
“The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.”
On the Athenian Orators http://books.google.com/books?id=qb0OAAAAYAAJ&q="The+object+of+oratory+alone+is+not+truth+but+persuasion"&pg=PA135#v=onepage (August 1824)
[Sam Harris vs. Scott Adams on Trump, YouTube, 19 July 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAVMbuETnX0] (14:43 of 2:17:44)
“The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.”
On the Athenian Orators http://books.google.com/books?id=qb0OAAAAYAAJ&q="The+object+of+oratory+alone+is+not+truth+but+persuasion"&pg=PA135#v=onepage (August 1824)
Frag B 1.28-30, quoted by Sextus Empiricus, Against the Mathematicians, vii. 3; Simplicius, Commentary on the Heavens, 557-8; Proclus, Commentary on the Timaeus I, 345
Speaking as the Director of USIA, in testimony before a Congressional Committee (May 1963) http://pdaa.publicdiplomacy.org/?page_id=6
Frag. B 2.2-6, quoted by Proclus, Commentary on the Timaeus I, 345
Speaking as the Director of USIA, in testimony before a Congressional Committee (May 1963) http://pdaa.publicdiplomacy.org/?page_id=6
Context: American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that.
“He who has the truth at his heart need never fear the want of persuasion on his tongue.”
Volume III, chapter II, section 99.
The Stones of Venice (1853)
Source: The Stones of Venice: Volume I. The Foundations
Commencement address, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (11 June 1962) http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3370
1962
Context: The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.