Quote#Wisdom
Concerning the utility of Rhetoric, it is to be observed that it…
Quote byRichard Whately · 1787–1863
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Elements of Rhetoric (1828), Introduction, p. 12.
English (original)
Concerning the utility of Rhetoric, it is to be observed that it divides itself into two; first, whether Oratorical skill be, on the whole, a public benefit, or evil; and secondly, whether any artificial system of Rules is conducive to the attainment of that skill.
— Richard Whately
You may also like
On the whole, the arguments which it requires the greatest nicety of art to refute effectually … are those which are so very weak and silly that it is difficult to make their absurdity more palpable than it is already.… The task reminds …
In the present day, however, the province of Rhetoric, in the widest acceptation that would reckoned admissible, comprehends all "Composition in Prose;" in the narrowest sense, it would be limited to "Persuasive Speaking."
No one complains of the rules of Grammar as fettering Language; because it is understood that correct use is not founded on Grammar, but Grammar on correct use. A just system of Logic or of Rhetoric is analogous, in this respect, to …
He that is not aware of his ignorance, will be only misled by his knowledge.
Of Rhetoric various definitions have been given by different writers; who, however, seem not so much to have disagreed in their conceptions of the nature of the same thing, as to have had different things in view while they employed the …
The scene was changed. It was a bark that slowly held its way, And o'er its lee the coast of France in the light of evening lay; And on its deck a lady sat, who gazed with tearful eyes Upon the fast receding hills that dim and distant rise.
