Motivational Quotes

Speech

Be it art or hap, he hath spoken true.

- William Shakespeare

Best Quotes about Speech

I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

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

Raphael, Frederic

Readiness of speech is often inability to hold the tongue.

Jean Baptiste Rousseau

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

William Shakespeare

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

Tiberius

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

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

Syrus, Publilius

Man does not speak because he thinks; he thinks because he speaks. Or rather, speaking is no different than thinking: to speak is to think.

Paz, Octavio

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.

10.

Speech has been given to man to disguise his thoughts.

Talleyrand, Charles Maurice De

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

14.

Though thou speak'st truth, methink thou speak'st not well.

William Shakespeare

15.

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. [Colossians 4:6]

Bible

16.

They that are loudest in their threats are the weakest in the execution of them. It is probable that he who is killed by lightning hears no noise; but the thunder-clap which follows, and which most alarms the ignorant, is the surest proof of their safety.

Colton, Charles Caleb

17.

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

Moralia

18.

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

19.

The only happy talkers are dandies who extract pleasure from the very perishability of their material and who would not be able to tolerate the isolation of all other forms of composition; for most good talkers, when they have run down, are miserable; they know that they have betrayed themselves, that they have taken material which should have a life of its own, to dispense it in noises upon the air.

Connolly, Cyril

20.

It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.

Mark Twain

21.

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

22.

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

Arendt, Hannah

23.

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

24.

Speech and silence. We feel safer with a madman who talks than with one who cannot open his mouth.

Cioran, E. M.

25.

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

Thomas Carlyle

26.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

27.

There are remarks that sow and remarks that reap.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

28.

I've decided to discontinue my long talks. It's because of my throat. Someone threatened to cut it.

29.

We have as many planes of speech as does a painting planes of perspective which create perspective in a phrase. The most important word stands out most vividly defined in the very foreground of the sound plane. Less important words create a series of deeper planes.

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

30.

A talk is like a woman's dress. Long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to be interesting.

31.

When you have spoken the word, it reigns over you. When it is unspoken you reign over it.

Proverb, Arabian

32.

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

William Shakespeare

33.

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

Whitehead, Alfred North

34.

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

William Shakespeare

35.

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

Stevenson, Robert Louis

36.

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

Mann, Thomas

37.

Thought is the fountain of speech.

Chrysippus

38.

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

39.

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

Cruise, Tom

40.

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

41.

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

Noonan, Peggy

42.

Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.