Speech - Quotes

A speech is a solemn responsibility. The man who makes a bad thirty-minute speech to two hundred people wastes only a half hour of his own time. But he wastes one hundred hours of the audience’s time – more than four days – which should be a hanging offence. - Unknown

All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action. -Demosthenes

Always speak politely to an enraged dragon. - Steven Brust

As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be cracked or not; so men are proved, by their speeches, whether they be wise or foolish. -Demosthenes

Austerity of speech consists in speaking truthfully and beneficially and in avoiding speech that offends. - Bhagavad Gita 

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order. - Francis Bacon

Do not speak unless you can improve on the silence. - Unknown

Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer. - Barbara Kingsolver

For every time we regret keeping our tongue still there are about ten times we regret speaking up. - Unknown

For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn't have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking. - Stephen Hawking

He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good. - Confucius

If nobody said anything unless he knew what he was talking about, a ghastly hush would descend upon the earth. - Sir Alan Patrick Herbert

If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all. - Aesop

Let us say what we feel, and feel what we say; let speech harmonize with life. - Seneca

No one would speak much in society if he were aware how often we misunderstand others. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

None of us can ever express the exact measure of our needs, or our ideas, or our sorrows, and human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, when we long to inspire pity in the stars. - Gustave Flaubert

Not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. - George Sala

Of those who say nothing, few are silent. - Unknown

People may or may not say what they mean… but they always say something designed to get what they want. - David Mamet

People only speak to get something. If I say, Let me tell you a few things about myself, already your defences go up; you go, Look, I wonder what he wants from me, because no one ever speaks except to obtain an objective. That's the only reason anyone ever opens their mouth, onstage or offstage. They may use a language that seems revealing, but if so, it's just coincidence, because what they're trying to do is accomplish an objective. - David Mamet

Speak not harshly to anyone; Those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way. Painful indeed is language violent; Blow for blow will pursue thee. - The Buddha

Speak what you think today in words as hard as cannon-balls, and tomorrow speak what you think in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Speak when you’re angry, and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret. - Ambrose Bierce

Speaking much is a sign of vanity; for he that is lavish in words is a niggard in deed. - Sir Walter Ralegh

Speaking without mindfulness is dangerous. Therefore we must reflect on our intentions and formulations both before and while we are speaking, and not talk too much. - Dagyab Rinpoche

Speaking without thinking is shooting without aim. - Unknown

Speech is a mirror of the soul: as a man speaks, so is he. - Publilius Syrus

Speech is a rolling press that always amplifies one's emotions. - Gustave Flaubert

Speech is hard, but who can keep quiet? - Unknown

Speech is like the colour of a flower and silence like its fragrance. - Unknown

Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts. - Voltaire 

The most noble and profitable invention of all other, was that of speech, consisting of names or appellations, and their connections; whereby men register their thoughts; recall them when they are past; and also declare them one to another for mutual utility and conversation; without which, there had been amongst men, neither commonwealth, nor society, nor contract, nor peace, no more than amongst lions, bears, and wolves. - Thomas Hobbes

The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them. - Oliver Goldsmith

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent. - Unknown

The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people’s minds. - Walter Bagehot

Three things matter in a speech: who says it, how he says it, and what he says, and of the three, the last matters least. - Unknown

To say little is often to tell more than to say a great deal. - Unknown

To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy. - Will Durant

We have two ears and only one tongue in order that we may hear more and speak less. - Diogenes

When you have nothing to say, say nothing. One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say. - Unknown

Where the speech is corrupted, the mind is also. - Seneca