Quotes for All
Over his illustrious career, John Harris has explored the most challenging bioethical questions with insight, engaging wit, and eloquence. In Enhancing Evolution, Harris does it again. He argues that it is not just an option but an obligation for people to use available biomedical technologies to enhance their own–and their children’s–physical and mental abilities. Harris … Read more
Eloquence is the art of saying as little as possible but making it sound as much as possible. Evan Esar
Give a wise man an honest brief to plead and his eloquence is no remarkable achievement. Euripides
We must recognize the eloquence of our passions and refuse to be taken in. Instead of saying, ‘That false friend always did despise me,’ say: ‘In my present state of agitation, I can’t see clearly, I can’t judge clearly; I am only a tragic actor who is declaiming for his own ears.’ Then you will … Read more
William F. Buckley, Jr. does not so much speak as exhale, but he exhales polysyllabically, and the results are remarkable. Edwin Newman
Language is in decline. Not only has eloquence departed but simple, direct speech as well, though pomposity and banality have not. Edwin Newman
Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them. Edwin H Friedman
No erudition, no purity of diction, no width of mental outlook, no flowers of eloquence, no grace of person can atone for lack of fire. Prayer ascends by fire. Flame gives prayer access as well as wings, acceptance as well as energy. There is no incense without fire; no prayer without flame. Edward McKendree Bounds
In oratory affectation must be avoided; it being better for a man by a native and clear eloquence to express himself than by those words which may smell either of the lamp or inkhorn. Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury
The Romans, who so coolly and so concisely mention the acts of justice which were exercised by the legions, reserve their compassion and their eloquence for their own sufferings, when the provinces were invaded and desolated by the arms of the successful Barbarians. Edward Gibbon