Quotes About Eloquence

We need a president who's fluent in at least one language.

I believe in form and the manner of what you say being as important as the content of what you say.

Panurge stood beside the galley with an oar in his hand, not to help the herdsmen but to prevent from from somehow clambering aboard and thus escaping their death, and all the while preached to them eloquently . . . with rhetorical flourishes about the miseries of this world and the blessings of the next, affirming that those who had passed on to that place were happier than those who lived on in this vale of tears.

He was a big talker, someone who liked words for words' sake, the sound of them, the way you can pile them up in your mouth and make a poem if you speill them out the right way. p92

They don't make people like Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley anymore.

Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.

Language is wine upon the lips.

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.

Though he recognized that there were many qualities of a successful lawyer, he believed this one virtue trumped all others. "However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech.

The last year of Cicero's life, full of glory and eloquence no doubt, was ruinous to the Roman People.

If you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?

How on earth does she make the English language float and float?

Que isto de método, sendo, como é, uma coisa indispensável, todavia é melhor tê-lo sem gravata nem suspensórios, mas um pouco à fresca e à solta, como quem não se lhe dá da vizinha fronteira, nem do inspetor de quarteirão. É como a eloquência, que há uma genuína e vibrante, de uma arte natural e feiticeira, e outra tesa, engomada e chocha.

I love anything that is going to make language richer and stronger. But when words are used in a way that is going to weaken language, it has nothing to do with the beautiful way that they can wriggle and wiggle and develop and enrich our speech, but instead it is impoverishing, diminishing. If our language is watered down, then mankind becomes less human, and less free—though we may buy more of the product.

The particular skill that allows you to talk your way out of a murder rap, or convince your professor to move you from the morning to the afternoon section, is what psychologist Robert Sternberg calls 'practical intelligence'. To Sternberg, 'practical intelligence' includes things like: knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect.

Have the mind of a swam, the heart of a lion, the tongue of a serpent, the flair of a swam, and the soul of a dove.

Have the mind of a fox, the heart of a lion, the tongue of a serpent, the flair of a swan, and the soul of a dove.

My grandmother was an English teacher for a while. And she stressed to me the importance of reading, being able to articulate well.

a person bound to the facts can never hope to best the rabble-rouser in the arena.

Addison writes with the ease of a gentleman. His readers fancy that a wise and accomplished companion is talking to them; so that he insinuates his sentiments and taste into their minds by an imperceptible influence. Johnson writes like a teacher. He dictates to his readers as if from an academical chair. They attend with awe and admiration; and his precepts are impressed upon them by his commanding eloquence.

For pronunciation the best general rule is, to consider those as the most elegant speakers who deviate least from the written words.

poetry: the best words in the best order." — Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Sus palabras, como la música, tenían el potencial de ser infinitas.

Oh yes, I got up on my hindlegs like an orator and sounded off to everyone.