of therapy-just as the rhetoric of salvation drowned out the [cries] of heretics. View quote
Thomas Szasz
A commonplace of political rhetoric has it that the quality of a civilization may be measured by how it cares for its elderly. Just as surely, the future of a society may be forecast by how it cares for its young. View quote
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Ornate rhetoric thought out of the rule of Plato... To which poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being less subtle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate. View quote
John Milton
Rhetoric, it seems, is a producer of persuasion for belief, not for instruction in the matter of right and wrong ... And so the rhetorician's business is not to instruct a law court or a public meeting in matters of right and wrong, but only to make them believe. View quote
Plato
Few poets have made a more interesting rhetoric out of just fooling around: turning things upside down, looking at them from under the sofa, considering them (and their observer) curiously enough to make the reader protest, "That were to consider it too curiously.”. View quote
Randall Jarrell
So I think it's important to communicate with the people in terms of what the real facts are on these proposals and try to have a discussion and a dialogue that gives people information. I think they're hungry for that rather than just political rhetoric. View quote
John Podesta
I got my degree in rhetoric. View quote
Alex Borstein
Our government has made a number of promises to the men and women who served in our nation's armed forces. Sadly, these promises of health care, education and other benefits have existed more in rhetoric than in reality. View quote
Allen Boyd
There comes a time when what is needed is not just rhetoric, but boots on the ground. (Baldwin Spencer)
It is not empty rhetoric to talk of the Free World. View quote
Barbara Amiel
Like my colleagues, I did about 10 to 15 town hall meetings on this issue; and what I found is people came with a sincere interest to learn, a sincere interest to cut through the rhetoric and understand how this Medicare bill impacts them in their daily lives. View quote
Chris Chocola
Fiction is a particular kind of rhetoric, a way of thinking that I think can be useful in your life. It asks you to image the world through someone else's eyes, and it allows you to try to empathize with situations that you haven't actually experienced. View quote
Dan Chaon
I am a plain man, and I care and know comparatively little about rhetoric. View quote
Gerrit Smith
President Bush has consistently used rhetoric, and that is not convincing given his past record. View quote
Grace Napolitano
In the coming year, I believe we can make sure America lives up to its legacy as a land of opportunity if the President is willing to back up his rhetoric with substance. View quote
Ron Kind
I just find Bobby Kennedy's short campaign for president so inspiring because his rhetoric identified what America can be like if we care about each other. View quote
Tim Ryan
When a party is in opposition, it opposes. That's its job. But when it comes to power, it must govern. Easy rhetoric is over, the press of reality becomes irresistible. By necessity, it adopts some of the policies it had once denounced. And a new national consensus is born. View quote
Charles Krauthammer
What we all want is public safety. We don't want rhetoric that's framed through ideology. View quote
Kamala Harris
The Court's statement that it is 'tempting' to acknowledge the authoritativeness of tradition in order to 'curb the discretion of federal judges' is, of course, rhetoric rather than reality; no government official is 'tempted' to place restraints upon his own freedom of action, which is why Lord Acton did not say 'Power tends to purify.' The Court's temptation is in the quite opposite and more natural direction -- towards systematically eliminating checks upon its own power; and it succumbs. (Antonin Scalia)
Two signs of learned person are: acceptance of other people's criticism, and being knowledgeable about the angles and dimensions of rhetoric and debate. View quote
Husayn ibn Ali
I'm not for nationalization because of the rhetoric of nationalization, or because I see in nationalization the cure-all for every injustice. I'm for nationalization in cases where it's necessary. View quote
Indira Gandhi
When I look at the murder, rape and starvation to which the people of Darfur are being subjected, I fear that we have not got far beyond "lip service”. The lesson here is that high-sounding doctrines like the "responsibility to protect” will remain pure rhetoric unless and until those with the power to intervene effectively - by exerting political, economic or, in the last resort, military muscle - are prepared to take the lead. View quote
Kofi Annan
We're not interested in gimmicks, clever rhetoric or conventional thinking. View quote
Kazuo Hirai