Quotes About Speech

Whether it be to friend or foe, talk not of other men's lives.

Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in few words.

Lying lips are abomination to the Lord.

Words want to be free!

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

In all labor there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.

A fool's mouth is his destruction.

The quantity of consonants in the English language is constant. If omitted in one place, they turn up in another. When a Bostonian "pahks" his "cah," the lost r's migrate southwest, causing a Texan to "warsh" his car and invest in "erl wells."

Thy speech bewrayeth thee.

A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue.

Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

A closed mouth gathers no feet.

May no portent of evil be attached to the words I say.

Some words can make or break a person, but they'll never forget the words that were spoken.

Whatever kind of word thou speakest the like shalt thou hear.

I thought that it was the most predictable speech that we could have heard from the right hon. and learned Gentleman. He may want to pose as the nice Dr. Jekyll, but we know that, deep down, he is still the same old Mr. Howard.

Do not speak unless you can improve on the silence.

when the hairy wildmen who lived there spoke, their words froze and their companions would have to wait for spring to hear what had been said.

Personally, I am always very nervous when I begin to speak. Every time I make a speech I feel I am submitting to judgment, not only about my ability but my character and honor. I am afraid of seeing either to promise more than I can perform, which suggests complete irresponsibility, or to perform less than I can, which suggests bad faith and indifference' (Cicero in Everitt, 58).

He addressed a large crowd and was warmly applauded.

Personally, I am always very nervous when I begin to speak. Every time I make a speech I feel I am submitting to judgment, not only about my ability but my character and honor. I am afraid of seeming either to promise more than I can perform, which suggests complete irresponsibility, or to perform less than I can, which suggests bad faith and indifference.

The statesman and moralist Cato the Censor defined an orator as "a good man skilled in speech.