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Speech quotes

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“If it is not right, do not do it: if it is not true, do not say it.” Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations” - c. 170 - 180

“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;” William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” - 1623

“The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.” Confucius, “Analects”

“He acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.” Confucius, “Analects”

“My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, Or else my heart, concealing it, will break;” William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew” - 1623

“Be check'd for silence, but never tax'd for speech.” William Shakespeare, “All's Well That Ends Well” - 1623

“I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do either!” Lewis Carroll, “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” - 1865

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.” Confucius, “Analects”

“Teach me to speak the language of men.” Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes” - 1912

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia” - 1785

“Not in his speech, not in his thoughts, I see his greatness, only in his actions, in his life.” Hermann Hesse, “Siddhartha” - 1922

“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” - 1921

“Those who know do not speak; Those who speak do not know.” Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching” - 4th century BC

“I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.” Jane Austen, “Northanger Abbey” - 1817

“Fair speech may hide a foul heart.” J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Two Towers” - 1954

“each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby” - 1925

“Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, few doubtingly of scepticism.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more, as I grow older” Michel de Montaigne, “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne” - 1580

“Mend your speech a little, Lest you may mar your fortunes.” William Shakespeare, “King Lear” - 1623

“Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.” William Shakespeare, “As You Like It” - 1623

“I would not wish to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak what I think.” Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” - 28 January 1813

“The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails.” William Shakespeare, “The Winter's Tale” - 1623

“It seemed as if my tongue pronounced words without my will consenting to their utterance: something spoke out of me over which I had no control.” Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre” - 16 October 1847

“They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is, on the other hand, a great emboldener; and so when each had said his say, my mother made them a speech.” Robert Louis Stevenson, “Treasure Island” - 1883

“The captain has said too much or he has said too little, and I'm bound to say that I require an explanation of his words.” Robert Louis Stevenson, “Treasure Island” - 1883

“Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” - 1841

“Did it never strike your mind that what every woman says some women may feel?” Thomas Hardy, “Tess of the d'Urbervilles” - 1891

“Very well; I hear; I admit, but I have a voice, too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced.” Joseph Conrad, “Heart of Darkness” - 1899

“He was always in a hurry to speak, and seemed always to put his whole soul into what he was saying.” Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina” - 1877

“But then I realized that writing something is different from saying it—and that love stories are built around people’s idiosyncrasies.” Arnold Schwarzenegger, “Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story” - 2012

“He was essentially a truth-speaking man, if only he knew how to speak the truth.” Anthony Trollope, “Phineas Redux” - 1874

“When a man says he does not want to speak of something he usually means he can think of nothing else.” John Steinbeck, “East of Eden” - 1952

“Chance and chance alone has a message for us. Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us.” Milan Kundera, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” - 1984

“Immediate are the acts of God, more swift than time or motion, but to human ears cannot without process of speech be told, so told as earthly notion can receive.” John Milton, “Paradise Lost” - 1667

“I believe you can speak things into existence.” Jay-Z, “Decoded” - 2010

“For True and False are attributes of Speech, not of things. And where Speech in not, there is neither Truth nor Falshood.” Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan” - 1651

“Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” - 1921

“It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.” Mark Twain, “Following the Equator” - 1897

“His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought.” John Steinbeck, “Of Mice and Men” - 1937

“I envy thee not thy faith, which is ever in thy mouth, but never in thy heart nor in thy practice.” Walter Scott, “Ivanhoe” - 1820

“Sir . . . with no intention to take offence, I deny your right to put words into my mouth.” Robert Louis Stevenson, “Treasure Island” - 1883

“I have not wanted syllables where actions have spoken so plainly.” Jane Austen, “Sense and Sensibility” - 1811

“Be not too hasty . . . to trust or to admire the teachers of morality: they discourse like angels, but they live like men.” Samuel Johnson, “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia” - 1759

Related topics

thought truth words silence action freedom women modesty politics men wisdom life music courage God knowledge listening understanding care language

Related authors

William Shakespeare (6)
Jane Austen (3)
Robert Louis Stevenson (3)
Confucius (3)
John Steinbeck (2)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (2)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
Mark Twain (1)
Lewis Carroll (1)
Charlotte Brontë (1)
George Orwell (1)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1)
Thomas Hardy (1)
Joseph Conrad (1)
Leo Tolstoy (1)
Walter Scott (1)
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1)
Thomas Jefferson (1)
Lao Tzu (1)
Arnold Schwarzenegger (1)

Related sources

Treasure Island (3)
Analects (3)
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (2)
Hamlet (1)
All's Well That Ends Well (1)
As You Like It (1)
King Lear (1)
Northanger Abbey (1)
Sense and Sensibility (1)
Pride and Prejudice (1)
The Winter's Tale (1)
The Taming of the Shrew (1)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1)
Jane Eyre (1)
1984 (1)
Self-Reliance (1)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1)
Heart of Darkness (1)
Anna Karenina (1)
Ivanhoe (1)