Being is unrecognizable unless it manages to seem, and seeming is feeble unless it manages to be.

I answer, Socrates, that rhetoric is the art of persuasion in courts of law and other assemblies, as I was just now saying, and about the just and unjust.
GORGIAS

Art Law Myself Persuade
Nothing exists; even if something exists, nothing can be known about it; and even if something can be known about it, knowledge about it can’t be communicated to others.
GORGIAS

Communication Existence Known
Being is unrecognizable unless it manages to seem, and seeming is feeble unless it manages to be.
GORGIAS

Management Recognition
The man who deceives shows more justice than he who does not.
GORGIAS

Himself Justice Man
Man and woman and speech and deed and city and object should be honored with praise if praiseworthy and incur blame if unworthy, for it is an equal error and mistake to blame the praisable and to praise the blamable.
GORGIAS

Blame Man Mistake Object Praise Speech Woman
Speech is a powerful master and achieves the most divine feats with the smallest and least evident body. It can stop fear, relieve pain, create joy, and increase pity.
GORGIAS

Body Creation Divine Joy Master Powerful Speech
Men who neglect philosophy while busying themselves with ordinary affairs are like the Suitors [in the Odyssey] who desired Penelope but went to bed with her maids.
GORGIAS

Desire Ignorance Man Ordinary Philosophy Sex

More Gorgias Quotes