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Full Idea
There is a close alliance between the orator and the philosophical system of which I am a follower, since the orator borrows subtlely from the Academy, and repays the loan by giving to it a copious and flowing style and rhetorical ornament.
Gist of Idea
Oratory and philosophy are closely allied; orators borrow from philosophy, and ornament it
Source
M. Tullius Cicero (On Fate ('De fato') [c.44 BCE], 02.03)
Book Ref
Cicero: 'On Fate, Stoic Paradoxes, Oratory', ed/tr. Rackham,H. [Harvard Loeb 1942], p.195
A Reaction
It is a misundertanding to think that rhetoric and philosophy are seen as in necessary opposition. Philosophers just seemed to think that oratory works a lot better if it is truthful.
| 21667 | Oratory and philosophy are closely allied; orators borrow from philosophy, and ornament it [Cicero] |
| 21677 | How can the not-true fail to be false, or the not-false fail to be true? [Cicero] |
| 21678 | If desire is not in our power then neither are choices, so we should not be praised or punished [Cicero] |