Public Speaking Quotes

• Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.

  Dale Carnegie

  Attention, Taught, Failing

  Dale Carnegie, Dorothy Carnegie (1977). “The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking”, p.47, Simon and Schuster

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• According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.

  Jerry Seinfeld

  Funny, Motivational, Death

  97 Copy quote

• Good public speaking is based on good private thinking

  Scott Berkun

  Thinking

  Scott Berkun (2009). “Confessions of a Public Speaker”, p.57, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident.

  Dale Carnegie

  Be Confident, Prepared, Speakers

  Dale Carnegie, Dorothy Carnegie (1977). “The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking”, p.35, Simon and Schuster

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• All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Oratory, Speech, Firsts

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.340

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• History has repeatedly been changed by people who had the desire and the ability to transfer their convictions and emotions to their listeners.

  Dale Carnegie

  Inspirational, People, Desire

  8 Copy quote

• An effective speaker knows that the success or failure of his talk is not for him to decide - it will be decided in the minds and hearts of his hearers.

  Dale Carnegie

  Heart, Mind, Success Or Failure

  Dale Carnegie, Dorothy Carnegie (1977). “The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking”, p.55, Simon and Schuster

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• The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

  Mark Twain

  Kindness, Book, Communication

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.520, Courier Corporation

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• You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart.

  John Ford

  Inspirational, Motivational, Honesty

  78 Copy quote

• If you don't know what you want to achieve in your presentation your audience never will.

  Harvey Diamond

  Want, Achieve, Audience

  12 Copy quote

• A talk is a voyage. It must be charted. The speaker who starts nowhere, usually gets there.

  Dale Carnegie

  Voyages, Speakers

  Dale Carnegie (1983). “Ht Develop Slf Con”, p.54, IICA Biblioteca Venezuela

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• A good speech should be like a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest

  Winston Churchill

  Funny, Witty, Clothes

  291 Copy quote

• There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.

  Dale Carnegie

  Skills, Wish, Literature

  Dale Carnegie (2017). “The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking”, p.94, Diamond Pocket Books Pvt Ltd

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• Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Motivational, Strength

  444 Copy quote

• Public Speaking is a skill that can be studied, polished, perfected. Not only can you get good at it, you can get damn good at it and it makes a heck of a difference.

  Tom Peters

  Differences, Skills, Damn

  9 Copy quote

• Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.

  Dorothy Sarnoff

  Meaningful, Listening, Oratory

  50 Copy quote

• Tell the audience what you're going to say, say it; then tell them what you've said.

  Dale Carnegie

  Said, Audience, Speakers

  Dale Carnegie (2017). “How to enjoy your life and your job”, p.117, Diamond Pocket Books Pvt Ltd

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• Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Relevant detail, couched in concrete, colorful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience.

  Dale Carnegie

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Dale Carnegie (2017). “The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking”, p.128, Diamond Pocket Books Pvt Ltd

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• It is a point that I repeat over and over again in teaching public speaking. It is not so much what you say as it is the tone and manner in which you say it that makes a lasting impression.

  Napoleon Hill

  Teaching, Lasting Impressions, Tone

  6 Copy quote

• A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something.

  Plato

  Wise, Plato, Men

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

  Mark Twain

  Business, Communication, Skills Training

  Mark Twain (2015). “Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend”, p.76, St. Martin's Press

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• Public speaking professionals say that you win or lose the battle to hold your audience in the first 30 seconds of a given presentation.

  John Medina

  Winning, Battle, Firsts

  John Medina (2014). “Brain Rules (Updated and Expanded): 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School”, p.78, Pear Press

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• My speaking style was criticised by no less an authority than Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was a low moment, my friends, to have my rhetorical skills denounced by a monosyllabic Austrian cyborg.

  Boris Johnson

  Skills, Style, Moments

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Inspirational, Cute, Sad

  240 Copy quote

• 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

  Sarcastic, Book, Writing

  FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Nov 18, 2010

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