“A perfect orator must, above all, be a good man” seems to be Quintilian’s precondition for a good speaker. This reminds me of the nature of rhetoric, i.e. whether it belongs to techniques or ethos of the speaker. Admittedly, many good rhetorical techniques can be extracted from a good man’s characteristic speech (such as presenting facts in a faithful way). But I guess the one who can use such rhetorical techniques most successfully is not a good man, but a smart man who bear encyclopedic knowledge so lightly and wield the weapon of knowledge so skillfully. But the thing is, knowledge could be used equally successfully for good and evil, by a smart man, not a good man. Thus I quite doubt about the precondition “to be a perfect orator one has to be a good man.” Anyway, what is the definition of a “good man”? Noble-minded people like Forrest Gump?