"Our will should not be considered mere rhetoric," the spokesman declared.

"Inaction does not make things happen, nor does mere rhetoric."

Yet it cannot be too thin, or it becomes mere shallow rhetoric.

A process affecting actual beliefs rather than mere rhetoric is presumed to be at work however.

But he wondered whether this were mere rhetoric; he had no experience with children.

It was not without controversy of its own; some in the West criticised the protest as mere rhetoric.

It should, nevertheless, not be dismissed as mere rhetoric.

Europe can no longer be content with mere rhetoric.

We cannot afford to wait, and we must move beyond mere rhetoric.

The risk of civil war is not mere rhetoric.