Quotes
Quotes about Speech
Mend your speech a little,
Lest it may mar your fortunes.
Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
My very noble and approv'd good masters,
That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
It is most true; true, I have married her:
The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,
And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace:
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
Their dearest action in the tented field,
And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle,
And therefore little shall I grace my cause
In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,
I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver
Of my whole course of love.
It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that "The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired."
It is yet a higher speech of his than the other, "It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god."
In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world; as to say, "The world says," or "There is a speech abroad."
Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order.
Men's thoughts are much according to their inclination, their discourse and speeches according to their learning and infused opinions.
For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and to the next ages.
Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,
Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.
Gentle of speech, beneficent of mind.
The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.
Ward has no heart, they say, but I deny it:
He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it.
Babylon,
Learned and wise, hath perished utterly,
Nor leaves her speech one word to aid the sigh
That would lament her.
Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth,
When thought is speech, and speech is truth.
Shakespeare is not our poet, but the world's,--
Therefore on him no speech! And brief for thee,
Browning! Since Chaucer was alive and hale,
No man hath walk'd along our roads with steps
So active, so inquiring eye, or tongue
So varied in discourse.
The poetry of speech.
Silence is deep as Eternity, speech is shallow as Time.
Music is well said to be the speech of angels.
As the Swiss inscription says: Sprechen ist silbern, Schweigen ist golden,--"Speech is silvern, Silence is golden;" or, as I might rather express it, Speech is of Time, Silence is of Eternity.
It is the fate of a woman
Long to be patient and silent, to wait like a ghost that is speechless,
Till some questioning voice dissolves the spell of its silence.
The growing drama has outgrown such toys
Of simulated stature, face, and speech:
It also peradventure may outgrow
The simulation of the painted scene,
Boards, actors, prompters, gaslight, and costume,
And take for a worthier stage the soul itself,
Its shifting fancies and celestial lights,
With all its grand orchestral silences
To keep the pauses of its rhythmic sounds.
And Thought leapt out to wed with Thought
Ere Thought could wed itself with Speech.
Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.
Thought is deeper than all speech,
Feeling deeper than all thought;
Souls to souls can never teach
What unto themselves was taught.
Silence is the speech of love,
The music of the spheres above.
