Speech Quotes

• Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Inspirational, Cute, Sad

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• Watch your manner of speech if you wish to develop a peaceful state of mind. Start each day by affirming peaceful, contented and happy attitudes and your days will tend to be pleasant and successful.

  Norman Vincent Peale

  Love, Motivational, Family

  Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (2003). “The Power of Positive Thinking: 10 Traits for Maximum Results”, p.38, Simon and Schuster

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• The speech of my heart will be carried on in murmurings of a song.

  Rabindranath Tagore

  Song, Heart, Murmuring

  Rabindranath Tagore, William Radice (2011). “Gitanjali: Song Offerings”, p.6, Penguin Books India

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• People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Freedom, Thinking, People

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• You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart.

  John Ford

  Inspirational, Motivational, Honesty

  83 Copy quote

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

  Confucius

  Love, Inspirational, Funny

  Confucius “The Analects”, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

  Mark Twain

  Kindness, Book, Communication

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.520, Courier Corporation

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• Language is the dress of thought.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Learning, Thinking

  Lives of the English Poets "Cowley" (1779 - 1781)

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• All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Language, Prepared, Willing

  Robert Louis Stevenson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated)”, p.5302, Delphi Classics

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• I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.

  Xenocrates

  Inspirational, Witty, Powerful

  58 Copy quote

• In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

  George Orwell

  Time, Writing, Political Language

  George Orwell (1956). “The Orwell Reader: Fiction, Essays, and Reportage”, New York : Harcourt, Brace

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• Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Witty, Powerful, Humorous

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1839). “Proverbial philosophy: a book of thoughts and arguments”, p.149

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• Speak not at all, in any wise, till you have somewhat to speak; care not for the reward of your speaking, but simply and with undivided mind for the truth of your speaking.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Wise, Mind, Care

  Thomas Carlyle (1881). “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Collected and Republished”, p.47

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  The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Strength to Love (1963) ch. 3

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• Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Death, Hours, Dies

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• Speech is the mirror of the soul.

  Publilius Syrus

  Mirrors, Soul

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• When you make speeches you elicit expectations against which you will be held accountable.

  Bill Bradley

  Expectations

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• If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

  Noam Chomsky

  Inspirational, Relationship, Freedom

  Interview with John Pilger on BBC's "The Late Show", November 25, 1992.

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• There is nothing in the world like persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.

  Mark Twain

  Oratory, World, Persuasive

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.452, Courier Corporation

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• Speech and silence. We feel safer with a madman who talks than with one who cannot open his mouth.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Silence, Mouths, Madmen

  "The New Gods". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1969.

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• Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Communication, Power Of Speech, Good Sense

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2001). “The Later Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson: 1843 - 1871”, p.363, University of Georgia Press

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• To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.

  Frederick Douglass

  Patriotic, Rights, Freedom Of Speech

  Frederick Douglass (2013). “Selected Addresses of Frederick Douglass”, p.56, Simon and Schuster

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• Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.

  William Osler

  Wise, Science, Looks

  Sir William Osler, Mark E. Silverman, T. J. Murray, Charles S. Bryan, American College of Physicians--American Society of Internal Medicine (2003). “The Quotable Osler”, p.29, ACP Press

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• Speech is a mirror of the soul: as a man speaks, so is he.

  Publilius Syrus

  Men, Mirrors, Thought Provoking

  "The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave: From the Latin". Book by Darius Lyman. Maxim 1073, 1856.

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  Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.67, Beacon Press

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