Motivational Quotes

Speech

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

- Mann, Thomas

Best Quotes about Speech

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

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

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

Whitehead, Alfred North

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

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

A long tongue shortens life.

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

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

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

William Shakespeare

10.

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

Hesse, Hermann

11.

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

12.

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

William Shakespeare

13.

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

William Shakespeare

14.

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

15.

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

Tiberius

16.

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

Sir William Osler

17.

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

18.

Better pointed bullets than pointed speeches.

Bismarck, Otto Von

19.

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

20.

Where the speech is corrupted, the mind is also.

Seneca

21.

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

22.

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

Noonan, Peggy

23.

In anger we should refrain both from speech and action.

Pythagoras

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

Sophocles

27.

There are remarks that sow and remarks that reap.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

28.

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

Benjamin Disraeli

29.

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

30.

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

Mann, Thomas

31.

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

Walter Bagehot

32.

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

33.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

34.

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

William Shakespeare

35.

What this country needs is more free speech worth listening to.

Hansell B. Duckett

36.

Weighest thy words before thou givest them breath.

William Shakespeare

37.

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

Seneca

38.

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

39.

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

Syrus, Publilius

40.

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

41.

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

Mark Twain

42.

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

Chuang-tzu

43.

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

44.

Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.

Sir Francis Bacon

45.

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.

46.

Tears at times have all the weight of speech.

Ovid

47.

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

Moralia

48.

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

Proverb, Arabian

49.

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

50.

Readiness of speech is often inability to hold the tongue.

Jean Baptiste Rousseau