Speech Quotes - Page 8

• Speech is as a pump, by which we raise and pour out the water from the great lake of Thought,--whither it flows back again.

  John Sterling

  Lakes, Water, Pumps

  John Sterling (1848). “Essays and Tales: Fragments from the travels of Theodore Elbert. Thoughts. Tales and apologues”, p.155

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• A nap is not to be confused with sleeping. We sleep to recharge our bodies. We nap to care for our souls. When we nap, we are resting our eyes while our imaginations soar. Getting ready for the next round. Sorting, sifting, separating the profound from the profane, the possible from the improbable. Rehearsing our acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, our surprise on receiving the MacArthur genius award. This requires a prone position. If we're lucky, we might drift off, but we won't drift far. Just far enough to ransom our creativity from chaos.

  Sarah Ban Breathnach

  Confused, Creativity, Sleep

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• To have much learning, to be skillful in handicraft, well-trained in discipline, and to be of good speech -- this is the greatest blessing.

  Gautama Buddha

  Communication, Blessing, Discipline

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• The parable of the prodigal son, the most beautiful fiction that ever was invented; our Saviour's speech to His disciples, with which He closed His earthly ministrations, full of the sublimest dignity and tenderest affection, surpass everything that I ever read; and like the spirit by which they were dictated, fly directly to the heart.

  William Cowper

  Bible, Beautiful, Heart

  William Cowper (1862). “Letters of William Cowper; being a selection from his correspondence: with a sketch of his life, and biographical notices of his correspondents. [With a portrait.]”, p.54

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• Silence in woman is like speech in man.

  Ben Jonson

  Men, Silence

  Ben Jonson (2014). “Epicoene or The Silent Woman”, p.45, A&C Black

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• As oil will find its way into crevices where water cannot penetrate, so song will find its way where speech can no longer enter.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe

  Music, Song, Oil

  Harriet Beecher Stowe (1856). “Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp”, p.325

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• Speech ... is an invention of man's to prevent him from thinking.

  Agatha Christie

  Men, Thinking, Invention

  Agatha Christie (1984). “Five complete Hercule Poirot novels”, Random House Value Pub

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• Sometimes speech is no more than a device for saying nothing - and a neater one than silence.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Silence, Saying Nothing, Sometimes

  Simone de Beauvoir (1965). “The prime of life”

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• When there is a world scarcity of any commodity, whether it's food or free speech, then the whole world must go on rations in order that eventually the whole world may have it again in plenty.

  Jan Struther

  Order, Scarcity, Goes On

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• Truth is a thing immortal and perpetual, and it gives to us a beauty that fades not away in time, nor does it take away the freedom of speech which proceeds from justice; but it gives to us the knowledge of what is just and lawful, separating from them the unjust and refuting them.

  Epictetus

  Truth, Giving, Justice

  Epictetus (2012). “Enchiridion”, p.57, Courier Corporation

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• White hate crimes, white hate speech. I still try to claim I wasn't brought up to hate. But hate isn't the half of it. I grew up in the vast encircling presumption of whiteness - that primary quality of being which knows itself, its passions, only against an otherness that has to be dehumanized. I grew up in white silence that was utterly obsessional. Race was the theme whatever the topic.

  Adrienne Rich

  Hate, Passion, White

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• ... people are growing up in the slack flicker of a pale light which lacks the concentrated burn of a candle flame or oil wick or the bulb of a gooseneck desk lamp: a pale, wavering, oblong shimmer, emitting incessant noise, which is to real knowledge or discourse what the manic or weepy protestations of a drunk are to responsible speech. Drunks do have a way of holding an audience, though, and so does the shimmery ill-focused oblong screen.

  Adrienne Rich

  Growing Up, Real, Flames

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• God has given us speech in order that we may say pleasant things to our friends, and tell bitter truths to our enemies.

  Heinrich Heine

  Order, Enemy, May

  Heinrich Heine (1873). “Scintillations from the Prose Works of Heinrich Heine: I. Florentine Nights. II. Excerpts”, p.88

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• Nobody has a right to speak more clearly than he thinks.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Thinking, Speak

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• Do you wish people to speak well of you? Then do not speak at all yourself.

  Blaise Pascal

  People, Wish, Speak

  "Pensées". Book by Blaise Pascal. Volume 6, 59, 1669.

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• Democratization is not democracy; it is a slogan for the temporary liberalization handed down from an autocrat. Glasnost is not free speech; only free speech, constitutionally guaranteed, is free speech.

  Gail Sheehy

  Democracy, Glasnost, Slogans

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• And endless are the modes of speech, and far
  Extends from side to side the field of words.

  Homer

  Fields, Sides, Endless

  Homer (1871). “The Iliad of Homer”, p.220

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• When the body is assailed by the strong force of time and the limbs weaken from exhausted force, genius breaks down, and mind and speech fail.
  [Lat., Ubi jam valideis quassatum est viribus aevi
  Corpus, et obtuseis ceciderunt viribus artus,
  Claudicat ingenium delirat linguaque mensque.]

  Lucretius

  Strong, Mind, Jam

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• How I wish I were able to say what I think.

  Gertrude Stein

  Thinking, Wish, Able

  Gertrude Stein (1998). “Writings, 1932-1946”

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• Themistocles replied that a man's discourse was like to a rich Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can only be shown by spreading and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are obscured and lost.

  Plutarch

  Beautiful, Men, Patterns

  Plutarch (2012). “Greek and Roman Lives”, p.61, Courier Corporation

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• Abstruse questions must have abstruse answers.

  Plutarch

  Answers

  Plutarch (1872). “Plutarch's Lives”, p.491

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• Speech is like cloth of Arras opened and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth appear in figure; whereas in thoughts they lie but as packs.

  Plutarch

  Lying, Figures, Imagery

  "Life of Themistocles". Book by Plutarch,

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• Neatness of phrase is so closely akin to wit that it is often accepted as its substitute.

  Agnes Repplier

  Phrases, Accepted, Substitutes

  Agnes Repplier (1936). “In Pursuit of Laughter ...”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

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• Among all the accomplishments of youth there is none preferable to a decent and agreeable behavior among men, a modest freedom of speech, a soft and elegant manner of address, a graceful and lovely deportment, a cheerful gravity and good-humor, with a mind appearing ever serene under the ruffling accidents of human life.

  Isaac Watts

  Men, Mind, Lovely

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• There is no weapon in the end as difficult to overcome as the tongue of an enemy.

  Andre Norton

  Enemy, Overcoming, Weapons

  Andre Norton (2004). “Gods and Androids”, p.336, Baen Publishing Enterprises

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