Public speaking

"In the tradition of popular oratory, Trash [a nickname] started a talk at random, moved confidently ahead in no particular direction, and, although he spoke very clearly, said nothing."

"LECTURER, n. One with his hand in your pocket, his tongue in your ear and his faith in your patience."

"ORATORY, n. A conspiracy between speech and action to cheat the understanding. A tyranny tempered by stenography."

"For rhetoric, he could not open His mouth, but out there flew a trope."

"Poetry, unlike oratory, should not aim at clarity... but be dense with meaning, 'something to be chewed and digested'..."

"He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone."

"We fear that the glittering generalities of the speaker have left an impression more delightful than permanent."

"There is no true orator who is not a hero."

"Intererit multum Davusne loquatur an heros."

"Thence to the famous orators repair, Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook the Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece, To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne."

"Very good orators, when they are out, they will spit."

"Be not thy tongue thy own shame's orator."

"List his discourse of war, and you shall hear A fearful battle render'd you in music."

"What means this passionate discourse, This peroration with such circumstance?"

"I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts: I am no orator, as Brutus is; * * I only speak right on."

"Fear not, my lord, I'll play the orator As if the golden fee for which I plead Were for myself."

"Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear, Or, like a fairy, trip upon the green."

"Charm us, orator, till the lion look no larger than the cat."

"There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practised in the tricks and delusions of oratory."

"When a great orator makes a great speech you are listening to ten centuries and ten thousand men — but we call it his speech, and really some exceedingly small portion of it is his. But not enough to signify. It is merely a Waterloo. It is Wellington's battle, in some degree, and we call it his; but there are others that contributed. It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other important thing—and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite — that is all he did. These object lessons should teach us that ninety-nine parts of all things that proceed from the intellect are plagiarisms, pure and simple; and the lesson ought to make us modest. But nothing can do that."

"Solon wished everybody to be ready to take everybody else's part; but surely Chilo was wiser in holding that public affairs go best when the laws have much attention and the orators none."

"Ce que l'on conceit bien s'énonce clairement, Et les mots pour le dire arrivent aisément."

"The Orator persuades and carries all with him, he knows not how; the Rhetorician can prove that he ought to have persuaded and carried all with him."

"Its Constitution—the glittering and sounding generalities of natural right which make up the Declaration of Independence."

"I asked of my dear friend Orator Prig: "What's the first part of oratory?" He said, "A great, wig." "And what is the second?" Then, dancing a jig And bowing profoundly, he said, "A great wig." "And what is the third?" Then he snored like a pig, And puffing his cheeks out, he replied, "A great wig.""

"Glittering generalities! They are blazing ubiquities."

"You'd scarce expect one of my age To speak in public on the stage; And if I chance to fall below Demosthenes or Cicero, Don't view me with a critic's eye, But pass my imperfections by. Large streams from little fountains flow, Tall oaks from little acorns grow."

"Allein der Vortrag macht des Redners Glück, Ich fühl es wohl noch bin ich weit zurück."

"Es trägt Verstand und rechter Sinn, Mit wenig Kunst sich selber vor."

"The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it."

"The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion."

"The capital of the orator is in the bank of the highest sentimentalities and the purest enthusiasms."

"Præterea multo magis, ut vulgo dicitur viva vox afficit: nam licet acriora sint, quæ legas, ultius tamen in ammo sedent, quæ pronuntiatio, vultus, habitus, gestus dicentis adfigit."

"When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of Oratory, he answered, "Action," and which was the second, he replied, "Action," and which was the third, he still answered "Action.""

"It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration,—nay, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome."

"Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand, They rave, recite, and madden round the land."

"I was very glad that Mr. Attlee described my speeches in the war as expressing the will not only of Parliament but of the whole nation. Their will was resolute and remorseless and, as it proved, unconquerable. It fell to me to express it, and if I found the right words you must remember that I have always earned my living by my pen and by my tongue. It was a nation and race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar."

"One woman who managed to corner him, the story runs, said in a treacly gushing voice: "Doesn't it thrill you, Mr. Churchill, to know that every time you make a speech the hall is packed to overflowing?" "It is quite flattering", Mr. Churchill replied, "but whenever I feel this way I always remember that if instead of making a political speech I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big"."

"When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck."

"Then there was a maiden speech, so inaudible, that it was doubted whether, after all, the young orator really did lose his virginity."

"It is reputed that Mr. Disraeli when he was once asked by a new member whether he advised him to take part often in debate replied:— No, I do not think you ought to do so, because it is much better that the House should wonder why you do not speak than why you do. My advice in this matter is very much the same as that given by Mr. Disraeli; it is much better when a member resumes his seat after he has made a speech for the House to have the feeling that they wish he had gone on longer instead of wondering why he did not stop sooner."

"It is amazing how soon one becomes accustomed to the sound of one's voice, when forced to repeat a speech five or six times a day. As election day approaches, the size of the crowds grows; they are more responsive and more interested; and one derives a certain exhilaration from that which, only a few weeks before, was intensely painful. This is one possible explanation of unlimited debate in the Senate."

"Every living sentence which shows a mind at work for itself is to be welcomed. It is not the first use but the tiresome repetition of inadequate catch words which I am observing—phrases which originally were contributions, but which, by their very felicity, delay further analysis for fifty years. That comes from the same source as dislike of novelty—intellectual indolence or weakness—a slackening in the eternal pursuit of the more exact."

"The art of reasoning becomes of first importance. In this line antiquity has left us the finest models for imitation;… I should consider the speeches of Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus, as pre-eminent specimens of logic, taste, and that sententious brevity which, using not a word to spare, leaves not a moment for inattention to the hearer. Amplification is the vice of modern oratory."

"Also the two-edged tongue of mighty Zeno, who, Say what one would, could argue it untrue."

"Middle-aged clubwoman, with a flutter in her voice: "Oh, Mr. Stevenson, your speech was superfluous". "Thank you, madam. I've been thinking of having it published posthumously". "Oh, won't that be nice. The sooner the better"."

"When the mariner has been tossed for many days in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence, and, before we float farther on the waves of this debate, refer to the point from which we departed, that we may at least be able to conjecture where we now are."

"It was a bit of campaign oratory."

"A member of the Cabinet congratulated Wilson on introducing the vogue of short speeches and asked him about the time it took him to prepare his speeches. He said: "It depends. If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now"."