Rhetoric Quotes - Page 7

• In the higher walks of politics the same sort of thing occurs. The statesman who has gradually concentrated all power within himself ... may have had anything but a public motive... The phrases which are customary on the platform and in the Party Press have gradually come to him to seem to express truths, and he mistakes the rhetoric of partisanship for a genuine analysis of motives... He retires from the world after the world has retired from him.

  Bertrand Russell

  Truth, Mistake, Party

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• What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power. Nothing much of lasting value ever happens at the head table, held together by a familiar rhetoric. Those who already have power continue to glide along the familiar rut they have made for themselves.

  Michael Ondaatje

  Interesting, Secret, Important

  Michael Ondaatje (2011). “The Cat's Table”, p.81, Random House

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• Tax rates for the wealthy should revert to Clinton-era levels, both because it is necessary for long-term deficit reduction and because fairness dictates it. Moreover, there is no proof that higher marginal rates dissuade investment, all the rhetoric from the Right notwithstanding.

  Eliot Spitzer

  Long, Levels, Eras

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• And this is the simple truth - that to live is to feel oneself lost. He who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look around for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life. These are the only genuine ideas; the ideas of the shipwrecked. All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Life, Loneliness, Simple

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• Today, it is imperative to end this hysteria, to refute the rhetoric of the Cold War and to accept the obvious fact: Russia is an independent, active participant in international affairs. Like other countries, it has its own national interests that need to be taken into account and respected.

  Vladimir Putin

  Country, Powerful, War

  Vladimir Putin “VLADIMIR PUTIN: Munich”, ITBM

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• Without the changed conditions, the product of a lost war, a revolution and a pervasive sense of national humiliation, Hitler would have remained a nobody. His main ability by far, as he came to realise during the course of 1919, was that in the prevailing circumstances he could inspire an audience which shared his basic political feelings, by the way he spoke, by the force of his rhetoric, by the very power of his prejudice, by the conviction he conveyed that there was a way out of Germany's plight.

  Ian Kershaw

  War, History, Political

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• When a child, my dreams rode on your wishes, I was your son, high on your horse, My mind a top whipped by the lashes Of your rhetoric, windy of course.

  Stephen Spender

  Fathers Day, Dream, Horse

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• Must you write complete sentences each time, every time? Perish the thought. If your work consists only of fragments and floating clauses, the Grammar Police aren't going to come and take you away. Even William Strunk, that Mussolini of rhetoric, recognized the delicious pliability of language. "It is an old observation," he writes, "that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric." Yet he goes on to add this thought, which I urge you to consider: "Unless he is certain of doing well, [the writer] will probably do best to follow the rules."

  Stephen King

  Writing, Police, Add

  Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.113, Simon and Schuster

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• I've been a social gospel-er and a person who sees politics as a central dynamic to the encoding of religious rhetoric.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Religious, Social, Persons

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I don't get myself caught up in the rhetoric of any personal comments that are made.

  Roger Goodell

  Made, Caught, Comment

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• When liberals finally grasped the strength of popular feeling about the family, they cried to appropriate the rhetoric and symbolism of family values for their own purposes.

  Christopher Lasch

  Symbolism, Feelings, Popular Song

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• If Americans want to see results instead of rhetoric, if taxpayers would like solutions instead of sound bites, and hard work instead of horse trading, I suggest you take a short look, and it won't take much longer, at the accomplishments of this Congress.

  Alcee Hastings

  Horse, Hard Work, Accomplishment

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• The most characteristic concern of rhetoric [is] the manipulation of men's beliefs for political ends....the basic function of rhetoric [is] the use of words by human agents to form attitudes or to induce actions in other human agents.

  Kenneth Burke

  Attitude, Men, Political

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• Rhetoric is rooted in an essential function of language itself, a function that is wholly realistic and continually born anew: the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols.

  Kenneth Burke

  Mean, Essentials, Use

  Kenneth Burke (1969). “A Rhetoric of Motives”, p.43, Univ of California Press

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• You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.

  Paul Krugman

  Hate, Past, Violent Acts

  "Assassination Attempt In Arizona". krugman.blogs.nytimes.com. January 8, 2011.

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• This too is a jihad. Yet we Americans find ourselves in the dangerous position of going to war not against a state but against a phantom. The jihad we have embarked upon is targeting an elusive and protean enemy. The battle we have begun is never-ending. But it may be too late to wind back the heady rhetoric. We have embarked on a campaign as quixotic as the one mounted to destroy us.

  Chris Hedges

  War, Wind, Enemy

  Chris Hedges (2014). “War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning”, p.4, PublicAffairs

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• First, in your sermons, use your logic, and then your rhetoric; Rhetoric without logic, is like a tree with leaves and blossoms, but no root; yet more are taken with rhetoric than logic, because they are caught with fine expressions when they understand not reason.

  John Selden

  Taken, Expression, Roots

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• From this point of view, science - the real game in town - is rhetoric, a series of efforts to persuade relevant social actors that one's manufactured knowledge is a route to a desired form of very objective power.

  Donna J. Haraway

  Real, Views, Games

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• And all these questions I ask myself. It is not in a spirit of curiosity. I cannot be silent. About myself I need know nothing. Here all is clear. No, all is not clear. But the discourse must go on. So one invents obscurities. Rhetoric.

  Samuel Beckett

  Knowledge, Thinking, Curiosity

  Samuel Beckett (2009). “Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable”, p.288, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• 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.

  Ron Kind

  Believe, Opportunity, Years

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• De-Christianizing America has been high on the progressive agenda, and, thanks to the government (especially the federal courts), it has been a great success. Nor can we overlook the contribution of the entertainment industry, which now determines what passes for 'culture.' The main practical vehicle of de-Christianization has been the Sexual Revolution. A few radicals have called for the abolition of the family, but most liberals have been more discreet, avoiding hostile rhetoric while quietly but constantly pursuing policies that result in lower birthrates and fatherless children.

  Joseph Sobran

  Children, America, Government

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• It's very easy to have slogans and rhetoric that people will follow, but eventually the slogans fall away

  Saad Hariri

  Fall, People, Easy

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• The rhetoric is the first step, it coarsens attitudes

  Amy Waldman

  Attitude, Firsts, Steps

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• British diplomats, constantly exposed to American political-ethical rhetoric, find their professional skills tested to the limits by the need to keep a straight face. For illustrations of what I mean, study the photographs of the expressions worn by Mr Douglas Hurd at any international conference involving all the Western allies.

  Conor Cruise O'Brien

  Mean, Illustration, Expression

  Conor Cruise O'Brien (1994). “On the Eve of the Millennium: The Future of Democracy Through an Age of Unreason”, p.150, Simon and Schuster

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• Mediocrity is no answer to violence. In fact, it probably invites violence. At least the mediocre and the violent appear together as in the old Western movies - the ruffian outlaw band shooting up main street and the little white church with the little white schoolteacher wringing her hands. To cool violence you need rhythm, humor, tempering; you need dance and rhetoric. Not therapeutic understanding.

  James Hillman

  Hands, White, Understanding

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