Daily Inspiration Quote by Dennis Prager

Power, Prager implies, is less about volume than control. “Vituperation” is a deliberately old-school word choice: it elevates “anger” into something uglier and more theatrical, a kind of moral froth that feels satisfying but spends your credibility fast. By pairing it with “calm,” he’s not just offering etiquette; he’s pitching a strategy for winning in public.

The intent is persuasive, even tactical. Calm reads as authority because it signals you have margin: you’re not cornered, not flailing, not begging the room to notice you. Vituperation, by contrast, can sound like panic dressed up as conviction. The subtext is a warning about the attention economy’s favorite trap: outrage gets clicks and applause from your side, but it also hands your opponent the easier narrative (“Look how unhinged they are”) and lets them avoid the substance.

Context matters because Prager is a journalist and political commentator whose brand lives in argument. In that world, “calm” isn’t only personal virtue; it’s stagecraft. The calm speaker claims the role of the rational adult, pushing the other person into the role of the emotional child. That framing is powerful precisely because it’s often independent of who’s actually right. A calm tone can launder weak ideas into seeming reasonable; vituperation can make strong ideas look flimsy.

The line works because it flatters the reader’s self-image. It offers a way to feel principled without sounding preachy, dominant without sounding domineering. Calm becomes not passivity, but leverage.