Eloquence Quotes

A good orator is pointed and impassioned.

In oratory the greatest art is to hide art.

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

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

In Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves.

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

Give a wise man an honest brief to plead and his eloquence is no remarkable achievement.

Wisdom and eloquence are not always united.

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

As it is the mark of great minds to say many things in a few words, so it is that of little minds to use many words to say nothing.

Eloquence shows the power and possibility of man.

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

In Silence there is eloquence.

There is not only an art, but an eloquence in it.

He spoke with more eloquence than wisdom.

As the grace of man is in the mind, so the beauty of the mind is eloquence.

Eloquence: saying the proper thing and stopping.

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.

Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.

As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing.

One who has accumulated virtue will certainly also possess eloquence; but he who has eloquence doe not necessarily possess virtue.

By eloquence I understand those appeals to our moral perceptions that produce emotion as soon as they are uttered. This is the very enthusiasm that is the parent of poetry. Let the same man go to his closet and clothe in numbers conceptions full of the same fire and spirit, and they will be poetry.

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

The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.

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

They are eloquent who can speak low things acutely, and of great things with dignity, and of moderate things with temper.

True eloquence scorns eloquence.

Eloquence is the appropriate organ of the highest personal energy.

If you can say a thing with one stroke, unanswerably you have style; if not, you are at best a marchande de plaisir; a decorative litt

The most eloquent seems to stutter.

Their guilt made me eloquent because I was not its victim.

There is no eloquence without a man behind it.

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

Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.

Eloquence is a painting of thought; and thus those who, after having painted it, add something more, make a picture instead of a portrait.

Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind.

One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say.

E? loquence quipersuade par douceur, non par empire, en tyran, non en roi. Eloquence should persuade gently, not by force or like a tyrant or king.

There should be in eloquence that which is pleasing and that which is real; but that which is pleasing should itself be real.

No one can speak well, unless he thoroughly understands his subject.

No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are orators, politicians, and eloquent men, by the thousand; but the speaker has not yet opened his mouth to speak who is capable of settling the much-vexed questions of the day. We love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any truth which it may utter, or any heroism it may inspire. Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of free trade and of freedom, of union, and of rectitude, to a nation.

It has seemed to be more necessary to have regard to the weight of words rather than to their number.

Every man is eloquent once in his life.

Eloquence is a way of saying things in such a way, first, that those to whom we speak may listen to them without pain and with pleasure, and second, that they feel themselves interested, so that self-love leads them more willingly to reflection upon it.

However much we admire the orator's occasional bursts of eloquence, the noblest written words are commonly as far behind or abovethe fleeting spoken language as the firmament with its stars is behind the clouds.

Eloquence; it requires the pleasant and the real; but the pleasant must itself be drawn from the true.

Continued eloquence is wearisome.

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.

As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.

The right eloquence needs no bell to call the people together, and no constable to keep them.

Continuous eloquence wearies. Grandeur must be abandoned to be appreciated. Continuity in everything is unpleasant. Cold is agreeable, that we may get warm.

Neither can embellishments of language be found without arrangement and expression of thoughts, nor can thoughts be made to shine without the light of language.

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.

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.

The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter and a scarcity of words; for whosoever is a master of language, and hath a mind full of ideas, will be apt, in speaking, to hesitate upon the choice of both.

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

No orator can top the one who can give good nicknames.

He is an eloquent man who can treat humble subjects with delicacy, lofty things impressively, and moderate things temperately.

For just as some women are said to be handsome though without adornment, so this subtle manner of speech, though lacking in artificial graces, delights us.

And how moving is the eloquence of the untaught when it is the heart that is speaking!