List

Isocrates

Pre-Socratic

Isocrates was an ancient Greek rhetorician, one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works.

13 Notes

436 BC - 338 BC

Athens, Greece

Wikipedia page

"I think that he has a genius which soars above the orations of Lysias, and that his character is cast in a finer mold. My impression of him is that he will marvelously improve as he grows older, and that all former rhetoricians will be as children in comparison to him"

Socrates

Discuss
All
Quotes
Agrees
Disagrees
Facts
Praise
Analyses

Plato(427 BC -347 BC)

"
PHAEDRUS: But there is also a friend of yours who ought not to be forgotten.
SOCRATES: Who is he?
PHAEDRUS: Isocrates the fair:–What message will you send to him, and how shall we describe him?
SOCRATES: Isocrates is still young,
PHAEDRUS; but I am willing to hazard a prophecy concerning him.
PHAEDRUS: What would you prophesy?
SOCRATES: I think that he has a genius which soars above the orations of Lysias, and that his character is cast in a finer mold. My impression of him is that he will marvelously improve as he grows older, and that all former rhetoricians will be as children in comparison to him. And I believe that he will not be satisfied with rhetoric, but that there is in him a divine inspiration which will lead him to things higher still. For he has an element of philosophy in his nature. This is the message of the gods dwelling in this place, and which I will myself deliver to Isocrates, who is my delight; and do you give the other to Lysias, who is yours."

Book & Page: Plato pdf p.1114

#Facts#Analysis#Praise

Aristotle(384 BC -322 BC)

"Again, if you cannot find enough to say of a man himself, you may pit him against others, which is what Isocrates used to do owing to his want of familiarity with forensic pleading. The comparison should be with famous men; that will strengthen your case; it is a noble thing to surpass men who are themselves great."

Book & Page: Aristotle pdf Ethics p3171

#Analysis

"That if anything is possible to inferior, weaker, and stupider people, it is more so for their opposites; thus Isocrates said that it would be a strange thing if he could not discover a thing that Euthynus had found out. As for Impossibility, we can clearly get what we want by taking the contraries of the arguments stated above."

Book & Page: Aristotle pdf Ethics p3233

#Quotes

"We forgive an angry man for talking about a wrong as ‘heaven-high’ or ‘colossal’; and we excuse such language when the speaker has his hearers already in his hands and has stirred them deeply either by praise or blame or anger or affection, as Isocrates, for instance, does at the end of his Panegyric, with his ‘name and fame’ and ‘in that they brooked’. Men do speak in this strain when they are deeply stirred, and so, once the audience is in a like state of feeling, approval of course follows."

Book & Page: Aristotle pdf Ethics p3275

#Analysis

"The usual subject for the introductions to speeches of display is some piece of praise or censure. Thus, Gorgias writes in his Olympic Speech, ‘You deserve widespread admiration, men of Greece’, praising thus those who started the festival gatherings.’ Isocrates, on the other hand, censures them for awarding distinctions to fine athletes but giving no prize for intellectual ability"

Book & Page: Aristotle pdf Ethics p3275

#Facts

Cicero(106 BC - 43AC)

"; or like that of Isocrates, who says that he wrote the book called The Panegyric in his ninety-fourth year, and who lived for five years afterward;"

Book & Page: Cicero pdf p.42

#Facts

Aristotle(384 BC -322 BC)

"That if anything is possible to inferior, weaker, and stupider people, it is more so for their opposites; thus Isocrates said that it would be a strange thing if he could not discover a thing that Euthynus had found out. As for Impossibility, we can clearly get what we want by taking the contraries of the arguments stated above."

Book & Page: Aristotle pdf Ethics p3233

#Quotes
No notes yet...
Not notes yet...
No notes yet...
Not notes yet...

