David Frum Quotes

Political speeches are a particularly low form of rhetoric.

Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.

He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense.

I got my degree in rhetoric.

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.

The writing is all done, so it's all about verbalizing everything from point A to point B, and certainly there's a bit of politics involved, so it's a different thing.

Modern political speechwriting is certainly a skill, and one that requires experience and practice to master.

It is but a poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk.

A word after a word after a word is power.

Nobody has a magic lamp which can tell you in advance whether what you say will be effective in persuading an audience.

Speeches are not magic and there is no great speech without great policy.

It really is true that an orator is simply a good man who speaks well.

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.

Eloquence, n. The art of orally persuading fools that white is the color that it appears to be. It includes the gift of making any color appear white.

I made lots of talks and challenged lots of people.

The duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without arts or systems to guide us, in the hearing of persons who cannot take in at a glance a complicated argument or follow a long chain of reasoning.

The aim of the sculptor is to convince us that he is a sculptor; the aim of the orator, is to convince us that he is not an orator.

He who wants to persuade should put his trust, not in the right argument, but in the right word.

This trial has developed in the most remarkable manner, the insane love of speaking among public men. We are wading knee deep in words, words, words ….

As reason is the glory of man, so the lamp of reason is eloquence.

It lies deep in our habits, confirmed by all manner of educational and other arrangements for several centuries back, to consider human talent as best of all evincing itself by the faculty of eloquent speech.

We need to become more acutely conscious that words matter. None of us would deny that ideas and opinions matter, but we can sometimes be careless about how we express them. The words we choose to advance an idea, opinion, or point of view have a huge impact on how people react and respond to that view. When we use hyperbole, we increase the chances of being misunderstood and of promoting equally exaggerated counter-reactions, especially when people are reacting almost instantaneously.

You can't just give a speech and expect people to fall down and agree with you.

I'm not good at throwing around rhetoric.

If you are a speechwriter, you have to know what the person you're writing for thinks. A lot of foreign policy advisers are thinking, 'How can I get my proposal into this guy's speech?' I was just thinking, 'What does he want to say?'