Quotes from Retorica

“What makes a man a 'sophist' is not his faculty, but his moral purpose. (1355b 17)”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions-that is, to name them and”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“If there are two definitive features of ancient Greek civilization, they are loquacity and competition.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“To say this, however, is not to claim that it was the object of theoretical study.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“The peculiar circumstances arising out of the fall of the Syracusan tyranny seem to have produced the first practitioners of the art of rhetorical”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“It was at this point that the transition was first made to the conception that rhetoric was a teachable skill, that it could, usually in return for a fee, be passed from one skilled performer on to others, who might thereby achieve successes in their practical life that would otherwise have eluded them.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“How can a man who, for a significant phase of his formation, shared his master’s opposition to rhetoric have in maturity composed a masterpiece of the formal study of rhetoric? This”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“rhetoric was to be surveyed from the standpoint of philosophy.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“means of succeeding in the object we set before us. We must make as it were a fresh start, and before going further define what rhetoric is. 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. Every other art can instruct or persuade about its own particular subject-matter; for instance, medicine about what is healthy and unhealthy, geometry about the properties of magnitudes, arithmetic about numbers, and the same is true of the other arts and sciences. But rhetoric we look upon as the power of observing the means of persuasion on almost any subject presented to us;”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“since we are most strongly convinced when we suppose anything to have been demonstrated; that rhetorical demonstration is an enthymeme,”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“Dialectic as a whole, or of one of its parts, to consider every kind of syllogism in a similar manner, it is clear that he who is most capable of examining the matter and forms of a syllogism will be in the highest degree a master of rhetorical argument,”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“Dialectic as a whole, or of one of its parts, to consider every kind of syllogism in a similar manner, it is clear that he who is most capable of examining the matter and forms of a syllogism will be in the highest degree a master of rhetorical argument, if to this he adds a knowledge of the subjects with which enthymemes deal and the differences between them and logical syllogisms.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“wherefore one who divines well in regard to the truth will also be able to divine well in regard to probabilities. It”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“Nevertheless, Rhetoric is useful, because the true and the just are naturally superior to their opposites, so that, if decisions are improperly made, they must owe their defeat to their own advocates; which is reprehensible.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“even if we possessed the most accurate scientific knowledge, we should not find it easy to persuade them by the employment of such knowledge. For scientific discourse is concerned with instruction, but in the case of such persons instruction is impossible; our proofs and arguments must rest on generally accepted principles, as we said in the Topics, when speaking of converse with the multitude.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“Further, the orator should be able to prove opposites, as in logical arguments;”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“not that we should do both （for one ought not to persuade people to do what is wrong）, but that the real state of the case may not escape us, and that we ourselves may be able to counteract false arguments, if another makes an unfair use of them.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“However, it is not the same with the subject matter, but, generally speaking, that which is true and better is naturally always easier to prove and more likely to persuade.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“It is thus evident that Rhetoric does not deal with any one definite class of subjects, but, like Dialectic, [is of general application]; also, that it is useful; and further, that its function is not so much to persuade, as to find out in each case the existing means of persuasion.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“For instance, it is not the function of medicine to restore a patient to health, but only to promote this end as far as possible; for even those whose recovery is impossible may be properly treated.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“But there is a difference: in Rhetoric, one who acts in accordance with sound argument, and one who acts in accordance with moral purpose,are both called rhetoricians; but in Dialectic it is the moral purpose that makes the sophist, the dialectician being one whose arguments rest, not on moral purpose but on the faculty. Let”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“Rhetoric then may be defined as the faculty of discovering the possible means of persuasion in reference to any subject whatever.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“the fact that it took the rise of democracies and otherwise open societies at Athens and elsewhere to create the climate in which public eloquence became a political indispensability.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“logographos, a writer of speeches for others to use”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“The present work is, then, the masterpiece of one particular literary genre that flourished in the fourth century BC in Greece, that of the rhetorical manual, and it is a remarkable fact that it should have fallen to Aristotle to write it. It”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“Now the proofs furnished by the speech are of three kinds. The first depends upon the moral character of the speaker, the second upon putting the hearer into a certain frame of mind, the third upon the speech itself, in so far as it proves or seems to prove. [4]”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“The orator persuades by moral character when his speech is delivered in such a manner as to render him worthy of confidence; for we feel confidence in a greater degree and more readily in persons of worth in regard to everything in general, but where there is no certainty and there is room for doubt, our confidence is absolute.”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“The orator persuades by moral character when his speech is delivered in such a manner as to render him worthy of confidence; for we feel confidence in a greater degree and more readily in persons of worth in regard to everything in general, but where there is no certainty and there is room for doubt, our confidence is absolute. But this confidence must be due to the speech itself, not to any preconceived idea of the speaker’s character;”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

“É belo morrer antes de se fazer algo digno da morte. - Anaxândrias”
― Aristotle, quote from Retorica

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

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