Fluency Quotes

• Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Philosophical, Admiration, Speak

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• A man may lack everything but tact and conviction and still be a forcible speaker; but without these nothing will avail... Fluency, grace, logical order, and the like, are merely the decorative surface of oratory.

  Charles Horton Cooley

  Men, Order, Grace

  Charles Horton Cooley (1964). “Human Nature and the Social Order”, p.335, Transaction Publishers

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• Felicity, not fluency of language, is a merit.

  Edwin Percy Whipple

  Happiness, Merit, Language

  Edwin Percy Whipple (1851). “Essays and Reviews”, p.60

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• When you grow up in a family of languages, you develop a kind of casual fluency, so that languages, though differently colored, all seem transparent to experience.

  David Antin

  Growing Up, Language, Kind

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• If the quickness of the mind and the fluency of the tongue are too punctilious and sharp, moderate them in your activity and rest.

  Xunzi

  Mind, Tongue, Quickness

  Xunzi, John Knoblock (1988). “Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works”, p.153, Stanford University Press

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• I also had this mistaken dream, fantasy really - perhaps because I'm good at languages - of being able in both Italy and France to become someone else through my fluency in the language.

  Harry Mathews

  Dream, Able, France

  "Agent Provocateur: Harry Matthews with Johannah Rogers". The Brooklyn Rail Interview, brooklynrail.org. June 1, 2005.

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• One truth discovered, one pang of regret at not being able to express it, is better than all the fluency and flippancy in the world.

  William Hazlitt

  Truth, Regret, World

  William Hazlitt, Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, Charles Lamb (1836). “Literary Remains of the Late William Hazlitt: With Notice of His Life”, p.284

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• I have never been particularly good with languages. Despite a dozen years of Hebrew school and a lifetime of praying in the language, I'm ashamed to admit that I still can't read an Israeli newspaper. Besides English, the only language I speak with any degree of fluency is Spanish.

  Joshua Foer

  School, Years, Dozen

  "How I learned a language in 22 hours" by Joshua Foer, www.theguardian.com. November 9, 2012.

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• The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.

  Dr. Seuss

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

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• Fluency avoids hard thoughts.

  Mason Cooley

  Eloquence, Hard

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• Fluency in English is something that I'm often not accused of.

  George H. W. Bush

  Accused

  Toasts at the State Dinner for Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, www.presidency.ucsb.edu. June 6, 1989.

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• As the child approaches a new text he is entitled to an introduction so that when he reads, the gist of the... story can provide some guide for a fluent reading.

  Marie Clay

  Children, Reading, Gist

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• She wanted to hold foreign syllables like mints on her tongue until they dissolved into fluency.

  Anthony Marra

  Tongue, Mint, Wanted

  Anthony Marra (2013). “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena”, p.350, Random House

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• When I wrote 'The Giver,' it contained no so-called 'bad words.' It was set, after all, in a mythical, futuristic, and Utopian society. Not only was there no poverty, divorce, racism, sexism, pollution, or violence in the world of 'The Giver'; there was also careful attention paid to language: to its fluency, precision, and power.

  Lois Lowry

  Divorce, Racism, Attention

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• The pupil is ... 'schooled' to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new.

  Ivan Illich

  Teaching, Learning, Advancement

  Ivan Illich (1970). “The Dawn of Epimethean Man, and Other Essays”

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• Age is information failure. The body loses fluency.

  Jeanette Winterson

  Age, Body, Information

  Jeanette Winterson (2013). “The Stone Gods”, p.13, Penguin UK

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• The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter and a scarcity of words; for whosoever is a master of language, and hath a mind full of ideas, will be apt, in speaking, to hesitate upon the choice of both.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Talking, Ideas

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• The greatest gift is a passion for reading.

  Elizabeth Hardwick

  Book, Reading, Passion

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• Because as tough as things have been, I am convinced you are tougher. I've seen your passion and I've seen your service... I've seen a generation eager, impatient even, to step into the rushing waters of history and change its course.

  Barack Obama

  Graduation, Passion, Rushing

  President Barack Obama's remarks at Barnard College Commencement Ceremony in Columbia University, New York, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. May 14, 2012.

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• As tough as things have been, I am convinced you are tougher. I've seen your passion and I've seen your service. I've seen you engage and I've seen you turn out in record numbers. I've heard your voices amplified by creativity and a digital fluency that those of us in older generations can barely comprehend. I've seen a generation eager, impatient even, to step into the rushing waters of history and change its course.

  Barack Obama

  Inspiring, Graduation, Passion

  Remarks by the President at Barnard College Commencement Ceremony, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. May 14, 2012.

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• Busy as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.

  Stephen King

  Men, Kicking, Ladybugs

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• And your very flesh shall be a great poem.

  Walt Whitman

  Leaves Of Grass, Flesh, Alms

  Walt Whitman (2013). “Leaves of Grass”, p.8, Simon and Schuster

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• It may sound paradoxical, but verbal fluency is the product of many hours spent writing about nothing, just as musical fluency is the product of hours spent repeating scales.

  Stanley Fish

  Writing, Musical, Sound

  "How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One". Book by Stanley Fish, 2011.

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• Muscles without strength, friendship without trust, opinion without risk, change without aesthetics, age without values, food without nourishment, power without fairness, facts without rigor, degrees without erudition, militarism without fortitude, progress without civilization, complication without depth, fluency without content; these are the sins to remember.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Civilization, Risk, Progress

  FaceBook post by Nassim Nicholas Taleb from Aug 11, 2014

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• Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body.

  Walt Whitman

  Book, School, Eye

  Walt Whitman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Walt Whitman (Illustrated)”, p.20, Delphi Classics

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