Motivational Quotes

Speech

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

Best Quotes about Speech

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

Syrus, Publilius

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

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

Benjamin Disraeli

Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.

Hesse, Hermann

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

Sophocles

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

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

If you don't want to read it, see it or hear it, don't say it.

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

10.

Speech is always bolder than action.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

11.

Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.

Bacon, Francis

12.

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

13.

Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

14.

Listening to someone talk isn't at all like listening to their words played over on a machine. What you hear when you have a face before you is never what you hear when you have before you a winding tape.

Fallaci, Oriana

15.

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

16.

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

W. Somerset Maugham

17.

A long tongue shortens life.

18.

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

Proverb, Arabian

19.

Thought is the fountain of speech.

Chrysippus

20.

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

Hubbard, Kin

21.

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

Noonan, Peggy

22.

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

23.

There are remarks that sow and remarks that reap.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

24.

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

William Shakespeare

25.

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

26.

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

27.

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

28.

Better pointed bullets than pointed speeches.

Bismarck, Otto Von

29.

Speech is the mirror of the mind. (Imago Animi Sermo Est)

Seneca

30.

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

William Shakespeare

31.

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

32.

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

Stevenson, Robert Louis

33.

Weighest thy words before thou givest them breath.

William Shakespeare

34.

Be it art or hap, he hath spoken true.

William Shakespeare

35.

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

Mark Twain

36.

Tears at times have all the weight of speech.

Ovid

37.

Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.

Sir Francis Bacon

38.

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

Whitehead, Alfred North

39.

Speech has been given to man to disguise his thoughts.

Talleyrand, Charles Maurice De

40.

Be a craftsman in speech that thou mayest be strong, for the strength of one is the tongue, and speech is mightier than all fighting.

Maxims of Ptahhotep

41.

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

42.

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

Arendt, Hannah

43.

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

44.

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

45.

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

Sir William Osler

46.

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

Publilius Syrus

47.

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

Cioran, E. M.

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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