Speech Quotes

Naturally, I always place my word over anyone else's simply because I know why I said what I said.

~ Criss Jami

The topic was eloquence, something Christians had been conflicted about since the first-century church when Paul wrote that in bringing the gospel, he did not come with “eloquence.” A few centuries later, Saint Augustine wrestled with the value of eloquence, associating it with his pagan background and training in Greek rhetoric while simultaneously employing it winsomely in his Christian writings. Such suspicion of beauty and form, whether in art, literature, speech, or human flesh, has shadowed Christian thought throughout the history of the church; sadly so, considering God is the author of all beauty.

~ Karen Swallow Prior

Literature shrivels in a universal language, and an uprooted language rots before it dies. And it should be possible to lift the eyes above the cant of the ‘language of Shakespeare’... sufficiently to realise the magnitude of the loss to humanity that the world-dominance of any one language now spoken would entail: no language has ever possessed but a small fraction of the varied excellences of human speech, and each language represents a different vision of life ...

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

My father always said that too many words cheapened the value of a man's speech.

~ Patricia Briggs

Words', he said, 'is oh such a twitch-tickling problem to me all my life. So you must simply try to be patient and stop squibbling. As I am telling you before, I know exactly what words I am wanting to say, but somehow or other they is always getting squiff-squiddled around.

~ Roald Dahl

The thing he said aloud did not succeed.

~ Tony Burgess

Sometimes you take all my words away from me.

~ Amie Kaufman

A single word can brighten the faceof one who knows the value of words.Ripened in silence, a single wordacquires a great energy for work.War is cut short by a word,and a word heals the wounds,and there’s a word that changespoison into butterand honey.Let a word mature inside yourself.Withhold the unripened thought.Come and understand the kind of wordthat reduces money and riches to dust.Know when to speak a wordand when not to speak at all.A single word turns the universe of hellinto eight paradises.Follow the Way. Don’t be fooledby what you already know. Be watchful.Reflect before you speak.A foolish mouth can brand your soul.Yunus, say one last thingabout the power of words –Only the word “I”divides me from God.

~ Yunus Emre

It's the words we whisper to ourselves that make us who we are.

~ Marty Rubin

Naming enables the noble-minded to speak, and speech enables the noble-minded to act. Therefore, the noble-minded are anything but careless in speech.

~ Confucius

speech to him was a task, a battle, words mustered behind his beard and issued one at a time, heavy and square like tanks.

~ Margaret Atwood

When we were leaving London, Dad spent about an hour trying to push his wardrobe through the bedroom door. He turned it on its side. He tried it upside down. He tilted it one way and then the other but it just would not fit. Words like Mum and Affair and Dad and Drinking were just like that wardrobe--too big to get out. No matter what I did, I couldn't fit them through the space between my teeth.

~ Annabel Pitcher

Prince's words had not been meant as a warning. Rather, he had been playing. He had been pretending. He had been speaking for speaking's sake. Could there be a more despicable use for words?

~ André Alexis

Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it

~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Rules for navigating the net, Or people will roll their eye Lest you can't roll the R rect: Literally, don´t dink and dive!

~ Ana Claudia Antunes

In many a case, the phrase ‘I’d like to get to know you better’ is a euphemism for ‘I want us to fuck.

~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Don't confuse pressure with pleasure. For some people its not sure if they are having a seizure or ceasure

~ Ana Claudia Antunes

Lonnie's monotonous speech gives him an advantage, the same advantage foreigners have: his words are not worn out. It is like a code tapped through a wall. Sometimes he asks me straight out: do you love me? and it is possible to tap back: yes, I love you.

~ Walker Percy

I try to think of things to say but nothing comes, and if something did come I probably couldn't say it. This is my great obstacle, the biggest of all the boulders littering my path. In my mind I am eloquent; I can climb intricate scaffolds of words to reach the highest cathedral ceilings and paint my thoughts. But when I open my mouth, it all collapses.

~ Isaac Marion

No words would ever be more powerful than the presence of a friend.

~ Rachel L. Schade

When you have the grace speak, declare sacred-utterances.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Write like you speak with the 'rhythms of human speech,' as William Zinsser said, and in as few words as possible. Use action verbs to carry water.

~ Sandra E. Lamb

... she had uttered these words simply in order to provoke a reply in certain other words, which she seemed, indeed, to wish to hear spoken, but, from prudence, would let her friend be the first to speak.

~ Marcel Proust

Just as the earth that bears the man who tills and digs it, to bear those who speak ill of them, is a quality of the highest respect.

~ Thiruvalluvar

Uttering foul words, while there are the sweetest of words, is like going for the unripe fruits while there are a lot of ripe ones.

~ Thiruvalluvar

A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech, he will measure every word.

~ Hafiz

Not everything needs to be said. The silences, the words that aren’t spoken, lead us to the questions we should be asking.

~ David Powning

There are words, which should leave unspoken, and the true value of a man lies in the words the he has for not saying.

~ Alireza Salehi Nejad

Where the bodily presence is weak and the speech contemptible, surely there cannot be error in making written language the medium of better utterance than faltering lips can achieve?

~ Charlotte Brontë

Anyone that says his mind will be probably regarded a fool, but the true artist is not moved by the comments about the looks of his painting or remarks that are dreadfully sarcastic, but hearken now! That he who says what others want to hear hasn't said anything of his own.

~ Michael Bassey Johnson

Talk to strangers politely. You don’t how many of them will become your close companions.

~ Israelmore Ayivor

Display politeness and frankness always both in action and conversation. Don’t keep engaging in useless arguments. It scares your dreams away. Talk sensibly.

~ Israelmore Ayivor

If you are tempted to revealA tale to you someone has toldAbout another, make it pass,Before you speak, three gates of gold;These narrow gates. First, Is it true?Then, Is it needful? In your mindGive truthful answer. And the nextIs last and narrowest, Is it kind?And if to reach your lips at lastIt passes through these gateways three,Then you may tell the tale, nor fearWhat the result of speech may be.

~ Beth Day

A man's words reveal, first, the man. The words are not the man, and yet they reveal him faithfully and are to be identified with him. Out of the abundance of the heart, the man speaks. The foundational nature of all language is therefore metaphorical because every word a man speaks reveals himself—just as God reveals Himself through the Word. Every word spoken ultimately reveals the speaker.

~ N.d. Wilson

Words alone can effect great good as well as evil. A few apt words have swept candidates into office, ended as well as started wars, paved the way for peace and carried with them both hope as well as despair. Words alone have ruined lives, but have also brought forth healing. It is well known the harm words can cause, but the good they can bring is equally impressive.

~ Steve Goodier

Words can express true feelings, true emotions and wisdom. It is up to you to use them wisely... Choose your words carefully and express the peacefully!

~ Israelmore Ayivor

A deaf and dumb in the mist of morons is a renowed talkative among brains.

~ Michael Bassey Johnson

Home. The word circled comfortably in my mouth like bubble gum, swished around sweetly soft and satisfying. Home. Try saying it aloud to yourself. Home. Isn’t it like taking a bite of something lovely? If only we could eat words.

~ Sol Luckman

Focus your attention on the quality of your words, and not the quantity, because few sensible talks attracts millions of listeners more than a thousand gibberish.

~ Michael Bassey Johnson

Utterances of cursed language defiles the hearts and souls of man and many.

~ T.f. Hodge