Logic, emotion, credibility, and humor are the rhetorical appeals. A quotation may carry all of them. It may, for example, use appropriate words, make sense, deliver on a promise, project conscientiousness, be whimsical--or it may, instead, do none of these and work against the speaker or writer. Typically, within this context of persuasion--or lack of it--is an expression (or metaphor, etc.), that works in subtle ways to drive the words and their ideas, either positively or negatively:

Many metaphors express commonly held beliefs and principles. To Ben Franklin, being out of debt was a metaphor for freedom, and the expression that he chose to say this became a saying: "Be frugal and free."
 

New York State Comptroller Alan Hevasi said in a speech that New York Senator Charles Schumer is "the man who, uh, uh, how do I phrase this diplomatically, will put a bullet between the President's eyes if he could get away with it." Hevasi publicly apologized for his "beyond dumb, incredibly moronic" remark and said it was "a very, very bad metaphor to use." The expression, Hevasi said, was a metaphor for "Chuck is incredibly smart, courageous, willing even to stand up to the President of the United States."

In 2004, when his team almost won Superbowl XXXVIII, Carolina Panthers General Manager Marty Hurney used a different twist on the expression "been there, done that." Said he: "A good number of our players were there when we went to St. Louis and won and were there when we went to Philadelphia, and I think experience always helps your confidence when you've done something once and been successful at it."

The Internet is a medium of words and images.  To control Internet hostility, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign hired Peter Daou, a well-known political blogger, to use persuasive terms to get her message out, across and over the Internet.

Marvin Kalb, senior fellow of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, pointed out that reporters must be vigilant about what they say or write because they are being tracked by blogs and web sites that are solely dedicated to monitoring their every word.

Anna Marley wrote the melody to "Song of the Partisans," which became the anthem of the French Resistance in World War II. A member of the Resistance said to her that when he was captured, "to give us spirit, we were whistling your song." So emotionally powerful were her words that decades after the war she was still being honored.

"A" (dismissively): "C" is a member of the kook fringe.
"B" (in response): No, "C" is not, and watch your language.
(The expression "watch your language" accomplishes all of the following: 1. It mildly corrects and gently reprimands "A" for insulting "C"; 2. It implicitly supports "C"; 3. It implies that insulting "C" insults "B"; 4. It uses a facile expression to silence further insulting; 5. It serves as a springboard to expand the defense of "C" with, for example, an animated explanation of the good qualities of "C").

New York Times columnist David Carr began a column on writer Ann Coulter by saying that her choice of words is so powerful that her enemies call her a "vicious," "mean-spirited," "despicable," "hate-monger." Carr ended the column by saying that the fact Ann Coulter "is one of the leading political writers of our age says something about the rest of us."

When he edited American Enterprise magazine, domestic policy advisor for the Bush administration Karl Zinsmeister took out advertisements that sought "young" applicants. District of Columbia laws forbid ageist ads. The ads should have read, for example, "qualified" or "superlative" or "enthusiastic"--almost anything but "young."

In early 1950's television, comedian Red Buttons had the nation's teenagers using the expression "strange things are happening," which came from his routine, in which Buttons would cup his ears, sway rhythmically back and forth, chant "Hey-hey, ho-ho, strange things are happening," and then expand upon those "strange things." Fifteen years later, in the 1960's, anti-Vietnam-war protesters on college campuses variously chanted: "Hey-hey, ho-ho, hell no, we won't go" and "Hey-hey, ho-ho, we won't go, we won't go" and "Hey-hey, ho-ho, no way will we go."
 

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF A COMMERCIAL AND ITS PROCESS OF PERSUASION
KEY PERSUASIVE EXPRESSION: "What's the catch?!"

A number of companies, such as an Internet online company, a sight-improvement company, an acne-treatment company, have used the expression "what's the catch?!" in their radio commercials.

In the print media, The New York Times picked up on the trend in an article about healthful ice cream: "Creamier, Healthier Ice Cream? What's the Catch?"

Typically, a "what's the catch?" radio commercial runs along the following template:

Rhetorical Analysis:

First of all, we don't like bullies, loudmouths and rude people, and "A" is all of these wrapped into one. We feel powerless and overwhelmed by a bully. We identify with someone who is accosted by a rude demand that we feel unable to fulfill.  After all, we think of ourselves as being nice and cheerful, like the nice and cheerful announcer. How are we going to answer the loudmouth? We want to see the loudmouth put in his place. It will serve him right.

The commercial comes to our defense. Through it, we get back at bullies, loudmouths and rude people. It grows on us favorably each time we hear it, as we anticipate the pivotal moment when the loudmouth gets his come-uppance and is put in his place and becomes a believer. That moment gives us a warm and cuddly and self-righteous feeling. Appropriately used emotion is persuasive power. At the end, the loudmouth, ideally, repents and becomes what we want loudmouths to become: a true believer in the product--a true believer in us--a bosom friend. Each time we hear the commercial, the positive relationship is reinforced, presumably to last happily ever after. And lasting with it is a positively warm and cuddly feeling toward the product.

KEY EXPRESSION: "hey, wait a minute"
The common-touch expression "Hey, wait a minute," used above in the "what's-the-catch?!" commercial, is making the rounds. In the "what's-the-catch?!" commercial, it is used positively. In the following dialogue, it is used negatively:

After football player Kevan Barlow was traded from the San Francisco 49rs to the New York Jets, he told the Contra Costa (California) Times that Coach Mike Nolan of the 49ers was a "first-time head coach with too much power. He walks around with a chip on his shoulder, like he's a dictator, like he's Hitler.  People are scared of him. If it ain't Nolan's way, it's the highway." 
Later, Barlow apologized for comparing Nolan to Hitler: "If I could take it back, I would. I was very emotional at the time. All I knew at the time was San Francisco. That's where I started my career, that's where my house was, where my home was. And I was emotional at the time. . . . I'm a passionate player. I'm an emotional guy when it comes to on the field and off the field. Sometimes it gets the best of us. I put it behind me, and I'm glad to be a Jet."
 

In a speech, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, disapprovingly quoted expressions used by President G. W. Bush, in order to amplify and encapsulate what McCain felt were misleading statements made by the President: "'Stuff happens,' 'Mission accomplished,' 'Last throes,' 'A few dead enders.' I'm just more familiar with those statements than anyone else because it grieves me so much that we had not told the American people how tough and difficult this task would be."

According to the Princeton Review's "Best 361 Colleges," the top three colleges that prefer talking to partying are in Manhattan: Eugene Lang College, Barnard College, Columbia University.

According to "Men's Health," among the things that an employee should never say at the office is: "My boss is in over his head." Both the boss and the expression are so powerful that they will inevitably meet and the one who said it will be out.

THE NEW YORK TIMES reports: "Garry Beatty, the chief executive of Earthlink, has an expression he uses to talk about companies that, despite obvious flaws, enjoyed success during the Internet bubble: 'Even turkeys can fly in high wind.'"

For decades, Gunter Grass, the Nobel novelist, was very critical of the Nazi Germany of his youth. But when it was revealed that as a teenager he was a member of the SS, the German language had the perfect expression to describe his case. "Der Schreibtischtater" means "desk criminal"--that a person who orders a crime from behind a desk or who knows about a crime and remains silent is a participant in the crime.

 

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