Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.

For the same things are often put in different ways and the sense remains unaltered though the words are changed, while a figure of thought may include several figures of speech. For the former lies in the conception, the latter in the expression of our thought. The two are frequently combined, however, as in the following passage:

Now, Dolabella, [I have no pity] either for you or for your children
: [*]( Cic. Verr. I. xxx. 77. iam iam is a figure, as being a reduplication, and liberum as being a contraction. ) for the device by which he turns from the judges to Dolabella is a figure of thought, while iam iam (
now
) and liberum (
your children
) are figures of speech.

It is, however, to the best of my knowledge, generally agreed by the majority of authors that there are two classes of figure, namely figures of thought, that is of the mind, feeling or conceptions, since all these terms are used, and figures of speech, that is of words, diction, expression, language or style: the name by which they are known varies, but mere terminology is a matter of indifference. Cornelius Celsus,

however, to figures of thought and speech would add those produced by

glosses
; [*]( See IV. ii. 88. color = the particular aspect given to a case by a skilful representation of the facts —the 'gloss' or varnish put on them by either the accused or the accuser. ) but he has merely been led astray by an excessive passion for novelty. For who can suppose that so learned a man was ignorant of the fact that
glosses
and
reflexions
both come under the heading of thought? We may therefore conclude that, like language itself, figures are necessarily concerned with thought and with words.
v7-9 p.359

As, however, in the natural course of things we conceive ideas before we express them, I must take figures of thought first. Their utility is at once great and manifold, and is revealed with the utmost clearness in every product of oratory. For although it may seem that proof is infinitesimally affected by the figures employed, none the less those same figures lend credibility to our arguments and steal their way secretly into the minds of the judges.