Friedrich Schleiermacher Quotes

There is nothing in the world like persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.

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.

Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak, and to speak well, are two things.

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

Talking and eloquence are not the same.

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

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.

I'm not good at throwing around rhetoric.

In oratory the will must predominate.

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.

If only I was as eloquent as Demosthenes, I would have to do no more than repeat a single word three times.

I'm a better polemicist in prose.

Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.

Now I see that going out into the testing ground of men it is the tongue and not the deed that wins the day.

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.

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.

I [Moses] am not a man of words.

The gifts of nature are necessary; but they are not sufficient to make a complete orator without art and study.

The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.

Use your logick, and then your rhetorick. Rhetorick without logick, is like a tree with leaves and blossoms, but no root; yet I confess more are taken with rhetorick than logick, because they are catched with a free expression, when they understand not reason. Logick must be natural, or it is worth nothing at all: Your rhetorick figures may be learned.

Great speech is impassioned; small speech cantankerous.

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.

Eloquence is the essential thing in a speech, not information.

A good orator is pointed and impassioned.

Nobody wants to hear long speeches.