Plato(427 BC -347 BC)

"
PHAEDRUS: But there is also a friend of yours who ought not to be forgotten.
SOCRATES: Who is he?
PHAEDRUS: Isocrates the fair:–What message will you send to him, and how shall we describe him?
SOCRATES: Isocrates is still young,
PHAEDRUS; but I am willing to hazard a prophecy concerning him.
PHAEDRUS: What would you prophesy?
SOCRATES: I think that he has a genius which soars above the orations of Lysias, and that his character is cast in a finer mold. My impression of him is that he will marvelously improve as he grows older, and that all former rhetoricians will be as children in comparison to him. And I believe that he will not be satisfied with rhetoric, but that there is in him a divine inspiration which will lead him to things higher still. For he has an element of philosophy in his nature. This is the message of the gods dwelling in this place, and which I will myself deliver to Isocrates, who is my delight; and do you give the other to Lysias, who is yours."

Book & Page: Plato pdf p.1114

#Facts

Aristotle(384 BC -322 BC)

"The usual subject for the introductions to speeches of display is some piece of praise or censure. Thus, Gorgias writes in his Olympic Speech, ‘You deserve widespread admiration, men of Greece’, praising thus those who started the festival gatherings.’ Isocrates, on the other hand, censures them for awarding distinctions to fine athletes but giving no prize for intellectual ability"

Book & Page: Aristotle pdf Ethics p3275

#Facts

Cicero(106 BC - 43AC)

"; or like that of Isocrates, who says that he wrote the book called The Panegyric in his ninety-fourth year, and who lived for five years afterward;"

Book & Page: Cicero pdf p.42

#Facts

Plato(427 BC -347 BC)

"
PHAEDRUS: But there is also a friend of yours who ought not to be forgotten.
SOCRATES: Who is he?
PHAEDRUS: Isocrates the fair:–What message will you send to him, and how shall we describe him?
SOCRATES: Isocrates is still young,
PHAEDRUS; but I am willing to hazard a prophecy concerning him.
PHAEDRUS: What would you prophesy?
SOCRATES: I think that he has a genius which soars above the orations of Lysias, and that his character is cast in a finer mold. My impression of him is that he will marvelously improve as he grows older, and that all former rhetoricians will be as children in comparison to him. And I believe that he will not be satisfied with rhetoric, but that there is in him a divine inspiration which will lead him to things higher still. For he has an element of philosophy in his nature. This is the message of the gods dwelling in this place, and which I will myself deliver to Isocrates, who is my delight; and do you give the other to Lysias, who is yours."

Book & Page: Plato pdf p.1114

#Praise

Plato(427 BC -347 BC)

"
PHAEDRUS: But there is also a friend of yours who ought not to be forgotten.
SOCRATES: Who is he?
PHAEDRUS: Isocrates the fair:–What message will you send to him, and how shall we describe him?
SOCRATES: Isocrates is still young,
PHAEDRUS; but I am willing to hazard a prophecy concerning him.
PHAEDRUS: What would you prophesy?
SOCRATES: I think that he has a genius which soars above the orations of Lysias, and that his character is cast in a finer mold. My impression of him is that he will marvelously improve as he grows older, and that all former rhetoricians will be as children in comparison to him. And I believe that he will not be satisfied with rhetoric, but that there is in him a divine inspiration which will lead him to things higher still. For he has an element of philosophy in his nature. This is the message of the gods dwelling in this place, and which I will myself deliver to Isocrates, who is my delight; and do you give the other to Lysias, who is yours."

Book & Page: Plato pdf p.1114

#Analysis

Aristotle(384 BC -322 BC)

"Again, if you cannot find enough to say of a man himself, you may pit him against others, which is what Isocrates used to do owing to his want of familiarity with forensic pleading. The comparison should be with famous men; that will strengthen your case; it is a noble thing to surpass men who are themselves great."

Book & Page: Aristotle pdf Ethics p3171

#Analysis

"We forgive an angry man for talking about a wrong as ‘heaven-high’ or ‘colossal’; and we excuse such language when the speaker has his hearers already in his hands and has stirred them deeply either by praise or blame or anger or affection, as Isocrates, for instance, does at the end of his Panegyric, with his ‘name and fame’ and ‘in that they brooked’. Men do speak in this strain when they are deeply stirred, and so, once the audience is in a like state of feeling, approval of course follows."

Book & Page: Aristotle pdf Ethics p3275

#Analysis
Back to top