Motivational Quotes

Speech

Wherever the relevance of speech is at stake, matters become political by definition, for speech is what makes man a political being.

- Arendt, Hannah

Best Quotes about Speech

Do not fight verbosity with words: speech is given to all, intelligence to few.

Moralia

Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.

Sir Francis Bacon

If nobody spoke unless he had something to say, the human race would very soon lose the use of speech.

W. Somerset Maugham

Bore: one who has the power of speech but not the capacity for conversation.

Benjamin Disraeli

Speech is civilization itself. The word... preserves contact -- it is silence which isolates.

Mann, Thomas

Be check'd for silence, but never tax'd for speech.

William Shakespeare

Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.

Thomas Carlyle

Talk is over-rated as a means of settling disputes.

Cruise, Tom

Things are often spoke and seldom meant.

William Shakespeare

10.

The basic rule of human nature is that powerful people speak slowly and subservient people quickly --because if they don't speak fast nobody will listen to them.

Caine, Michael

11.

Speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.

12.

What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably... have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature.

Maugham, W. Somerset

13.

In a free state there should be freedom of speech and thought.

Tiberius

14.

Bigotry and intolerance, silenced by argument, endeavors to silence by persecution, in old days by fire and sword, in modern days by the tongue.

Simmons, Charles

15.

Speech is human nature itself, with none of the artificiality of written language.

Whitehead, Alfred North

16.

Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.

Chuang-tzu

17.

I do know of these that... only are reputed wise for saying nothing.

William Shakespeare

18.

It's a damn shame we have this immediate ticking off in the mind about how people sound. On the other hand, how many people really want to be operated upon by a surgeon who talks broad cockney?

Aitkins, Eileen

19.

All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer.

Stevenson, Robert Louis

20.

All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action.

Demosthenes

21.

People resent articulacy, as if articulacy were a form of vice.

Raphael, Frederic

22.

Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see the power which is in speech because we forget that all speech is a classification, and that all classifications are oppressive.

Barthes, Roland

23.

Let us speak, though we show all our faults and weaknesses, --for it is a sign of strength to be weak, to know it, and out with it -- not in a set way and ostentatiously, though, but incidentally and without premeditation.

Melville, Herman

24.

In anger we should refrain both from speech and action.

Pythagoras

25.

Speeches are not magic and there is no great speech without great policy.

Noonan, Peggy

26.

Sweet Benjamin, since thou art young, and hast not yet the use of tongue, make it thy slave, while thou art free; Imprison it, lest it do thee.

Hoskins, John

27.

The stroke of the whip maketh marks in the flesh: but the stroke of the tongue breaketh the bones. Many have fallen by the edge of the sword: but not so many as have fallen by the tongue. [Ecclesiasticus 28:17 --18]

Bible

28.

Tears at times have all the weight of speech.

Ovid

29.

Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so he is.

Syrus, Publilius

30.

I do not speak to thee in drink but in tears, not in pleasure but in passion, not in words only, but in woes also.

William Shakespeare

31.

Speech is always bolder than action.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

32.

The world does not speak. Only we do. The world can, once we have programmed ourselves with a language, cause us to hold beliefs. But it cannot propose a language for us to speak. Only other human beings can do that.

Rorty, Richard

33.

Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.

Gore Vidal

34.

For mankind, speech with a capital S is especially meaningful and committing, more than the content communicated. The outcry of the newborn and the sound of the bells are fraught with mystery more than the baby's woeful face or the venerable tower.

Goodman, Paul

35.

From my earliest days I have enjoyed an attractive impediment in my speech. I have never permitted the use of the word stammer. I can't say it myself.

Campbell, Patrick

36.

A long tongue shortens life.

37.

Speech has been given to man to disguise his thoughts.

Talleyrand, Charles Maurice De

38.

Why doesn't the fellow who says, I'm no speechmaker let it go at that instead of giving a demonstration?

Hubbard, Kin

39.

How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us.

William Shakespeare

40.

Weighest thy words before thou givest them breath.

William Shakespeare

41.

Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.

Sir William Osler

42.

The mind is a wonderful thing. It starts working the minute you're born and never stops working until you get up to speak in public.

Ball, Patricia Ann

43.

Better pointed bullets than pointed speeches.

Bismarck, Otto Von

44.

It's better to keep your mouth shut and give the impression that you're stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

Belson, Rami

45.

Men of few words are the best men.

William Shakespeare

46.

Talkers are no good doers; be assur'd we come to use our hands and not our tongues.

William Shakespeare

47.

Never try to impress people with the profundity of your thought by the obscurity of your language. Whatever has been thoroughly thought through can be stated simply.

48.

Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.

Jefferson, Thomas

49.

Readiness of speech is often inability to hold the tongue.

Jean Baptiste Rousseau

50.

The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency.

Walter Bagehot