Declamation Quotes

• Fine declamation does not consist in flowery periods, delicate allusions of musical cadences, but in a plain, open, loose style, where the periods are long and obvious, where the same thought is often exhibited in several points of view.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Views, Long, Musical

  Oliver Goldsmith (1856). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Comprising His Poems, Comedies, Essays, and Vicar of Wakefield”, p.281

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• The air of the New World seems favorable to the art of declamation.

  Joseph Conrad

  Art, Air, World

  "Nostromo". Book by Joseph Conrad, Part First: The Silver of the Mine, Ch. 6, 1904.

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• The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Fall, Vacuums, Velocity

  Charles Caleb Colton (1849). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words: Address--to Those who Think”, p.5

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• Labor organizations are formed, not to employ combined effort for a common object, but to indulge in declamation and denunciation, and especially to furnish an easy living to some officers who do not want to work.

  William Graham Sumner

  Hygiene, Organization, Indulge In

  William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.40, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• The art of declamation has been sinking in value from the moment that speakers were foolish enough to publish, and hearers wise enough to read.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wise, Art, Moments

  Philip Dormer Stanhope (4th earl of Chesterfield.), Charles Caleb Colton (1861). “Lord Chesterfield's advice to his son on men and manners. To which are added, selections from Colton's 'Lacon'.”, p.194

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• In every revolution there intrude, at the side of its true agents, men of a different stamp; some of them survivors of and devotees to past revolutions, without insight into the present movement, but preserving popular influence by their known honesty and courage, or by the sheer force of tradition; others mere brawlers, who, by dint of repeating year after year the same set of stereotyped declamations against the government of the day, have sneaked into the reputation of revolutionists of the first water They are an unavoidable evil: with time they are shaken off.

  Karl Marx

  Honesty, Past, Men

  Karl Marx, David McLellan (2000). “Karl Marx: Selected Writings”, p.594, Oxford University Press, USA

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• The truth is, after all the declamations we have heard, that the Constitution is itself, in every rational sense, and to every useful purpose, A BILL OF RIGHTS.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Rights, Purpose, Bills

  James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay (2016). “The Federalist Papers: The Making of the US Constitution”, p.137, Arcturus Publishing

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• From Bard, to Bard, the frigid Caution crept,
  Till Declamation roar'd, while Passion slept.

  Samuel Johnson

  Drama, Passion, Bards

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.551

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• So I cradle this average violin that knows
  Only forgotten showtunes, but argues
  The possibility of free declamation anchored
  To a dull refrain.

  John Ashbery

  Music, Average, Dull

  John Ashbery (1986). “Selected Poems”, Penguin Group USA

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• There is in every breast a sensibility to marks of honor, of favor, of esteem, and of confidence, which, apart from all considerations of interest, is some pledge for grateful and benevolent returns. Ingratitude is a common topic of declamation against human nature; and it must be confessed, that instances of it are but too infrequent and flagrant both in public and in private life. But the universal and extreme indignation which it inspires, is itself a proof of the energy and prevalence of the contrary sentiment.

  James Madison

  Grateful, Inspire, Honor

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.281, Coventry House Publishing

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• I know not why any one but a school boy in his declamation would whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they were rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves and of one another.

  Samuel Johnson

  School, Boys, Rome

  Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”, p.473

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• The doctrine of foods is of great ethical and political significance. Food becomes blood, blood becomes heart and brain, thoughts and mind stuff. Human fare is the foundation of human culture and thought. Would you improve a nation? Give it, instead of declamations against sin, better food. Man is what he eats [Der Mensch ist, was er isst].

  Ludwig Feuerbach

  Food, Heart, Science

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• Were I to be angry at men being fools, I could here find ample room for declamation; but, alas! I have been a fool myself; and why should I be angry with them for being something so natural to every child of humanity?

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Children, Men, Humanity

  Oliver Goldsmith (1835). “His Works”, p.168

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• The minds of youth are perpetually led to the history of Greece and Rime or to Great Britain; Boys are constantly repeating the declamations of Demosthenes and Cicero, or debates upon some political question in the British Parliament.

  Noah Webster

  Education, Boys, Political

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• Ay, rail at gaming - 'tis a rich topic, and affords noble declamation. Go, preach against it in the city - you'll find a congregation in every tavern.

  George Edward Moore

  Cities, Taverns, Noble

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• Only men of moral and mental force, of a patriotic regard for the relationship of the two races, can be of real service as ministers in the South. Less theology and more of human brotherhood, less declamation and more common sense and love for truth, must be the qualifications of the new ministry that shall yet save the race from the evils of false teaching.

  Fannie Barrier Williams

  Real, Teaching, Patriotic

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• Whatever evils either reason or declamation have imputed to extensive empire, the power of Rome was attended with some beneficial consequences to mankind; and the same freedom of intercourse which extended the vices, diffused likewise the improvements of social life.

  Edward Gibbon

  Rome, History, Evil

  Edward Gibbon (2015). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:”, p.100, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• I could wish there were a treaty made between the French and the English theatres, in which both parties should make considerableconcessions. The English ought to give up their notorious violations of the unities, and all their massacres, racks, dead bodies, and mangled carcasses, which they so frequently exhibit upon their stage. The French should engage to have more action, and less declamation, and not to cram and to crowd things together to almost a degree of impossibility from a too scrupulous adherence to the unities.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Giving Up, Party, Unity

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.248, Oxford Paperbacks

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• Luxury, or a refinement on the pleasures and conveniences of life, had long been supposed the source of every corruption in government, and the immediate cause of faction, sedition, civil wars, and the total loss of liberty. It was, therefore, universally regarded as a vice, and was an object of declamation to all satyrists, and severe moralists.

  David Hume

  War, Loss, Luxury

  David Hume (1751). “An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals”, p.30

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• When we play an unaccompanied Bach suite we may compare ourselves to an actor in Shakespeare's day, creating scenery which did not exist at all, through the power of declamation and suggestion. So in Bach. There is but one voice -- and many voices have to be suggested.

  Pablo Casals

  Voice, Creating, Play

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• It is true that some secluded intellectuals in their esoteric circles talk differently. They proclaim the priority of what they call eternal absolute values and feign in their declamations—not in their personal conduct—a disdain of things secular and transitory. But the public ignores such utterances. The main goal of present-day political action is to secure for the respective pressure group memberships the highest material well-being. The only way for a leader to succeed is to instill in people the conviction that his program best serves the attainment of this goal.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Pressure Groups, Circles, Goal

  Ludwig Von Mises (1963). “Human action: a treatise on economics”

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