#rhetoric

I have a little theory that I'd like to air here, if I may. What is it that you think makes you magicians?" More silence. Fogg was well into rhetorical-question territory now anyway. He spoke more softly. "Is it because you are intelligent? Is it because you are brave and good? Is is because you're special? Maybe. Who knows. But I'll tell you something: I think you're magicians because you're unhappy. A magician is strong because he feels pain. He feels the difference between what the world is and what he would make of it. Or what did you think that stuff in your chest was? A magician is strong because he hurts more than others. His wound is his strength. Most people carry that pain around inside them their whole lives, until they kill the pain by other means, or until it kills them. But you, my friends, you found another way: a way to use the pain. To burn it as fuel, for light and warmth. You have learned to break the world that has tried to break you. ↗

— Lev Grossman

#bravery #fuel #intelligence #light #magic

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big. ↗

— Theodore Roosevelt

#action #big #great #great nation #merely

You may be right that people say: 'You know what, we had Obama. He was inexperienced. The guy had great rhetoric, sounded good, looked good, but has turned out to be an utter disaster. I want someone where I have confidence and credibility that they're up to the job and that I can trust what they tell me.' ↗

— Karl Rove

#credibility #disaster #good #great #guy

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. ↗

— Tim Ryan

#america #because #bobby #campaign #care

It seems to me we have been in a rhetorical arms race in this country, with each side unwilling to lay down its weapons for fear - usually justified - the other side would beat them to a pulp. ↗

— Pat Sajak

#arms race #beat #been #country #down

There comes a time when what is needed is not just rhetoric, but boots on the ground. ↗

— Baldwin Spencer

#comes #ground #just #needed #rhetoric

There are professional negotiators working for the writers and the actors, but basically you've got the writers and actors negotiating against businessmen. That's why you get rhetoric. ↗

— Dick Wolf

#basically #businessmen #get #got #negotiating

What makes a man a 'sophist' is not his faculty, but his moral purpose. (1355b 17) ↗

— Aristotle

#rhetoric #sophists #art

Whether it's trying to convince others that something is more true, more virtuous, or more desirable--all communication is rhetoric in action. ↗

— Leonard Koren

#communication #rhetoric #art

To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior creation—is that good for the world? ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#child-abuse #children #feminism #hell #religion