Eloquence
idea · 5 works · 6 mentions · 9 anchored passages
eloquence · al-balāghah · al-bayān · discourse · eloquent · gilded speech · oratory · power of speech · power to persuade · power to speak
in the texts
Antidosis
The practice and teaching of persuasive speech, both defended by Isocrates and distrusted by the public.
But as I observed not only the intolerant feeling toward the teaching of eloquence on the part of those who are churlish toward everyone, but the truculent attitude towards it on the part of my fellow-citizens in general, I began to be afraid that the truth regarding me personally might be overlooked and that I might suffer some harm from the common prejudice against the sophists.
“For they see most of the sophists, excepting those who have embraced your life and ways, showing off their oratory in the public assemblies or in private gatherings, contesting against each other, making extravagant professions, disputing, reviling each other, omitting nothing in the language of abuse, but in effect damaging their own cause and giving license to their auditors, now to ridicule wh …
But I am at a loss to know how to proceed with the rest of my speech—what topic to take up first and what next;
Risālah fī ʻilm al-akhlāq
Balāghah as a danger to adjudication, answered by the king's duty to plead for those who cannot plead.
And he must not be taken in by gilded speech and delicate talk, for the oppressor and criminal, the flatterer and traitor, may come before him and escape his assaults and win his kindness by the magic of his eloquence and the clarity with which he sets out his case;
Bayān zaghl al-ʻilm wa-al-ṭalab
Rhetorical power, presented as a faculty that can plunge its owner into the Fire or arm a pen for bloodshed, and whose true perfection is said to lie in pleasing God and sincerely advising the holder of authority.
and he may lend his pen, by that eloquence, to the shedding of blood.
on the side of eloquence, is this praise or a slur!
Letters
Rhetorical skill and style, the constant subject and medium of the Basil-Libanius letters.
Libanius to Basil Whether we have added anything in eloquence to the young men you sent, you yourself shall judge.
Basil to Libanius Those who are disposed toward the rose, as lovers of beauty naturally are, do not feel aversion even toward the very thorns from which the flower springs.
Libanius to Basil You have not yet relaxed your displeasure with me, so that I tremble even as I write.
Nicocles or the Cyprians
The human capacity for persuasive, lawful, just, and deliberative speech, defended as foundational to civilization and political education.
And, if there is need to speak in brief summary of this power, we shall find that none of the things which are done with intelligence take place without the help of speech, but that in all our actions as well as in all our thoughts speech is our guide, and is most employed by those who have the most wisdom.
and, generally speaking, there is no institution devised by man which the power of speech has not helped us to establish.
for the power to speak well is taken as the surest index of a sound understanding, and discourse which is true and lawful and just is the outward image of a good and faithful soul.