Quotes About Oratory

Speech finely framed delighteth the ears.

In the past, great communicators were great orators, but great communicators today sound conversational, and interrupting is common in conversation. And public discourse is now more about entertainment than enlightenment.

Preachers love only their own voices.

A person who lacks own oratory skill but has got clout in the political circle can still be easily hired as a trainer by the top institution or corporate organization to teach the communication skill to the people.

Dolly Blount Lamar of Macon, Georgia, remembered as a little girl spending Sunday afternoons in the local graveyard with her father who "would read [her] the tombstone inscriptions and discourse on the dead with considerable pomp and oratory."13

His students were intended to become a caste of capable citizens and inspired political leaders, men who were, as he hoped, "fit for the management of public and private business."36 Above all, he wished to create what he called the vir bonus dicendi peritus, the "good man skilled in speaking"37—someone who was both articulate and virtuous, and who used his oratorical powers for the good of his society.

It is easy to raise a laugh, but dangerous, for it is the greatest test of an orator's control of his audience to be able to land them again on the solid earth of sober thinking.

Finally, an orator must have a keen mind capable of remembering a vast array of relevant precedents and examples from history, along with a thorough knowledge of the law and civil statutes.

Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.

Commencement oratory must eschew anything that smacks of partisan politics, political preference, sex, religion or unduly firm opinion. Nonetheless, there must be a speech: Speeches in our culture are the vacuum that fills a vacuum.

not by the force of arguments and opposition, but by the intricacy of the words

a sea of matter in a drop of language" was regarded as the perfection of oratory.

The individual who pretends to act for such noble ends and who masters such admirable oratory counts in his own eyes as an excellent creature – he gives himself and others a swelled head, although the swelling is only due to self-important puffery.

Oratory is the masterful art. Poetry, painting, music, sculpture, architecture please, thrill, inspire - but oratory rules. The orator dominates those who hear him, convinces their reason, controls their judgment, compels their action. For the time being, he is master.

It's easy to repeat; it's hard to speak

And I think that when once he had learned the art of arranging his words as he stood upon his legs, and had so mastered his voice as to have obtained the ear of the House, the work of his life was not difficult.

Strep. Then what shall I gain, pray? Soc. You shall become in oratory a tricky knave, a thorough rattle, a subtle speaker.

logographos, a writer of speeches for others to use

Being a man given to oratory and high principles, he enjoyed the sound of his own vocabulary and the warmth of his own virtue.

I must say I'm not very fond of oratory that's so full of energy it hasn't any room for facts.

Be a great speaker, become a leader.

Talent for oratory can simulate the need for action and even thought.

The art of oratory was considered part of the equipment of a statesman.

The politicians were talking themselves red, white and blue in the face.