Motivational Quotes

Speech

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

- Sophocles

Best Quotes about Speech

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

A long tongue shortens life.

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

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

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

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

Syrus, Publilius

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

William Shakespeare

Weighest thy words before thou givest them breath.

William Shakespeare

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

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

William Shakespeare

15.

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

16.

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.

17.

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

Hansell B. Duckett

18.

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

Benjamin Disraeli

19.

Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.

Sir Francis Bacon

20.

In anger we should refrain both from speech and action.

Pythagoras

21.

Thought is the fountain of speech.

Chrysippus

22.

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

Tiberius

23.

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

Sir William Osler

24.

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

25.

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

Seneca

26.

Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.

Bacon, Francis

27.

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

Chuang-tzu

28.

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

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

Hesse, Hermann

32.

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

William Shakespeare

33.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

34.

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

Whitehead, Alfred North

35.

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

Cruise, Tom

36.

Things are often spoke and seldom meant.

William Shakespeare

37.

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

Publilius Syrus

38.

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

39.

Where the speech is corrupted, the mind is also.

Seneca

40.

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

41.

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

Demosthenes

42.

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

William Shakespeare

43.

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.

44.

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

45.

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

Arendt, Hannah

46.

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

Mark Twain

47.

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

Sophocles

48.

Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.