Eloquence Quotes

“Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you, trippingly on the tongue.”

“Delivers in such apt and gracious words that aged ears play truant at his tales; And younger hearings are quite ravished; So sweet and voluble is his discourse.”

“The orator is thereby an orator that keeps his feet ever on a fact.”

“Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest narrative. Afterwards, it may warm itself until it exhales symbols of every kind and color, speaks only through the most poetic forms; but first and last, it must still be at bottom a biblical statement of fact.”

“Eloquence shows the power and possibility of man. There is one of whom we took no note, but on a certain occasion it appears that he has a secret virtue never suspected - that he can paint what has occurred and what must occur, with such clearness to a company, as if they saw it done before their eyes. By leading their thought he leads their will, and can make them do gladly what an hour ago they would not believe that they could be led to do at all.”

“You have witchcraft in your lips, there is more eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the tongues of the French council; and they should sooner persuade Harry of England than a general petition of monarchs.”

“It is the doctrine of the popular music-masters, that whoever can speak can sing. So, probably, every man is eloquent once in his life. Our temperaments differ in capacity of heat, or”

“If you want me to speak for two minutes, it will take me three weeks of preparation. If you want me to speak for thirty minutes, it will take me a week to prepare. If you want me to speak for an hour, I am ready now.”

“In the modesty of fearful duty, I read as much as from the rattling tongue of saucy and audacious eloquence.”

“Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest narrative.”

“It the proof of high culture to say the greatest matters in the simplest way.”

“He spoke with more eloquence than wisdom.”

“I am sorry to have made such a long speech, but I did not have time to write a shorter one.”

“Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory. He who enjoys it wields a power more durable than that of a great king. He is an independent force in the world.”

“Every man is eloquent once in his life.”

“It was my ambition all of my life to be master of the spoken word.”

“In such business Action is eloquence, and the eyes of th’ ignorant More learned than the ears.”

“Earnestness is the salt of eloquence.”

“There is no eloquence without a man behind it.”

“Wisdom and eloquence are not always united.”

“Eloquence is the appropriate organ of the highest personal energy.”

“The subject is said to have the property of making dull men eloquent.”

“One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say.”

“One of our statesmen said, "The curse of this country is eloquent men."”

“Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.”