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

18.

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

William Shakespeare

19.

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

W. Somerset Maugham

20.

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

21.

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

22.

Better pointed bullets than pointed speeches.

Bismarck, Otto Von

23.

Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.

Bacon, Francis

24.

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

25.

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

Raphael, Frederic

26.

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

William Shakespeare

27.

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

28.

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

29.

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

30.

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

Demosthenes

31.

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

Hubbard, Kin

32.

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

Mann, Thomas

33.

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

Hesse, Hermann

34.

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

Sir William Osler

35.

Readiness of speech is often inability to hold the tongue.

Jean Baptiste Rousseau

36.

In anger we should refrain both from speech and action.

Pythagoras

37.

Men of few words are the best men.

William Shakespeare

38.

Weighest thy words before thou givest them breath.

William Shakespeare

39.

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

40.

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

41.

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

Hansell B. Duckett

42.

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

Benjamin Disraeli

43.

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

44.

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

Seneca

45.

A long tongue shortens life.

46.

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

Syrus, Publilius

47.

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

48.

Be it art or hap, he hath spoken true.

William Shakespeare

49.

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

50.

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