Quotes About Eloquence

The right eloquence needs no bell to call the people together, and no constable to keep them. It draws the children from their play, the old from their arm-chairs, the invalid from his warm chamber: it holds the hearer fast; steals away his feet, that he shall not depart; his memory, that he shall not remember the most pressing affairs; his belief, that he shall not admit any opposing considerations.

There is a weird power in a spoken word.

You perceive the force of a word. He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense... Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world.

No eloquence could have been so withering to one's belief in mankind as his final burst of sincerity.

His picturesque and filthy loquacity flowed like a troubled stream from a poisoned source.

And in this case his great practice in it was assisted by hate, which, like love, has an eloquence of its own.

I could be eloquent were I not afraid you fellows had starved your imaginations to feed your bodies.

A man may be able, educated, refined, of unblemished character, nevertheless if he lack the power to express himself, put forth his views in good and appropriate speech he has to take a back seat, while some one with much less ability gets the opportunity to come to the front because he can clothe his ideas in ready words and talk effectively.

REQUIREMENTS OF SPEECH

big word or a foreign word when a small one and a familiar one will answer the same purpose, is a sign of ignorance. Great scholars and writers and polite speakers use simple words.

What engine is more powerful than the theatre? No arts can be made more effectual for the promotion of good than the dramatic and the histrionic. They unite music, poetry, painting, and eloquence. The engine is powerful for good or ill—it is for society to choose.

Mr. Henry had without a doubt the greatest power to persuade, [but] Mr. Madison had the great power to convince.

The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency.

I think every age has a medium that talks to it more eloquently than the others. In the 19th century it was symphonic music and the novel. For various technical and artistic reasons, film became that eloquent medium for the 20th century.

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.

There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm that is not to be doubted.

He never even talked of love; but there are modes of making it more eloquent than language, and which convey it subtilely and irresistibly to the heart. The beam of the eye, the tone of voice, the thousand tendernesses which emanate from every word and look and action - these form the true eloquence of love, and can always be felt and understood, but never described.

There are some causes sosacred as to carry with them an irresistible appeal to every virtuous bosom; and he needs but little power of eloquence, who defends the honour of his wife, his mother, or his country. I

No man not inspired can make a good speech without preparation

Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation ready. Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?

Talking is something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice.

La Rochefoucauld once said, "The most untutored person with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without.

Jive undertakes to remedy that situation with language that makes up for the dullness of mere existence.

[B]ut in literature, it should be remembered, a thing always becomes his at last who says it best, and thus makes it his own.