Motivational Quotes

Speech

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

- Raphael, Frederic

Best Quotes about Speech

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

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

Moralia

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

Cioran, E. M.

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.

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

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

Noonan, Peggy

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

William Shakespeare

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

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

William Shakespeare

10.

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

11.

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

Arendt, Hannah

12.

Speech has been given to man to disguise his thoughts.

Talleyrand, Charles Maurice De

13.

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

14.

A long tongue shortens life.

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

Whitehead, Alfred North

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.

Thought is the fountain of speech.

Chrysippus

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

25.

Tears at times have all the weight of speech.

Ovid

26.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

27.

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

28.

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

Mann, Thomas

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.

In anger we should refrain both from speech and action.

Pythagoras

31.

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

Chuang-tzu

32.

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

Publilius Syrus

33.

Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.

Sir Francis Bacon

34.

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

William Shakespeare

35.

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

Raphael, Frederic

36.

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.

37.

Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.

Bob Marley

38.

Weighest thy words before thou givest them breath.

William Shakespeare

39.

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

40.

Better pointed bullets than pointed speeches.

Bismarck, Otto Von

41.

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

Demosthenes

42.

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

Seneca

43.

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

Cato The Elder

44.

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

45.

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

Proverb, Arabian

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

Sir William Osler

49.

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

Sophocles

50.

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

Hubbard, Kin