Quotes About Speech

I watch and listen to movies today and am shocked by the way actors deliver their lines. Everybody mumbles now and I don't understand why.

Criticism in a time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government.

I want to fight the McCarthyist state that's developing in this country so my kids won't live in a world where people are afraid to speak out.

You know I am an actor, and I have medals for diction.

The First Amendment rejects red tape, cover-up and double-speak.

When I listen to President Obama speak to and about women, he sometimes sounds too paternalistic for my taste.

Mos Def is a name that I built and cultivated over the years. It's a name that the streets taught me, a figure of speech that was given to me by the culture and by my environment.

President Obama always gives lip service to lowering the corporate tax rate, but he never specifies a particular rate or an overall plan.

The New York Times editorial page is like a Ouija board that has only three answers, no matter what the question. The answers are: higher taxes, more restrictions on political speech and stricter gun control.

Speech lessons probably did more for my singing voice - they teach you breathing, resonance.

There is no real teacher who in practice does not believe in the existence of the soul, or in a magic that acts on it through speech.

I was in a number of school plays, one in particular, when I was 13 or 14, entitled 'Illusions.' It was put together by one of the teachers, and was about famous historical figures. I had to do the Martin Luther King 'I have a dream' speech, and some black women in the audience were clapping and crying and whooping.

You've got a lot to say for a drunk guy.

And this is a free country. I'll say what I please to whomever I like.

the rights of free speech and free press do not carry with them the right to advocate the destruction of the very government which protects the freedom of an individual to express his views.

I'm always told that what I say is controversial. Why is it controversial? Because I speak from a tradition that has now fallen out of favor with the dominant media in this country. And so when I say things like marriage should be between one man and one woman, I'm called a bigot.

You can't censor stupidity.

I believe the greatest privilege in this world is to use your freedom of speech for those who have no voice.

Over time "Pikers" became accepted as a term that referred to people who were slow of speech, plodding, and not ambitious in business.

You can always tell the character of a person, by what they say about others who are not present.

Your legacy among family and friends shall resemble a blank page while you remain silent when others threaten our constitutional values.

I was too scared to talk, but I was more scared to not talk.

During the days that followed our return, we were all, I think, seized by a veritable delirium. We wished to speak, to be heard at last. And yet, it was impossible. We had hardly begun to speak and we were choking.

the main purpose of speech is to direct listeners' attention to a selected sector of reality. Once that is accomplished, the listeners' existing associations to the now-spotlighted sector will take over to determine the reaction. For