Discourse Quotes - Page 10

• Rhetoric is useful because the true and the just are naturally superior to their opposites, so that, if decisions are improperly made, they must owe their defeat to their own advocates; which is reprehensible. Further, in dealing with certain persons, even if we possessed the most accurate scientific knowledge, we should not find it easy to persuade them by the employment of such knowledge. For scientific discourse is concerned with instruction, but in the case of such persons instruction is impossible.

  Aristotle

  Opposites, Decision, Employment

  Aristotle, John Henry Freese (1926). “Aristotle: the art of rhetoric”, Loeb Classical Library

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every discourse is an approximate answer: but it is of small consequence, that we do not get it into verbs and nouns, whilst it abides for contemplation forever.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Truth, Forever, Verbs

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.294, Harvard University Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Kindly politeness is the slow fruit of advanced reflection; it is a sort of humanity and kindliness applied to small acts and every day discourse: it bids man soften towards others, and forget himself for the sake of others: it constrains genuine nature, which is selfish and gross.

  Hippolyte Taine

  Selfish, Reflection, Men

  Hippolyte Taine (1904). “History of English literature”

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• It seems to be my destiny to discourse on truth, insofar as I discover it, in such a way that all possible authority is simultaneously demolished.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Destiny, Way, Authority

  "Søren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers: Autobiographical, 1829-1848". Book by Søren Kierkegaard and Gregor Malantschuk, p. 226, Journals IV A 87 (1843), 1978.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• One could construe the life of man as a great discourse in which the various people represent different parts of speech (the same might apply to states).

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Men, People, Speech

  Soren Kierkegaard (2015). “Papers and Journals”, p.62, Penguin UK

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are hardly any truths upon which we always remain agreed, and still fewer objects of pleasure which we do not change every hour, I do not know whether there is a means of giving fixed
  rules for adapting discourse to the inconstancy of our caprices.

  Blaise Pascal

  Mean, Giving, Hours

  Blaise Pascal (2007). “Blaise Pascal: Thoughts, Letters, and Minor Works”, p.410, Cosimo, Inc.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Almost one half of our time is spent in telling and hearing evil of one another ... and every hour brings forth something strange and terrible to fill up our discourse and our astonishment.

  Laurence Sterne

  Evil, Hearing, Half

  Laurence Sterne (1853). “Works ...”, p.588

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I was younger, I used to be very impatient with anyone who wasn't doing overtly political work. I've since come to feel that some writers have an appetite or a need for the political, for political discourse, for historical political subjects.

  Tony Kushner

  Political, Historical, Needs

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I always loved horror as a kid. On the one hand, I really love monsters, because in a way I feel like I related to their outsider status and like the sentimental romantic plight of the monster. More importantly though I feel like people are completely motivated by fear, especially with our political system here in America which is just degenerating into more and more fear mongering and it gets in the way of real discourse, plus it's just something I'm obsessive about and have always been a little bit of a paranoid guy.

  Larry Fessenden

  Real, Kids, Hands

  5 Copy quote

• President Obama, right after the Gabby Gifford shooting said we need to usher in a new era of civil discourse in politics. But not heeding his own advice.

  Eric Bolling

  Advice, President, Needs

  Source: www.foxnews.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Gossip is the currency of the discourse, so you should shut up about yourself. Never confess, never explain, never apologize, and never complain.

  Dave Hickey

  Gossip, Complaining, Apologizing

  Interview with Sheila Heti, believermag.com. November 2007.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I love discourse. I'm dying to have my mind changed. I'm probably the only liberal who read Treason, by Ann Coulter. I want to know, you understand? I like listening to everybody. This to me is the elixir of life.

