I cannot imagine how the founders of cities would have made a homeless multitude come together to form a people, had they not moved them by their skillful speech, or how legislators would have succeeded in restraining mankind in the servitude of the law, had they not had the highest gifts of oratory. The very guiding principles of life, however intrinsically honourable they are, nevertheless possess more power to shape men's minds when the brilliance of eloquence illumines the beauty of the subject.
Quintilian, The Orator's Education, book II, ch. 16
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