Nibley on Rhetoric IV

More of Nibley on rhetoric:

It is not surprising that the orator lives in a world of high-sounding intangibles --- res, humanitas, honores, savitas, officia, gratiae, laus, commendationes, admiratio, and so forth --- which on every page of Cicero's letters turn out to be but a verbal system for a hard and sordid game of exploitation and survival played without scruples and without loyalties. (Hugh Nibley, "Victoriosa Loquacitas," CWHN 10:250.)