Of all questions, why? is the least pertinent. It begs the question; it assumes the larger part of its own response; to wit, that a sensible response exists. — Jack Vance
What is the answer? she asked, and when no answer came she laughed and said: Then, what is the question? — Gertrude Stein
Rhetoric is not important. Actions are. — Nelson Mandela
A powerful question is far better than a powerful answer or piece of information. — Dan Sullivan
Literature is the question minus the answer. — Roland Barthes
A prudent question is one-half of wisdom. — Francis Bacon
The right question is usually more important than the right answer. — Plato
No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful? — Bertrand Russell
Rhetorical Quotes
The business and design of the Royal Society is: To improve the knowledge of naturall things, and all useful Arts, Manufactures, Mechanic practices, Engines and Inventions by Experiments-(not meddling with Divinity, Metaphysics, Moralls, Politicks, Grammar, Rhetoric or Logick). — Robert Hooke
When we walk away from global warming, Kyoto, when we are irresponsibly slow in moving toward AIDS in Africa, when we don't advance and live up to our own rhetoric and standards, we set a terrible message of duplicity and hypocrisy. — John F. Kerry
I do think that tonal element of Trump's is attractive, but I don't know if I would go so far as to say the confrontational element of his rhetoric is necessarily attractive. — James David Vance
Knowledge is having the right answer. Intelligence is asking the right questions.
Wherever there is persuasion, there is rhetoric, and wherever there is rhetoric, there is meaning. — Kenneth Burke
Many rightist movements, refraining from hyperinflammatory rhetoric or arming vigilante “brotherhoods” to combat leftists and Jews and assassinate public figures, were considerably less volatile than the Union of the Russian People. — Stephen Kotkin
If practice makes perfect, and no one's perfect, then why practice? — Sayings
The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.
Rhetoric is rooted in an essential function of language itself, a function that is wholly realistic and continually born anew: the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols. — Kenneth Burke
Stay in your lane is the most anti-intellectual, anti-progress rhetoric I’ve ever heard. Go outside of your lane. Far outside of it. Live there for a while. Tell us what you see. — Max Lugavere
My strong point is not rhetoric , it isn't showmanship, it isn't big promises - those things that create the glamour and the excitement that people call charisma and warmth. — Richard M. Nixon
How many roads must a man walk down.. Before you can call him a Man. — Bob Dylan
What have the Romans ever done for us? — John Cleese
The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute. The man who does not ask, is a fool for life.
How many elephants have been stung by scorpions. — Moroccan Proverbs
All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? — John Cleese
How many roads must a man walk down? — Douglas Adams
What is in the air there in Washington, what is in the water? What is wrong with them? This is not a rhetorical question. I think it is unspoken question No.1 as Americans look at so many of the individuals in our government. What is wrong with them? — Peggy Noonan
Art has always been this--pure interrogation, rhetorical question less the rhetoric--whatever else it may have been obliged by social reality to appear. — Samuel Beckett
There can be little question that good composition is far less dependent upon acquaintance with its laws, than upon practice and natural aptitude. A clear head, a quick imagination, and a sensitive ear, will go far towards making all rhetorical precepts needless. — Herbert Spencer
Can I ask you a personal question"? Of all the rhetorical questions in the world, that is the one which irritates me most with its simultaneous gesture towards and denial of the trespass that is about to follow. — Kamila Shamsie
A man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there were an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling it would rather be a man who plunges into scientific questions with which he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure them by an aimless rhetoric. — Thomas Huxley
The only tactic liberals have is to try to intimidate people into thinking that the Tea Party is racist. The Tea Party is not a racist movement, period! If it were, why would the straw polls keep showing that the black guy is winning? That's a rhetorical question. Let me state it: The black guy keeps winning. — Herman Cain
All rhetorical questions are accusations. — David Mamet
When will all the rhetorical questions end? — George Carlin
So I want to ask you a hypothetical question. My favorite kind. Next to rhetorical ones. I can nap equally well through either kind. — Orson Scott Card
Being Muslim has become synonymous with pointed questions, with tension and mistrust, even with conflict. It has become a global phenomenon with profound consequences for inter-communal relations, political rhetoric and policies at the local, regional, national and international level. — Tariq Ramadan
The idea that we are the gods now, and we are doing things that our ancestors think are god-like is not a rhetorical question. You know what I mean? We really are as gods. — Jason Silva
O love-why can't you leave me alone? Which is a rhetorical question meaning: for heaven's sake, don't. — Thomas Merton
Using rhetorical questions in speeches is a great way to keep the audience involved. Don't you think those kinds of questions would keep your attention? — Bo Bennett
We've long known that firms can pay higher wages if they spend less on workplace safety enhancement. Libertarians ask, "If a worker is willing to accept higher wages in return for his agreement to exercise greater caution while performing his job, why should the government prevent him from making that choice?" It's a rhetorically powerful question, yet it overlooks the fact that the agreement in question will have adverse effects on others. — Robert H. Frank
Not all Scripture is propositional, some of it is asking questions, some of it's rhetorical, but where Scripture is stating something, asserting something, making a truth claim, uttering a proposition that is claiming to be true, it is the truth. — D. A. Carson
The second most important attribute of winners, after understanding the human dimension, is knowing what questions to ask, the rhetorical nature. — Frank Luntz
I've been around so long, I can remember when it was a rhetorical question to ask, "Is the pope Catholic?" Now it's a legit question. — Rush Limbaugh
For preachers, clarity is a moral matter. It is not merely a question of rhetoric, but a matter of life and death. — Haddon W. Robinson
And all these questions I ask myself. It is not in a spirit of curiosity. I cannot be silent. About myself I need know nothing. Here all is clear. No, all is not clear. But the discourse must go on. So one invents obscurities. Rhetoric. — Samuel Beckett
In their recently aborted struggle to inject Genesis literalism into science classrooms, fundamentalist groups followed their usual opportunistic strategy of arguing two contradictory sides of a question when a supposed rhetorical advantage could be extracted from each. — Stephen Jay Gould
What am I to do with you?" Redd asked. "M-maybe you could-" Jack began. The Cat raised a paw. "I know." "It was a rhetorical question, fools! You don't answer it! Since when do I need help making anyone suffer? — Frank Beddor
Whoop-de-do," said Ram. "What?" "I'm celebrating." "Was that irony or loss of mental function?" asked the expendable. "Was that a rhetorical questions, a bit of humor, or a sign that you are losing confidence in me?" "I have no confidence in you, Ram," said the expendable. "Well, thanks." "You're welcome. — Orson Scott Card
In Conclusion
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