ID Pool Flashcards
“And so this lady will be, by pure, mild and holy charity, an advocate and mediator between the prince her husband (or her child if she is a widow) and her people, or all people whom she may be able to help by doing good, depending on the situation.”
Christine de Pizan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies
“. . . we will touch on three causes from which slander commonly comes and arises and which are all common at court, individually and sometimes all three together. The first of the causes is hatred, the second opinion, and the third is sheer envy. These three causes are indeed wicked, but the one that comes from envy is least excusable.”
Christine de Pizan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies
“Furthermore, the women of the court ought likewise never to rebuke or defame one another, as much because of the sin and other reasons already mentioned, as for the fact that whoever would slyly defame another is herself defamed.”
Christine de Pizan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies
“We shall distinguish the art of rhetoric from the other arts, and make it a single one of the liberal arts, not a confused mixture of all arts; we shall separate its true properties, remove weak and useless subtleties, and point out the things that are missing.”
Peter Ramus, Arguments in Rhetoric Against Quintilian
“I consider the subject matters of the arts to be distinct and separate. The whole of dialectic concerns the mind and reason, whereas rhetoric and grammar concern language and speech. Therefore dialectic comprises, as proper to it, the arts of invention, arrangement, and memory; this is evident because, as we find among numerous dumb persons and many people who live without any outward speech, they belong completely to the mind and can be practiced inwardly without any help from language or oration. To grammar for the purposes of speaking and writing well belong etymology in interpretation, syntax in connection, prosody in the pronunciation of short and long syllables, and orthography in the correct rules for writing. From the development of language and speech only two proper parts will be left for rhetoric, style and delivery; rhetoric will possess nothing proper and of its own beyond these.”
Peter Ramus, Arguments in Rhetoric Against Quintilian
“Finally, granting that there is the same danger in Quintilian’s arts concerning arrangement, how shall I come to know Cicero’s judgment and his method? But Quintilian is so far from teaching any theory of judgment that he alleges that none at all can be formulated. He is so blind to the entire art of arrangement that he professes there can be no such art common to all subjects. Aristotle’s error is almost equal in foolishness to Quintilian’s.”
Peter Ramus, Arguments in Rhetoric Against Quintilian
“For the organ of tradition, it is either Speech or Writing: for Aristotle saith well, Words are the images of cogitations, and letters are the images of words; but yet it is not of necessity that cogitations be expressed by the medium of words.”
Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning
“The duty and office of rhetoric is to apply Reason to Imagination for the better moving of the will. For we see Reason is disturbed in the administration thereof by three means; by Illaqueation or Sophism, which pertains to Logic; by Imagination or Impression, which pertains to Rhetoric; and by Passion or Affection, which pertains to Morality.”
Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning
“It appeareth that Logic differeth from Rhetoric, not only as the fist from the palm, the one close the other at large; but much more in this, that Logic handleth reason exact and in truth, and Rhetoric handleth it as it is planted in popular opinions and manners.”
Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning
“‘Some approve what others condemn, and there is hardly anything that is commended by someone without being blamed by another. Thus, some believe that to speak very little is a defect; others that to speak a great deal is perfection; some that to speak eloquently is to use big words; others that to speak well is to speak naturally and precisely; some that choice words are requisite; others that negligence is required, to avoid affectation – without realizing that affected negligence is the greatest fault of all.’”
Madeleine de Scudery, On Speaking Too Much or Too Little
“‘For to define the person who speaks too much, one recognizes him principally by the tiny number of ideas expressed in the great number of words, by his inane urge to speak without ceasing, by his eagerness to give an opinion about everything, to cut everyone else off, to exhaust any subject he treats, to continue speaking without thinking, sometimes whether or not anyone is listening, [and] to be unable to keep quiet even when among people of higher quality and more ability than himself.’”
Madeleine de Scudery, On Speaking Too Much or Too Little
“‘First of all,’ said Amilcar, smiling, ‘you must have a good portion of wit, a fair amount of memory, and a great deal of judgment. Then it is necessary to adopt the language of well-bred people of that nation and to avoid equally the language of low-class, vulgar people, of silly wits, and of those people who intermingle a little of the court, a little of the vulgar, or a little of the past century, a little of the present, and a great deal of the urbane – making their language the most bizarre of all.’”
Madeleine de Scudery, On Speaking Too Much or Too Little
“The chief end of language in communication being to be understood, words serve not well for that end, neither in civil nor philosophical discourse, when any word does not excite in the hearer the same idea which it stands for in the mind of the speaker.”
John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
“But yet if we would speak of things as they are, we must allow that all the art of rhetoric, besides order and clearness; all the artificial and figurative application of words eloquence hath invented are for nothing else but to insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions, and thereby mislead the judgment; and so indeed are perfect cheats… wholly to be avoided; and where truth and knowledge are concerned, cannot but be through a great fault, either of the language or person that makes use of them.”
John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
“The ends of language in our discourse with others being chiefly these three: First, to make known one man’s thoughts or ideas to another; Secondly, to do it with as much ease and quickness as possible; and, Thirdly, thereby to convey the knowledge of things: language is either abused or deficient, when it fails of any of these three.”
John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
“Knowledge and science must furnish the materials that form the body and substance of any valuable composition. Rhetoric serves to add the polish: and we know that none but firm and solid bodies can be polished well.”
Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
