There's an old anecdote in [[Quintilian]]'s [[Institutio Oratoria (95 AD)]] about [[Demosthenes]] being asked what the most important [[five canons of rhetoric|canon]] of rhetoric is. His answer: Delivery! Okay, cool. What's the second? Delivery! Uh, okay. The third? Delivery! It was at this point point, says Quintilian, that Demosthenes' questioner "ceased to trouble him": > It was for this reason that Demosthenes, when asked what was the most important thing in oratory, gave the palm to delivery and assigned it second and third place as well, until his questioner ceased to trouble him. We are therefore almost justified in concluding that he regarded it not merely as the first, but as the only virtue of oratory.