Thomas Henry Huxley

“ So much depends upon all sorts of physical and moral conditions that beginning to make a speech is like going into action, and no man knows — not the most practised of speakers — how he will come out of it. ”

“ But the aid and comfort afforded by that not too legible scrawl upon a small sheet of paper was inexpressible. Twice in my life I have been compelled to swim without floats altogether — to renounce even a sheet of note-paper. On one of these occasions, I had to address an audience to some extent hostile, upon a topic which required very careful handling, and I had taken unusual pains in writing my discourse with the intention of practically reading many parts of it. ”

“ A subordinate, but still very important use of writing, when one has to speak, is that the process brings before the mind all the collateral suggestions which are likely to arise out of the line of argument adopted. Psychologically considered, public speaking is a very singular process. One-half of the speaker’s mind is occupied with what he is saying ”