Oratory Quotes
Most popular oratory quotes
The object of oratory is not truth, but persuasion.
Speech is power; speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.
Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.
Once you get them laughing and their mouths open, you can stuff anything in.
There are some people who speak well but write badly. A reason, the audience and the situation stimulate them to draw from their minds more than they could think of without such a challenge.
In oratory the greatest art is to hide the art.
What oratory lacks in depth it makes up in length.
Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.
I have never failed to convince an audience that the best thing they could do was to go away.
My father gave me three hints in public speaking: be sincere, be brief and be seated.
The man with power but no conscience could, with an eloquent tongue, put the whole country into flames.
Speakers are most vehement when their cause is weak.
A speech is like a love affair. Any fool can start it, but to end it requires considerable skill.
If you haven't struck oil in the first three minutes, stop boring.
To endeavor to move by the same discourse hearers who differ in age, sex, position and education, is to attempt to open all locks with the same key.
Why doesn't the fellow who says "I'm no speechmaker" let it go at that instead of giving a demonstration?
A good indignation makes an excellent speech.
All great speakers were bad speakers at first.
Before I speak, I have something important to say.
A speech is like an airplane engine. It may sound like hell but you've got to go on.
The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.
You can't go wrong if you think of the first two minutes of your speech as an audition. It's a 120-second sample that has to convince your listeners that the remaining 20 minutes are worth their time and attention.
Most public speakers talk so badly that a sudden quotation from a poet appears in their babble like a lady in a slum.
If you haven't struck oil in five minutes, stop boring!
I saw what seemed a mere shrimp mount upon the table, but, as I listened, he grew and grew until the shrimp became a whale.
Oratory, n. A conspiracy between speech and action to cheat the understanding.
The orator must be, to some extent, a poet. We are such imaginative creatures that nothing so works on the human mind, barbarous or civil, as a trope.
The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.
What orators lack in profundity, they will give you in length.
Oratory is just like prostitution: you must have little tricks.
In oratory, the greatest art is to hide art.
Some of the greatest and most lasting effects of genuine oratory have gone forth from secluded lecture desks into the hearts of quiet groups of students.
In private conversation he tries on speeches like a man trying on ties in his bedroom to see how he would look in them.
An after dinner speech should be like a lady's dress; long enough to cover the subject but short enough to be interesting.
I dreamt that I was making a speech in the House [of Lords]. I woke up, and by Jove I was!
That wasn't a maiden speech—it was a brazen hussy of a speech—a painted tart of a speech.
I can think of nothing more agreeable to the brain and the ear than a speech adorned and embellished with wise thoughts and fine language.
Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol, and an audience is electrified.
Speeches measured by the hour die with the hour.
Did you ever think that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.
A speech is like a love affair: any fool can start one but to end one requires considerable skill.
A speech is poetry: cadence, rhythm, imagery, sweep!
A flowery discourse is more replete with agreeable than with strong thoughts, with images more sparkling than sublime, and terms more curious than forcible. This metaphor is correctly taken from flowers, which are showy without strength or stability. This metaphor is correctly taken from flowers, which are showy without strength or stability.
In the dying world I come from, quotation is a national vice. No one would think of making an after-dinner speech without the help of poetry. It used to be classics, now it's lyric verse.
It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
The expression "I will be brief" at the beginning of a speech, sermon, or lecture was invented to allow people to be long-winded (and boring) without the slightest amount of guilt.
