Motivational Quotes

Speech

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

- Sophocles

Best Quotes about Speech

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

Publilius Syrus

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.

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

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

Better pointed bullets than pointed speeches.

Bismarck, Otto Von

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

William Shakespeare

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

In anger we should refrain both from speech and action.

Pythagoras

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

10.

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

William Shakespeare

11.

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

Cioran, E. M.

12.

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

Hubbard, Kin

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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

16.

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

Whitehead, Alfred North

17.

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

W. Somerset Maugham

18.

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

19.

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

20.

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

21.

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

Chuang-tzu

22.

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

23.

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

William Shakespeare

24.

There are remarks that sow and remarks that reap.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

25.

Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.

Thomas Carlyle

26.

Things are often spoke and seldom meant.

William Shakespeare

27.

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.

28.

Thought is the fountain of speech.

Chrysippus

29.

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

Walter Bagehot

30.

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

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.

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

Cruise, Tom

33.

Readiness of speech is often inability to hold the tongue.

Jean Baptiste Rousseau

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

Benjamin Disraeli

37.

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

William Shakespeare

38.

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

Arendt, Hannah

39.

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.