The preference of the spoken word to the written word

All men give greater credence to the spoken rather than to the written word, since they listen to the former as to practical advice and to the latter as to an artistic composition. Isocrates. Letters. Book 1. Section 2.

Statue of a Roman man dressed in a toga excavated by Thomas Howard, the Earl of Arundel,
in 1613-14, dubbed Cicero and given a wart on the cheek by 17th century restorationists.
One of the Arundel marbles photographed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England.