Richard Whately

British rhetorician, logician, economist, and theologian (1787-1863)

Top works

The right principle of the interpretation of scripture
A charge delivered to the clergy of the dioceses of Dublin and Glandalagh, Oct. 1839, July, 1840, July [May], 1842
Historic doubts relative to Napoleon Buonaparte ...
A sermon delivered at the ordination held at Christ Church, Dublin, on 22nd Oct., 1837
Elements of rhetoric

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Discography

5 total works indexed

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“He that is not aware of his ignorance, will be only misled by his knowledge.”
“Of Rhetoric various definitions have been given by different writers; who, however, seem not so much to have disagreed in their conceptions of the nature of the same thing, as to have had different things in view while they employed the same term.”
“In the present day, however, the province of Rhetoric, in the widest acceptation that would reckoned admissible, comprehends all "Composition in Prose;" in the narrowest sense, it would be limited to "Persuasive Speaking."”
“Cicero is hardly to be reckoned … for he delighted so much more in the practice, than in the theory, of his art, that he is perpetually drawn off from the rigid philosophical analysis of its principles, into discursive declamations, always eloquent indeed, and often highly interesting, but adverse to regularity of system, and frequently as unsatisfactory to the practical student as to the Philosopher.”
“Concerning the utility of Rhetoric, it is to be observed that it divides itself into two; first, whether Oratorical skill be, on the whole, a public benefit, or evil; and secondly, whether any artificial system of Rules is conducive to the attainment of that skill.”
“No one complains of the rules of Grammar as fettering Language; because it is understood that correct use is not founded on Grammar, but Grammar on correct use. A just system of Logic or of Rhetoric is analogous, in this respect, to Grammar..”