Speech Quotes - Page 9

• Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.
  [Fr., La parole a ete donnce a l'homme pour deguiser sa pensee.]

  Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

  Men, Parole, Given

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• When we are understood, we always speak well, and then all your fine diction serves no purpose.

  Moliere

  Diction, Purpose, Speak

  "The Learned Ladies (Act II, Scene 6)". Book by Moliere, March 11, 1672.

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• Nothing shows the kind of fool you are as quick as your tongue.

  Kate Langley Bosher

  Talking, Tongue, Fool

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• Keep skid chains on your tongue. Say less than you think. Cultivate a pleasant voice. How you say it is often more important than what you say.

  Ann Landers

  Thinking, Talking, Voice

  Ann Landers (1981). “Ann Lander's Encyclopedia, A to Z: Improve Your Life Emotionally, Medically, Sexually, Socially, Spiritually”, Ballantine Books

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• As human voice and instrument blend in one harmony, as human soul and body blend in each act of feeling, thought, or speech, so, as far as we can know, divinity and humanity act together in the thought and heart and act of the one Christ.

  Archibald Alexander Hodge

  Heart, Soul And Body, Voice

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 56), 1895.

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• I think speeches and fruit should always be fresh.

  Nikki Giovanni

  Thinking, Fruit, Should

  Nikki Giovanni (1988). “Sacred cows-- and other edibles”, William Morrow & Co

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• The secret of force in writing lies not so much in the pedigree of nouns and adjectives and verbs, as in having something that you believe in to say, and making the parts of speech vividly conscious of it.

  James Russell Lowell

  Lying, Believe, Writing

  James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among my Books, etc”, p.162

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• For pale and trembling anger rushes in
  With faltering speech, and eyes that wildly stare,
  Fierce as the tiger, madder than the seas,
  Desperate and armed with more than human strength.

  John Armstrong

  Anger, Eye, Sea

  John Armstrong, John Dyer (1858). “The Poetical Works of Armstrong, Dyer, and Green: With Memoirs, and Critical Dissertations”, p.63

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• I've never thought my speeches were too long; I've rather enjoyed them.

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Long, Enjoyed

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• Poetry finds its perilous equilibrium somewhere between music and speech.

  May Sarton

  Equilibrium

  May Sarton (2015). “Writings on Writing”, p.13, Open Road Media

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• This suspension of one's own reality, this being entirely alone in a strange city (at times I wondered if I had lost the power of speech) is an enriching state for a writer. Then the written word ... takes on an intensity of its own. Nothing gets exteriorized or dissipated; all is concentrated within.

  May Sarton

  Travel, Reality, Cities

  May Sarton (2014). “I Knew a Phoenix: Sketches for an Autobiography”, p.114, Open Road Media

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• 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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• 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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• 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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• ... 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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• 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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• Abstruse questions must have abstruse answers.

  Plutarch

  Answers

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

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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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• the modes of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence.

  Hannah More

  Silence, Variables, Conversation

  Hannah More (1853). “Poems, sacred dramas, essays”, p.278

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• Censorship' is a term pertaining only to governmental action. No private action is censorship. No private individual or agency can silence a man or suppress a publication; only the government can do so. The freedom of speech of private individuals includes the right not to agree, not to listen and not to finance one's own antagonists.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Agency, Silence

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.85, Penguin

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