Discourse Quotes

There are two ways of talking. One is the easy way, where you talk lightly, and the other one is the considered way. The considered way is what I have put my name to.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

A soft answer turns away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger ;, .d. oratory;, .d. anger;, .d. debate;, A soft answer turns away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger

But now sustainability is such a political category that it's getting more and more difficult to think about it in a serious way. Sustainability has become an ornament.

We're not too out there to educate people about any specific thing necessarily so much as we are to encourage critical and scientific thinking.

Neither truth, reason, nor justice consists in stubbornness of assertion, nor in the repetition of error.

I think your conversations are indicative of your tastes - even your diction.

During the Samuel Johnson days they had big men enjoying small talk; today we have small men enjoying big talk.

The real struggle is not between the right and the left but between the party of the thoughtful and the party of the jerks.

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.

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 haven't much opinion of words. They're apt to set fire to a dry tongue, that's what I say.

A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books.

I don't get myself caught up in the rhetoric of any personal comments that are made.

These days we think our politics are nasty and partisan. But our discourse looks like a Platonic symposium compared with the vicious fighting that marked the early Republic.

I definitely support free speech.

More idiots should just shut their mouths.

People that want to talk can talk. Even a parrot talks. People are always going to have their thoughts on what they're going to say.

I've tried to be graceful and I've tried to make sure my arguments are grounded in reason and insight.

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

We don't print the truth. We don't pretend to print the truth. We print what people tell us. It's up to the public to decide what's the truth.

There's a difference between being politically incorrect and boorish. And we've seen that line crossed a dozen times by smart people who've mistaken politics for punditry.

I [Moses] am not a man of words.

You're entitled your own opinions, but you're not entitled to your own facts.