Aristophanes Quotes

Logic is neither a science nor an art, but a dodge.

In argument, truth always prevails finally; in politics, falsehood always.

I never failed to convince an audience that the best thing they could do was to go away.

To pull off successful attacks in debates, you have to execute with nuance and subtlety. It has to be artful.

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.

Convincing yourself doesn't win an argument.

An orator is the worse person to tell a plain fact.

For, if a good speaker, never so eloquent, does not see into the fact, and is not speaking the truth of that - is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?

Logic is neither an art nor a science but a dodge.

I passionately believe that's it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you say it - that the success of your argument critically depends on your manner of presenting it.

A half truth, like half a brick, is always more forcible as an argument than a whole one. It carries better.

Rhetoric, which is the use of language to inform or persuade, is very important in shaping public opinion. We are very easily fooled by language and how it is used by others.

It is true the orator may make a myriad replica of his own passion out of those who listen to him. But that does not prove he is right or they are not fools.

A witty saying proves nothing.

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

Persuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated.

Rhetoric is cheap, evidence comes more dearly.

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.

In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing.

Oratory is the masterful art. Poetry, painting, music, sculpture, architecture please, thrill, inspire - but oratory rules. The orator dominates those who hear him, convinces their reason, controls their judgment, compels their action. For the time being, he is master.

Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better.

They have the troops; we only have the arguments.

Though we cannot out-vote them we will out-argue them.

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