15 Matching Annotations
  1. Feb 2017
  2. Nov 2013
    1. Yet at this point Quintilian has proposed that he should give instructions about one certain art and virtue, not about perfection in every art and vir-tue. He thinks rhetoric is one of the liberal arts, not in fact a common art, and yet at the same time he deems rhetoric to be an art, a science, and a virtue.

      Quintilian's definition: too far reaching.

    2. "I teach," he says, "that the orator cannot be perfect unless he is a good man. Con-sequently I demand from him not only outstand-ing skill in speaking but all the virtuous qualities of character." This is the type of orator that Quin-tilian constructs for us. Afterwards in the twelfth book, where he defines him in similar terms as a good man skilled in speaking well, he identifies those virtuous qualities of character as justice, courage, self-control, prudence, likewise knowl-edge of the whole of philosophy and of law, a thorough acquaintance with history, and many other attributes worthy of praise.
  3. Oct 2013
    1. There are, indeed, some men who have a good delivery, but cannot compose anything to deliver. Now, if such men take what has been written with wisdom and eloquence by others, and commit it to memory, and deliver it to the people, they cannot be blamed, supposing them to do it without deception

      Composers vs. orators

    2. Accordingly a great orator has truly said that "an eloquent man must speak so as to teach, to delight, and to persuade." Then he adds: "To teach is a necessity, to delight is a beauty, to persuade is a triumph."(2) Now of these three, the one first mentioned, the teaching, which is a matter of necessity, depends on what we say; the other two on the way we say it.

      What is said vs. how it is said

    3. 24. Now a strong desire for clearness sometimes leads to neglect of the more polished forms of speech, and indifference about what sounds well, compared with what dearly expresses and conveys the meaning intended.

      Meaning is more important than presentation

    4. the educated man observes that those sections which the Greeks call kommata, and the clauses and periods of which I spoke a short time ago,

      Is he referring to syntax?

    5. nothing can be called eloquence if it be not suitable to the person of the speaker,
    6. both to teach what is right and to refute what is wrong, and in the performance of this task to conciliate the hostile, to rouse the careless, and to tell the ignorant both what is occurring at present and what is probable in the future. But once that his hearers are friendly, attentive, and ready to learn, whether he has found them so, or has himself made them so the remaining objects are to be carried out in whatever way the case requires. If the hearers need teaching, the matter treated of must be made fully known by means of narrative. On the other hand, to clear up points that are doubtful requires reasoning and the exhibition of proof. If, however, the hearers require to be roused rather than instructed, in order that they may be diligent to do what they already know, and to bring their feelings into harmony with the truths they admit, greater vigor of speech is needed. Here entreaties and reproaches, exhortations and upbraidings, and all the other means of rousing the emotions, are necessary.

      The orator must be able to read the audience and adjust rhetoric accordingly

    1. Such is undoubtedly the case unless we suppose, perchance, that a regular structure and smooth combination of words is requisite only in poems and songs, and is superfluous in making a speech; or that composition and modulation are not to be varied in speaking, as in music, according to the nature of the subject.

      Interesting use of vocal music as an exercise or means of training an orator. When I consider any number of vocalists, a commonality among them is the ability to speak well (and pleasantly). I'm having a hard time recalling any vocalist with a flat, monotone voice (among other unpleasant speaking qualities).

    2. this part of learning, which, after being neglected by orators, has been taken up by the philosophers, was a portion of our business,

      Distinction between philosophers and orators (us and them)

    3. We see an antidote, for example, and other medicines to heal diseases and wounds, compounded of many and sometimes opposite ingredients, from the various qualities of which results that single compound, which resembles none of them, yet takes its peculiar virtues from them all.

      Analogy of what makes a perfect orator.

    4. Nature does not forbid the formation of a perfect orator, and it is disgraceful to despair of what is possible.

      Ideal orator is attainable

    1. Such an orator ought now surely to be formed, when so many more examples of eloquence exist than fell to the lot of those who have hitherto been considered the best orators, for to them will belong the praise, not only of surpassing those who preceded them, but of instructing those who followed.

      Ideal orator

  4. Sep 2013
    1. The Epideictic speaker is concerned with virtue and vice, praising the one and censuring the other. The forms of virtue. Which are the greatest virtues? Some rhetoric devices used by the epideictic speaker: "amplification," especially. Amplification is particularly appropriate to epideictic oratory; examples, to political; enthymemes, to forensic.

      Things the "orator" should be concerned with in speaking.