The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase

by Mark Forsyth

the figures of rhetoric, which are the techniques for making a single phrase striking and memorable just by altering the wording.

As Shakespeare set to work England was busy having the Renaissance (everybody else had had the Renaissance a century or so before, and we were running late).

So Shakespeare learnt and learnt and got better and better, and his lines became more and more striking and more and more memorable.

people have always been suspicious of rhetoric in general and the figures in particular. If somebody learns how to phrase things beautifully, they might be able to persuade you of something that isn’t true.