#rhetorical

That sense of a life in natural objects, which in most poetry is but a rhetorical artifice, was, then, in Wordsworth the assertion of what was for him almost literal fact. ↗

— Walter Pater

#artifice #assertion #fact #him #life

My speaking style was criticised by no less an authority than Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was a low moment, my friends, to have my rhetorical skills denounced by a monosyllabic Austrian cyborg. ↗

— Boris Johnson

#arnold schwarzenegger #austrian #authority #criticised #denounced

Wealth, religion, military victory have more rhetorical than efficacious worth. ↗

— George Santayana

#military #more #religion #rhetorical #than

So far the changes in the president in his second term have been mainly of a rhetorical nature. ↗

— Brent Scowcroft

#changes #far #his #mainly #nature

If my mother's intention in whole or in part was to ensure that I never had to suffer any indignity or embarrassment for being a Jew, then she succeeded well enough. And in any case there were enough intermarriages and 'conversions' on both sides of her line to make me one of those many mischling hybrids who are to be found distributed all over the known world. And, as someone who doesn't really believe that the human species is subdivided by 'race,' let alone that a nation or nationality can be defined by its religion, why should I not let the whole question slide away from me? Why—and then I'll stop asking rhetorical questions—did I at some point resolve that, in whatever tone of voice I was asked 'Are you a Jew?' I would never hear myself deny it? ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#intermarriage #jews #mothers #nationality #race

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

I'm convinced that most men don't know what they believe, rather, they only know what they wish to believe. How many people blame God for man's atrocities, but wouldn't dream of imprisoning a mother for her son's crime? ↗

— Criss Jami

#apologetics #atrocities #belief #bias #biases

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