Eloquent Quotes

• The simplest man with passion will be more persuasive than the most eloquent without.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Passion, Men, Oratory

  "The Moral Maxims and Reflections". Book by François de La Rochefoucauld. Maxim 8, 1678.

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• The simpler you say it, the more eloquent it is.

  August Wilson

  Writing, Editing

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• Sincerity, even if it speaks with a stutter, will sound eloquent when inspired.

  Eiji Yoshikawa

  Sound, Inspired, Speak

  Eiji Yoshikawa (2000). “Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan”, p.256, Kodansha International

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• A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom- he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.

  E. B. White

  Cracks, May, Poet

  "One Man's Meat". Book by Elwyn Brooks White, 1942.

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• Not only is your story worth telling, but it can be told in words so painstakingly eloquent that it becomes a song.

  Gloria Naylor

  Song, Healing, Stories

  Gloria Naylor, Maxine Lavon Montgomery (2004). “Conversations with Gloria Naylor”, p.11, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• No one ever became, or can become truly eloquent without being a reader of the Bible, and an admirer of the purity and sublimity of its language.

  Fisher Ames

  Language, Purity, Admirer

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• They are eloquent who can speak low things acutely, and of great things with dignity, and of moderate things with temper.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Dignity, Speak, Lows

  Marcus Tullius Cicero (1871). “The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero”, p.410

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• Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Wise, Wisdom, Witty

  Thomas Hobbes (2005). “Leviathan, Parts I and II”, p.94, Broadview Press

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• I think every age has a medium that talks to it more eloquently than the others. In the 19th century it was symphonic music and the novel. For various technical and artistic reasons, film became that eloquent medium for the 20th century.

  Walter Murch

  Thinking, Age, Artistic

  Interview with Michael Wohl, www.peachpit.com. November 1, 2001.

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• If an eloquent speaker speak not the truth, is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?

  Thomas Carlyle

  Kind, Speak, Truth Is

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• The dinosaurs's eloquent lesson is that if some bigness is good, an overabundance of bigness is not necessarily better.

  Eric Johnston

  Food, Lessons, Dinosaurs

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• In an easy matter. Anybody can be eloquent.

  Ovid

  Matter, Easy, Conversation

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• There is no being eloquent for atheism. In that exhausted receiver the mind cannot use its wings, - the clearest proof that it is out of its element.

  Augustus Hare

  Wings, Mind, Atheism

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• My harmony is passable but is usually made more eloquent at the hands of Steve Hamilton.

  Bill Bruford

  Hands, Harmony, Made

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• It is feeling and force of imagination that make us eloquent.

  Martial

  Imagination, Feelings, Intuition

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• The talkative man speaks from his mouth, the eloquent man speaks from his heart.

  Joseph Joubert

  Heart, Men, Silence

  "The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert". Book by Joseph Joubert, translated by Paul Auster, 2005.

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• Eloquent speech is not from lip to ear, but rather from heart to heart.

  William Jennings Bryan

  Heart, Ears, Speech

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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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• It is not possible to be truly balanced in one's views of an abuser and an abused woman. As Dr. Judith Herman explains eloquently in her masterwork Trauma and Recovery, “neutrality” actually serves the interests of the perpetrator much more than those of the victim and so is not neutral. Although an abuser prefers to have you wholeheartedly on his side, he will settle contentedly for your decision to take a middle stance. To him, that means you see the couple's problems as partly her fault and partly his fault, which means it isn't abuse.

  Lundy Bancroft

  Couple, Women, Mean

  Lundy Bancroft (2003). “Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men”, p.287, Penguin

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• Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

  George Washington

  Freedom, War, Fire

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• He is an eloquent man who can treat humble subjects with delicacy, lofty things impressively, and moderate things temperately.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Humble, Men, Delicacy

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, De Oratore, XXIX, p. 219-20, 1922.

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• Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.

  Aldous Huxley

  Truth, Views, Silence

  Aldous Huxley (1950). “The Collected Works of Aldous Huxley: Brave new world”

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• No compliment can be eloquent, except as an expression of indifference.

  George Eliot

  Expression, Literature, Indifference

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.814, Delphi Classics

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• Silence is more eloquent than words.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Silence, Silence Is

  Thomas Carlyle, A.H.R. Ball (2014). “Selections from Carlyle”, p.53, Cambridge University Press

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• If only I was as eloquent as Demosthenes, I would have to do no more than repeat a single word three times.

  Johann Georg Hamann

  Three, Apocalyptic, Single Word

  "Briefwechsel". "Briefwechsel" by Johann Georg Hamann, 1955-1975.

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