Eloquence Quotes - Page 5

• Eloquence may set fire to reason.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Fire, May, Reason

  "Gitlow v. People of New York, 268 U.S. 652". Judicial opinion, 1925.

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• Eloquence may be found in conversations and in all kinds of writings; it is rarely found when looked for, and sometimes discovered where it is least expected.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Writing, May, Kind

  "The Characters", Chapter I' 55, 1688.

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• We may put too high a premium on speech from platform and pulpit, at the bar and in the legislative hall, and pay dear for the whistle of our endless harangues. England and especially Germany, are less loquacious, and attend more to business. We let the eagle, and perhaps too often the peacock, scream.

  Bill Vaughan

  Eagles, Bars, May

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• Eloquence, to produce her full effect, should start from the head of the orator, as Pallas from the brain of Jove, completely armed and equipped. Diffidence, therefore, which is so able a mentor to the writer, would prove a dangerous counsellor for the orator.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Brain, Mentor, Able

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.71

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• Eloquence the soul, song charms the senses.

  John Milton

  Song, Soul, Mazes

  'Paradise Lost' (1667) bk. 2, l. 555

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• The nature of our constitution makes eloquence more useful and more necessary in this country than in any other in Europe.

  Bill Vaughan

  Country, Europe, Constitution

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• We must recognize the eloquence of our passions and refuse to be taken in. Instead of saying, 'That false friend always did despise me,' say: 'In my present state of agitation, I can't see clearly, I can't judge clearly; I am only a tragic actor who is declaiming for his own ears.' Then you will see the lights in the theater go out for lack of an audience, and the brilliant sets will be nothing more than painted cardboard.

  Emile Chartier

  Taken, Passion, Light

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• A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

  Joseph Addison

  Humility, Pride, Men

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1826). “The Spectator: With Notes, and a General Index”, p.301

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• Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.

  David Hume

  Reflection, Understanding, Desire

  "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding". Book by David Hume. Section 10: "Of Miracles", Part 2, 1758.

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• Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

  Francis Bacon

  Order, Speech, Speak

  Francis Bacon, David Mallet (1740). “The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, Lord High Chancellor of England ...: With Several Additional Pieces, Never Before Printed in Any Edition of His Works. To which is Prefixed, a New Life of the Author”, p.349

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• Gentlemen, do you know what is the finest speech that I ever in my life heard or read? It is the address of Garibaldi to his Roman soldiers, when he told them: "Soldier, what I have to offer you is fatigue, danger, struggle and death; the chill of the cold night in the free air, and heat under the burning sun; no lodgings, no munitions, no provisions, but forced marches, dangerous watchposts and the continual struggle with the bayonet against batteries;- - those who love freedom and their country may follow me." That is the most glorious speech I ever heard in my life.

  Lajos Kossuth

  Country, Struggle, Night

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• Nothing is so improving to the temper as the study of the beauties either of poetry, eloquence, music, or painting.

  David Hume

  Taste, Study, Painting

  David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.579, Delphi Classics

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• Earnestness is the salt of eloquence.

  Victor Hugo

  Salt, Earnestness

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• The truest and greatest Poetry, (while subtly and necessarily always rhythmic, and distinguishable easily enough) can never again, in the English language, be express'd in arbitrary and rhyming metre, any more than the greatest eloquence, or the truest power and passion.

  Walt Whitman

  Passion, Arbitrary, Rhyming

  Walt Whitman (2012). “Specimen Days & Collect”, p.323, Courier Corporation

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• There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. What torture it is to hear a frigid speech being pompously declaimed, or second-rate verse spoken with all a bad poet's bombast!

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Mediocrity, Speech, Painting

  "Of Books". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

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• He is an eloquent man who can treat humble subjects with delicacy, lofty things impressively, and moderate things temperately.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Humble, Men, Delicacy

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, De Oratore, XXIX, p. 219-20, 1922.

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• Fortify yourself against seductive eloquence.

  Regina Maria Roche

  Seductive, Speech, Charm

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• Fie on the eloquence that leaves us craving itself, not things!

  Michel de Montaigne

  Wisdom, Asceticism, Craving

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.185, Stanford University Press

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• When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon education, we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do. And so on. But when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do.

  A. C. Dixon

  Graduation, Prayer, Organization

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• Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them.

  Edwin H Friedman

  Moving, Communication, Emotional

  Edwin H. Friedman (2013). “Friedman's Fables”, p.13, Guilford Press

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• Eloquence shows the power and possibility of man. There is one of whom we took no note, but on a certain occasion it appears that he has a secret virtue never suspected - that he can paint what has occurred and what must occur, with such clearness to a company, as if they saw it done before their eyes. By leading their thought he leads their will, and can make them do gladly what an hour ago they would not believe that they could be led to do at all.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Believe, Eye, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2582, Delphi Classics

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• Fluency avoids hard thoughts.

  Mason Cooley

  Fluency, Hard

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• The receipt to make a speaker, and an applauded one too, is short and easy. Take common sense quantum sufficit; add a little application to the rules and orders of the House [of Commons], throw obvious thoughts in a new light, and make up the whole with a large quantity of purity, correctness and elegancy of style. Take it for granted that by far the greatest part of mankind neither analyze nor search to the bottom; they are incapable of penetrating deeper than the surface.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Order, Light, Common Sense

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.296, Oxford University Press

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• He spoke with more eloquence than wisdom.

  Winston Churchill

  Spokes

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• What we need is not more learning, not more eloquence, not more persuasion, not more organization, but more power from the Holy Spirit.

  John Stott

  Organization, Needs, Spirit

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