In oratory the will must predominate.
Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory.
Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.
Next to fried foods, the South has suffered most from oratory.
A man may lack everything but tact and conviction and still be a forcible speaker; but without these nothing will avail... Fluency, grace, logical order, and the like, are merely the decorative surface of oratory.
The sense of war, the extraordinary bravery of the Allied armies, the numbers, the losses, the real suffering that disappears in time and commemorative oratory, are not marked out in any red guidebook of the emotions, but they are present if you look.
The object of oratory alone in not truth, but persuasion.
When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of Oratory, he answered, "Action," and which was the second, he replied, "action," and which was the third, he still answered "Action.
The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.
Very good orators, when they are out, they will spit; and for lovers, lacking--God warn us!--matter, the cleanliest shift is to kiss.
There is no true orator who is not a hero.
It makes a great difference whether Davus or a hero speaks.
Whatever we well understand we express clearly, and words flow with ease.
Yet through delivery orators succeed, I feel that I am far behind indeed.
With little art, clear wit and sense Suggest their own delivery.
Its Constitution--the glittering and sounding generalities of natural right which make up the Declaration of Independence.
If you can't write your message in a sentence, you can't say it in an hour.
Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
There is nothing in the world like persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.
or simply: