1. Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory, 1.6.44, 12.3.6, 12.10.50 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 1.6.44. If it be defined merely as the practice of the majority, we shall have a very dangerous rule affecting not merely style but life as well, a far more serious matter. For where is so much good to be found that what is right should please the majority? The practices of depilation, of dressing the hair in tiers, or of drinking in excess at the baths, although they may have thrust their way into society, cannot claim the support of usage, since there is something to blame in all of them (although we have usage on our side when we bathe or have our hair cut or take our meals together). So too in speech we must not accept as a rule of language words and phrases that have become a vicious habit with a number of persons. 12.3.6. And yet such a general would bear a very close resemblance to the advocate who leaves much of the detail that is necessary for success to the care of others, more especially in view of the fact that this, the most necessary element in the management of a case, is not as difficult as it may perhaps seem to outside observers. For every point of law, which is certain, is based either on written law or accepted custom: if, on the other hand, the point is doubtful, it must be examined in the light of equity. 12.10.50. and, further, that actual pleading is characterised by a greater energy and by the employment, almost verging on licence, of every artifice designed to please, since the minds of an uneducated audience require to be moved and led. On the other hand, the written speech which is published as a model of style must be polished and filed and brought into conformity with the accepted rules and standards of artistic construction, since it will come into the hands of learned men and its art will be judged by artists. |
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2. Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, 1.7.1, 12.3.6 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 1.7.1. Having stated the rules which we must follow in speaking, I will now proceed to lay down the rules which must be observed when we write. Such rules are called orthography by the Greeks; let us style it the science of writing correctly. This science does not consist merely in the knowledge of the letters composing each syllable (such a study is beneath the dignity of a teacher of grammar), but, in my opinion, develops all its subtlety in connexion with doubtful points. 12.3.6. And yet such a general would bear a very close resemblance to the advocate who leaves much of the detail that is necessary for success to the care of others, more especially in view of the fact that this, the most necessary element in the management of a case, is not as difficult as it may perhaps seem to outside observers. For every point of law, which is certain, is based either on written law or accepted custom: if, on the other hand, the point is doubtful, it must be examined in the light of equity. |
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3. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, 1.22.20, 1.26.27, 1.30.33, 1.35.39, 1.36.41, 1.40.44, 2.6.7, 2.7.10, 2.9.14, 2.12.17, 2.37.55, 2.40.60, 4.1.2, 4.3.4, 4.5.7, 4.7.11, 4.7.21, 4.28.61 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
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