Motivational Quotes

Speech

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

Best Quotes about Speech

Speech is always bolder than action.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

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

Proverb, Arabian

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

Walter Bagehot

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

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

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

Whitehead, Alfred North

Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.

Bacon, Francis

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

Hesse, Hermann

Better pointed bullets than pointed speeches.

Bismarck, Otto Von

10.

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

11.

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

Noonan, Peggy

12.

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

Moralia

13.

Thought is the fountain of speech.

Chrysippus

14.

Weighest thy words before thou givest them breath.

William Shakespeare

15.

Speech is the gift of all, but the thought of few.

Cato The Elder

16.

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

William Shakespeare

17.

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

18.

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

19.

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.

20.

Many great writers have been extraordinarily awkward in daily exchange, but the greatest give the impression that their style was nursed by the closest attention to colloquial speech.

Wilder, Thornton

21.

Tears at times have all the weight of speech.

Ovid

22.

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

Chuang-tzu

23.

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

24.

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

Sophocles

25.

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

William Shakespeare

26.

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

Demosthenes

27.

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

Arendt, Hannah

28.

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.

29.

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

Seneca

30.

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

31.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

32.

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

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.

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

35.

Be it art or hap, he hath spoken true.

William Shakespeare

36.

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

37.

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

William Shakespeare

38.

Speech has been given to man to disguise his thoughts.

Talleyrand, Charles Maurice De

39.

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

40.

There are remarks that sow and remarks that reap.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

44.

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

Benjamin Disraeli

45.

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

Cruise, Tom

46.

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

Mark Twain

47.

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.