I will try to follow the advice that a university president once gave a prospective commencement speaker. Think of yourself as the body at an Irish wake he said. They need you in order to have the party but no one expects you to say very much.
Without free speech no search for truth is possible; without free speech progress is checked and the nations no longer march forward toward the nobler life which the future holds for man. Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day but the denial stays the life of the people and entombs the hope of the race.
There are three things to aim at in public speaking: first to get into your subject then to get your subject into yourself and lastly to get your subject into your hearers.
If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought; not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.
As the chief speaker at the dedication of the national cemetery at the Gettysburg Battlefield statesman Edward Everett wrote to Lincoln: I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.
To the man with an ear for verbal delicacies- the man who searches painfully for the perfect word and puts the way of saying a thing above the thing said there is in writing the constant joy of sudden discovery of happy accident.
People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never share … and no one dare disturb the Sound of Silence.
If we could only make our hands move as actively as our tongues what wonders we could accomplish! Almost everyone loves to hear his own voice. It is so easy too! Yet if we could say less and do more for each others good not alone would every home be happier but communities would he enriched thereby. Instead of criticism by speech to show someone a better way to do a thing would be of much greater value.
I have often regretted my speech never my silence.
If you havent got anything nice to say about anybody come sit next to me.
When he spoke what tender words he used! So softly that like flakes of feathered snow They melted as they fell.
I cannot keep from talking even at the risk of being instructive.
It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor judgment to hold their tongues.
As a vessel is known by the sound whether it be cracked or not; so men are proved by their speeches whether they be wise or foolish.
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.
Speak clearly if you speak at all; Carve every word before you let it fall.
A tart temper never mellows with age and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.
Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk but a wise man speaks.
When your work speaks for itself dont interrupt.
True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary And nothing but what is necessary.
I will try to follow the advice that a university president once gave a prospective commencement speaker. Think of yourself as the body at an Irish wake he said. They need you in order to have the party but no one expects you to say very much.
What pity ?tis one that can speak so well Should in his actions be so ill!
What orators lack in depth they make up for in length.
When words are scarce theyre seldom spent in vain.
It is of eloquence as of a flame; it requires matter to feed it and motion to excite it; and it brightens as it burns.
When he to whom one speaks does not understand and he who speaks himself does not understand this is metaphysics.
I dont let my mouth say nothin my head cant stand.
MENDACIOUS adj. Addicted to rhetoric.
Better pointed bullets than pointed speeches.
Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation but as a question.
Without free speech no search for truth is possible; without free speech progress is checked and the nations no longer march forward toward the nobler life which the future holds for man. Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day but the denial stays the life of the people and entombs the hope of the race.
Do not speak harshly to any one; those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way. Angry speech is painful: blows for blows will touch thee.
An after-dinner speech should be like a ladys dress-long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting.
When your heart speaks take good notes.
MacDonald has the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thoughts.
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Think all you speak but speak not all you think. Thoughts are your own; your words are so no more.
I am in earnest. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard.
The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.
There are three things to aim at in public speaking: first to get into your subject then to get your subject into yourself and lastly to get your subject into your hearers.
All is not Gospell that thou doest speake. 1546
If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought; not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.
It does not require many words to speak the truth.
As the chief speaker at the dedication of the national cemetery at the Gettysburg Battlefield statesman Edward Everett wrote to Lincoln: I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.
To the man with an ear for verbal delicacies- the man who searches painfully for the perfect word and puts the way of saying a thing above the thing said there is in writing the constant joy of sudden discovery of happy accident.
Three things matter in a speech: who says it how he says it and what he says and of the three the last matters least.
Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I dont know and I dont care.
When a man has put a limit on what he will do he has put a limit on what he can do.
Say the best. Think the rest.
Let us say what we feel and feel what we say; let speech harmonize with life.
My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say and then to say it with the utmost levity.
Isnt it surprising how many things if not said immediately seem not worth saying ten minutes from now?
People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never share … and no one dare disturb the Sound of Silence.
What I like in a good author is not what he says but what he whispers.
Eschew obfuscation.
If we could only make our hands move as actively as our tongues what wonders we could accomplish! Almost everyone loves to hear his own voice. It is so easy too! Yet if we could say less and do more for each others good not alone would every home be happier but communities would he enriched thereby. Instead of criticism by speech to show someone a better way to do a thing would be of much greater value.
If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led like sheep to the slaughter.
When you have spoken the word it reigns over you. When it is unspoken you reign over it.