A speech should not just be a sharing of information, but a sharing of yourself.
What we say is important... for in most cases the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
It's not so much knowing when to speak, when to pause.
I didn't say the things I said.
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
— Bible
We speak that what we know and testify to that which we have seen.
— Bible
I don't care how much a person talks, if they only say it in a few words.
If you can't write your message in a sentence, you can't say it in an hour.
A man who has the courage of his platitudes is always a successful man. The instructed man is ashamed to pronounce in an orphic manner what everybody knows, and because he is silent people think he is making fun of them. They like a man who expresses their own superficial thoughts in a manner that appears to be profound. This enables them to feel that they are themselves profound.
If an eloquent speaker speak not the truth, is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?
Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident.
Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.
Tell the audience what you're going to say, say it; then tell them what you've said.
Grasp the subject, the words will follow.
One good anecdote is worth a volume of biography.
Most people have ears, but few have judgment; tickle those ears, and depend upon it, you will catch those judgments, such as they are.
Women prefer to talk in twos, while men prefer to talk in threes.
A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.
He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone.
Say what you have to say and first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending; sit down.
Opening amenities are often opening inanities.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use the pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time; a tremendous whack.
Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.
Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.
A good orator is pointed and impassioned.
Say not always what you know, but always know what you say.
— Claudius
We should speak as the populace but think as the learned.
The more you are talked about the less powerful you are.
All the great speakers were bad speaker at first.
Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol and an audience is electrified.
First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart.
Half wits talk much, but say little.
He that speaks much, is much mistaken.
Once you get people laughing, they're listening and you can tell them almost anything.
It is delivery that makes the orators success.
I do not speak of what I cannot praise.
Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
He rose without a friend and sat down without an enemy.
There are three things to aim at in public speaking: First to get into your subject, then to get your subject into yourself, and lastly, to get your subject into your hearers.
— Gregg
I never let my subject get in the way of what I want to talk about.
We talk little when we do not talk about ourselves.
Better never begin than never make an end.
Talk is cheap, except when Congress does it.
Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs, Silence that spoke and eloquence of eyes.
— Homer
Be ever on your guard what you say of anybody and to whom.
— Horace
Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership.
I don't like jokes in speeches. I do like wit and humor. A joke is to humor what pornography is to erotic language in a good novel.
Most speakers speak ten minutes too long.
To speak and to speak well, are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.
If it requires great tact to speak to the purpose, it requires no less to know when to be silent.
Passions are the only orators to always convinces us.
The people only understand what they can feel; the only orators that can affect them are those who move them.
The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven't thought of yet.
Adlai Stevenson has a genius for saying the right thing, at the right time, to the wrong people.
With all his tumid boasts, he's like the sword-fish, who only wears his weapon in his mouth.
What is uttered is finished and done with.
Before you speak ask yourself if what you are going to say is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the answer is no, maybe what you are about to say should be left unsaid.
Before a man speaks, it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks it is seldom necessary to assume.
The best way to conquer stage fright is to know what you're talking about.
Find out what's keeping them up nights and offer hope. Your theme must be an answer to their fears.
I know you will guess all I leave unsaid.
What orators lack in depth, they make up to you in length.
Most of the time in married life is taken up by talk.
Once I have heard the story or joke used twice by other speakers or entertainer, I avoid it.
Every speaker has a mouth; An arrangement rather neat. Sometimes it's filled with wisdom. Sometimes it's filled with feet.
Look wise say nothing and grunt, speech was given to conceal thought.
Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself.
Be interesting, be enthusiastic... and don't talk to much.
There is danger when a man throws his tongue into high gear before he gets his brain a-going.
Oratory is the art of making deep noises form the chest sound like important massages from the brain.
Before the tongue can speak, it must have lost the power to wound.
One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.
The first evil those who are prone to talk suffer, is that they hear nothing.
— Plutarch
They talk most who have the least to say.
Speak when you are spoken to.
— Proverb
Talking without thinking is like shooting without taking aim.
— Proverb
The less people think the more they talk.
— Proverb
Speak little and to the purpose.
— Proverb
Speak and the man shall be shown.
— Proverb
The words of tongue should have three gate keepers.
To climb a tree to catch a fish is talking much and doing nothing.
A closed mouth catches no flies.
He who comes from afar may lie without fear of contradiction as he is sure to be listened to with the utmost attention.
A good speaker makes a good liar.
Speaking comes by nature, silence by understanding.
When at a loss how to go on, cough.
He who knows little knows enough if he knows how to hold is tongue.
Two great talkers will not travel far together.
Our public men are speaking every day on something, but they ain't saying anything.
Be sincere, be brief; be seated.
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
He suffered from a rush of words to the head.
Most people have to talk so they won't hear.
It always takes a person much longer to tell you what he thinks than what he knows.
— Saying
When ever the speech is corrupted so is the mind.
— Seneca
When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.
— Seneca
It is terrible to speak well and be wrong.
Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.
I sometimes marvel at the extraordinary docility with which Americans submit to speeches.
The relationship of the toastmaster to the speaker should be the same as that of the fan to the fan dancer. It should call attention to the subject without making any particular effort to cover it.
Some people approach every problem with an open mouth.
I would rather be guilty of talking over a person's head than behind his back.
The trouble with me is that I like to talk too much.
If you have nothing to say, say nothing.
There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.
There are two kinds of people who don't say much, those who are quiet and those who talk a lot.
He who does not say too much has too much to say.
Too many of us speak twice before we think
What you are doing rings so loudly in my ears that I can't hear what you're saying.
Don't talk unless you can improve the silence
A smart person knows what to say, a wise person knows whether or not to say it.
An orator who is disposed to evil subverts the law.
The secret of successful speakers? Passion and compassion with a purpose.
Talk low, talk slow, and don't say too much.
Unconsciousness is one of the most important conditions of good style in speaking and writing.
A good speaker is a good listener who hears what lessor speakers fail to.
Lots of people act well, but few people talk well. This shows that talking is the more difficult of the two.
Talk to a woman as if you loved her, and to a man as if he bored you.
Never rise to speak till you have something to say; and when you have said it, cease.