| 6331 | Truth is not beautiful; beautiful speech is not truthful [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
| 7357 | People who control others with fluent language often end up being hated [Kongzi (Confucius)] |
| 5864 | Destroy seriousness with laughter, and laughter with seriousness [Gorgias] |
| 9866 | Gorgias says rhetoric is the best of arts, because it enslaves without using force [Gorgias, by Plato] |
| 114 | Rhetoric can produce conviction, but not educate people about right and wrong [Plato] |
| 116 | Rhetoric is irrational about its means and its ends [Plato] |
| 158 | An excellent speech seems to imply a knowledge of the truth in the mind of the speaker [Plato] |
| 159 | Only a good philosopher can be a good speaker [Plato] |
| 5946 | 'Phaedrus' pioneers the notion of philosophical rhetoric [Lawson-Tancred on Plato] |
| 5945 | The 'Republic' is a great work of rhetorical theory [Lawson-Tancred on Plato] |
| 283 | The question of whether or not to persuade comes before the science of persuasion [Plato] |
| 3324 | Plato's whole philosophy may be based on being duped by reification - a figure of speech [Benardete,JA on Plato] |
| 22570 | Rhetoric now enables good speakers to become popular leaders [Aristotle] |
| 5849 | Rhetoric is a political offshoot of dialectic and ethics [Aristotle] |
| 20777 | Rhetoric has three types, four modes, and four sections [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 21667 | Oratory and philosophy are closely allied; orators borrow from philosophy, and ornament it [Cicero] |
| 20814 | Eloquence educates, exhorts, comforts, distracts and unites us, and raises us from savagery [Cicero] |
| 6681 | We only want to know things so that we can talk about them [Pascal] |
| 20266 | It is essential that wise people learn to express their wisdom, possibly even as foolishness [Nietzsche] |
| 24120 | Great orators lead their arguments, rather than following them [Nietzsche] |
| 1596 | Reasoning aims not at the understanding of objects, but at the desire to give beautiful speeches [Roochnik] |
| 1578 | If relativism is the correct account of human values, then rhetoric is more important than reasoning [Roochnik] |
| 10358 | Often socialising people is the only way to persuade them [Kusch] |
| 20946 | Rhetoric is built into language, so it cannot be stripped from philosophy [Bowie] |