SPEECH

Bacon, Francis
It was justly said by Themistocles that speech is like tapestry unfolded, where the imagery appears distinct; but thoughts, like tapestry in the bale, where the figures are rolled up together.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

Barrow, Isaac
A constant governance of our speech, according to duty and reason, is a high instance and a special argument of a thoroughly sincere and solid goodness.

Bruyere, Jean de la
We seldom repent of speaking little, very often of speaking too much; a vulgar and trite maxim, which all the world knows, but which all the world does not practise.

Confucius
A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

Delany, Patrick
Think all you speak, but speak not all you think.—Thoughts are your own; your words are so no more.

Demosthenes
As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be cracked or not, so men are proved by their speeches whether they be wise or foolish.

Eliot, George
Half the sorrows of women would be averted if they could repress the speech they know to be useless—nay, the speech they have resolved not to utter.

Feltham, Owen
A sentence well couched takes both the sense and the understanding.—I love not those cart-rope speeches that are longer than the memory of man can measure.

German Proverbs
Speech is silvern, silence is golden; speech is human, silence is divine.

Giles, Henry
Never is the deep, strong voice of man, or the low, sweet voice of woman, finer than in the earnest but mellow tones of familiar speech, richer than the richest music, which are a delight while they are heard, which linger still upon the ear in softened echoes, and which, when they have ceased, come, long after, back to memory, like the murmurs of a distant hymn.

Goldsmith, Oliver
It is usually said by grammarians, that the use of language is to express our wants and desires; but men who know the world hold that he who best knows how to keep his necessities private, is the most likely person to have them redressed; and that the true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.

Gregg, Alexander
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.

Hazlitt, William
Sheridan once said of some speech, in his acute, sarcastic way, that "it contained a great deal both of what was new and what was true; but that what was new was not true, and what was true was not new."

Lorain, Paul
A printed speech is like a dried flower: the substance, indeed, is there, but the color is faded and the perfume gone.

O'Connell, Daniel
A good speech is a good thing, but the verdict is the thing.

Perry, James
Speeches cannot be made long enough for the speakers, nor short enough for the hearers.

Raleigh, Sir Walter
According to Solomon, life and death are in the power of the tongue; and as Euripides truly affirmeth, every unbridled tongue in the end shall find itself unfortunate; in all that ever I observed I ever found that men's fortunes are oftener made by their tongues than by their virtues, and more men's fortunes overthrown thereby, also, than by their vices.

Socrates
Such as thy words are, such will thine affections be esteemed; and such as thine affections, will be thy deeds; and such as thy deeds will be thy life.

Southey, Robert
There are three things that ought to be considered before some things are spoken,—the manner, the place, and the time.

Steele, Sir Richard
Nothing is more silly than the pleasure some people take in "speaking their minds." A man of this make will say a rude thing, for the mere pleasure of saying it, when an opposite behavior, full as innocent, might have preserved his friend, or made his fortune.

Swift, Jonathan
The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter and a scarcity of words; for whoever is a master of language and has a mind full of ideas, will be apt in speaking to hesitate upon the choice of both; whereas common speakers have only one set of ideas, and one set of words to clothe them in; and these are always ready at the mouth; so people come faster out of a church when it is almost empty, than when a crowd is at the door.

Talleyrand, Perigord, Alexander A.
Speech is a faculty given to man to conceal his thoughts.

Trench, Richard C.
Speak but little and well if you would be esteemed a man of merit.

Voltaire, Francois Marie de
There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.

Witherspoon, John
Never rise to speak till you have something to say; and when you have said it, cease.