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

  90 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

• 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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• 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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• 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

  262 Copy quote

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

  Harvey Diamond

  Want, Achieve, Audience

  9 Copy quote

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

  John Ford

  Inspirational, Motivational, Honesty

  69 Copy quote

• 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

  386 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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• 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

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

  Dorothy Sarnoff

  Meaningful, Listening, Oratory

  46 Copy quote

• A lot of people think that public speaking means that you are standing at a podium giving a speech, but public speaking comes in lots of different formats.

  Dana Perino

  Mean, Thinking, People

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• 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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• To be a person is to have a story to tell.

  Isak Dinesen

  Stories, Storytelling, Persons

  10 Copy quote

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

  Plato

  Wise, Plato, Men

  452 Copy quote

• 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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• There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Mediocrity, Painting, Certain

  3 Copy quote

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

  Ambrose Bierce

  Inspirational, Cute, Sad

  210 Copy quote

• Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Witty, Powerful, Humorous

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1839). “Proverbial philosophy: a book of thoughts and arguments”, p.149

  61 Copy quote

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