Eloquence Quotes - Page 9

• Astronomy was born of superstition; eloquence of ambition, hatred, falsehood, and flattery; geometry of avarice; physics of an idle curiosity; and even moral philosophy of human pride. Thus the arts and sciences owe their birth to our vices.

  Jean-Baptiste Rousseau

  Art, Philosophy, Ambition

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• Language is in decline. Not only has eloquence departed but simple, direct speech as well, though pomposity and banality have not.

  Edwin Newman

  Simple, Departed, Speech

  Edwin Newman (1974). “Strictly Speaking: Will america be the Death of English?”

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• Men, unlike mockingbirds, have the capacity for systematic self-delusion. We echo each other with equal precision, equal eloquence, equal assurance.

  Robert Ardrey

  Men, Echoes, Self

  Robert Ardrey (1966). “The Territorial Imperative”

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• We cannot all hope to combine the pleasing qualities of good looks, brains, and eloquence.

  Homer

  Brain, Quality, Looks

  Homer, William Shakespeare (2015). “Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems”, p.62, Delphi Classics

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• Curran grinned and my heart made a little jump. I didn’t expect that. “That’s it? That’s your witty comeback?” “Yep.” Eloquence ’R’ Us. When in trouble, keep it monosyllabic—safer that way.

  Ilona Andrews

  Witty, Heart, Littles

  Ilona Andrews (2009). “Magic Strikes”, p.43, Penguin

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• Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation ready. Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?

  Dashiell Hammett

  Cairo, Want, Smooth

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• Be helpless, dumbfounded, Unable to say yes or no. Then a stretcher will come from grace to gather us up. We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty. If we say we can, we’re lying. If we say No, we don’t see it, That No will behead us And shut tight our window onto spirit. So let us rather not be sure of anything, Beside ourselves, and only that, so Miraculous beings come running to help. Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute, We shall be saying finally, With tremendous eloquence, Lead us. When we have totally surrendered to that beauty, We shall be a mighty kindness.

  Rumi

  Running, Zero, Kindness

  Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi, “Zero Circle”

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• Cuvier had even in his address & manner the character of a superior Man, much general power & eloquence in conversation & great variety of information on scientific as well as popular subjects. I should say of him that he is the most distinguished man of talents I have ever known on the continent: but I doubt if He be entitled to the appellation of a Man of Genius.

  Humphry Davy

  Character, Science, Men

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• Little other than a red tape Talking-machine, and unhappy Bag of Parliamentary Eloquence.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Talking, Unhappy, Tape

  Describing himself, in 'Latter-Day Pamphlets' (1850) 'The Present Time'

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• No erudition, no purity of diction, no width of mental outlook, no flowers of eloquence, no grace of person can atone for lack of fire. Prayer ascends by fire. Flame gives prayer access as well as wings, acceptance as well as energy. There is no incense without fire; no prayer without flame.

  Edward McKendree Bounds

  Prayer, Flower, Acceptance

  Edward McKendree Bounds (1976). “The necessity of prayer”, Baker Pub Group

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• We can speak of politics, ethics, and in this way, speak about the world. But at the same time, it's always in a way that is totally nebulous and abstracted, this way of thinking about reality. And that's why I write the way I do - it's an almost immortal way to show dependence on the biological, the political, the moral parts of us. I say immortal because we now have to find new formats, new eloquences, and resolve within ourselves this "constructed" life, a life that is incomplete, imperfect.

  Sergio Chejfec

  Writing, Reality, Thinking

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I said something idiotic like, as [William] Shakespeare says, "Action is eloquence," and the judge just frowned at me and gave me a couple weeks in jail.

  Bill Ayers

  Couple, Jail, Judging

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• swearing is, as I have said, learning to the ignorant, eloquence to the blockhead, vivacity to the stupid, and wit to the coxcomb.

  Mary Collyer

  Stupid, Ignorant, Said

  Mary Collyer (1749). “Felicia To Charlotte: Being Letters From A Young Lady in the Country, To Her Friend in Town : Containing A Series of the Most Interesting Events, Interspersed with Moral Reflections ...”, p.203

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• Don't worry about having the right words; worry more about having the right heart. It's not eloquence he seeks, just honesty.

  Max Lucado

  God, Faith, Christian

  Max Lucado (2011). “The Great House of God”, p.46, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• What more ghastly image can be called up than that of a man betrayed by his body who, simply because he did not die in time, lives out the comedy while awaiting the end, face to face with that God he does not adore, serving him as he served life, kneeling before a void and arms outstretched toward a heaven without eloquence that he knows to be also without depth?

  Albert Camus

  Men, Heaven, Body

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• I am to consider the many advantages arising from a frequent use of oaths, curses, and imprecations. In the first place, this genteel accomplishment is a wonderful help to discourse; as it supplies the want of good sense, learning, and eloquence. The illiterate and stupid, by the help of oaths, become orators; and he, whose wretched intellects would not permit him to utter a coherent sentence, by this easy practice, excites the laughter, and fixes the attention, of a brilliant and joyous circle.

  Mary Collyer

  Laughter, Stupid, Practice

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• Tis not for golden eloquence I pray,
  A godlike tongue to move a stony heart--
  Methinks it were full well to be apart
  In solitary uplands far away,
  Betwixt the blossoms of a rosy spray,
  Dreaming upon the wonderful sweet face
  Of Nature, in a wild and pathless place.

  Frederick Tennyson

  Dream, Sweet, Moving

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• If toes had eyes, then I could see how my feet know where to go, but toes are blind. And how is it that my tongue speaks words it cannot hear? Because for all its eloquence, the tongue itself is deaf, and flaps in soundlessness.

  Jane Roberts

  Eye, Feet, Tongue

  Jane Roberts (1984). “God of jane: a psychic manifesto”, Prentice Hall Direct

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• A moment of eloquence enthralls us. An hour's worth leaves us stupefied.

  Mason Cooley

  Moments, Hours

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• The feminine graces of Madame de Sevigne's genius are exquisitely charming; but the philosophy and eloquence of Madame de Stael are above the distinction of sex.

  James Mackintosh

  Sex, Philosophy, Grace

  Sir James Mackintosh (1835). “Memoirs of the life of the Right Honorable Sir James Mackintosh”, p.217

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• There is eloquence in screaming.

  Patrick Jones

  Crazy, Mad

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• If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society... It is the education which gives a man a clear, conscious view of their own opinions and judgements, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them. It teaches him to see things as they are, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought to detect what is sophistical and to discard what is irrelevant.

  John Henry Newman

  Men, Views, Giving

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• I just don't think people get off on language anymore. Language used to be an elevated art. It used to be for people what music can be. But people don't learn to do that anymore, so eloquence is merely a matter of waste. Who needs a good vocabulary and proper English? Eloquence - it's dead and who needs it?

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Art, Thinking, Vocabulary

  Source: www.mcsweeneys.net

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• Eloquence resides as much in the tone of voice, in the eyes, and in the expression of the face, as in the choice of words.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Eye, Expression, Voice

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• A regular council was held with the Indians, who had come in on their ponies, and speeches were made on both sides through an interpreter, quite in the described mode,--the Indians, as usual, having the advantage in point of truth and earnestness, and therefore of eloquence. The most prominent chief was named Little Crow. They were quite dissatisfied with the white man's treatment of them, and probably have reason to be so.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Native American, Men, White Man

  Henry David Thoreau (1974). “The correspondence of Henry David Thoreau”, Greenwood Pub Group

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