  Jack Nicholson

  Listening, Mind, Dying

  Source: www.esquire.com

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Neuter discourse is a false idol.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Idols

  Richard M. Weaver (1985). “The Ethics of Rhetoric”, p.24, Psychology Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In any piece of rhetorical discourse, one rhetorical term overcomes another rhetorical term only by being nearer to the term which stands ultimate. There is some ground for calling a rhetorical education necessarily aristocratic education in that the rhetorician has to deal with an aristocracy of notions.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Overcoming, Aristocracy, Calling

  Richard M. Weaver (2016). “The Ethics of Rhetoric”, p.23, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Self-criticism expands the opportunities for discourse and eliminates the need for an adversary.

  Mason Cooley

  Opportunity, Self, Criticism

  4 Copy quote

• If millions of Americans choose to weigh in on the outcome of "American Idol" through text messages and the Web, then why not harness similar technological tools to encourage discourse on the political landscape?

  Ruzwana Bashir

  Idols, Political, Tools

  "Television Debates Are Antiquated" by Ruzwana Bashir, www.nytimes.com. October 2, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good as is discourse, silence is better, and shames it. The length of the discourse indicates the distance of thought betwixt the speaker and the hearer. If they were at a perfect understanding in any part, no words would be necessary thereon. If at one in all parts, no words would be suffered.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Distance, Perfect, Silence

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.192, Harvard University Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have been told, that in some public discourses of mine my reverence for the intellect has made me unjustly cold to the personalrelations. But now I almost shrink at the remembrance of such disparaging words. For persons are love's world, and the coldest philosopher cannot recount the debt of the young soul wandering here in nature to the power of love, without being tempted to unsay, as treasonable to nature, aught derogatory to the social instincts.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love, Remembrance, Soul

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1329, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• A second possible approach to general systems theory is through the arrangement of theoretical systems and constructs in a hierarchy of complexity, roughly corresponding to the complexity of the "individuals" of the various empirical fields... leading towards a "system of systems." [...] I suggest below a possible arrangement of "levels" of theoretical discourse...(vi) [...] the "animal" level, characterized by increased mobility, teleological behavior and self-awareness...

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Animal, Self, Mobility

  "General systems theory - the skeleton of science". Kenneth E. Boulding, Management Science, Volume 2, No. 3 (pp. 200-201), April 1956.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• To endeavor to move by the same discourse hearers who differ in age, sex, position and education is to attempt to open all locks with the same key.

  Jean Antoine Petit-Senn

  Sex, Moving, Keys

  7 Copy quote

• Ethical maxims are bandied about as a sort of current coin of discourse, and, being never melted down for use, those that are of base metal are never detected.

  Richard Whately

  Use, Coins, Ethical

  Richard Whately (1856). “Thoughts and Apophthegms: From the Writings of Archbishop Whateley”, p.158

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The practice of hinting by single letters those expletives with which profane and violent persons are wont to garnish their discourse, strikes me as a proceeding which, however, well meant, is weak and futile. I cannot tell what good it does - what feeling it spares - what horror it conceals.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Practice, Feelings, Doe

  Emily Bronte, Anne Brontë, Charlotte Brontë (1851). “Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey: In Two Volumes”, p.16

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Rational discourse is only one way of presenting and examining an issue and by no means the best. Our new intellectuals are not aware of its limitations and of the nature of the things outside.

  Paul Feyerabend

  Mean, Issues, Way

  "Science in a Free Society". Book by Paul Feyerabend, 1978.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Those who violate the rules of a language do not enter new territory; they leave the domain of meaningful discourse. Even facts in these circumstances dissolve, because they are shaped by the language and subjected to its limitations.

  Paul Feyerabend

  Meaningful, Territory, Facts

  Paul Feyerabend (2001). “Conquest of Abundance: A Tale of Abstraction Versus the Richness of Being”, p.20, University of Chicago Press

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are aching to come together and I think it has little to do with liberal or conservative discourse. I think it has to do with increasing disconnection with what is real and soul-serving.

  Terry Tempest Williams

  Real, Thinking, Soul

  Source: therumpus.net

  7 Copy quote

  Show source