Mark Twain Quotes

No man pleases by silence; many I please by speaking briefly.

To talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.

Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak, and to speak well, are two things.

Expressive speech, with modulation in pitch and volume, and a minimum of noticeable pauses, boosts credibility and enhances the impression of intelligence.

When I was a young girl, I'd love giving book reports.

For my next trick I will make everyone understand me.

One of my strengths is my ability to talk and communicate with people.

Talking and eloquence are not the same.

Great speech is impassioned; small speech cantankerous.

No one can speak well, unless he thoroughly understands his subject.

Eloquence is the essential thing in a speech, not information.

When I speak, I am well articulated.

I think, for me, one of the things I've been blessed with is the ability to speak with clarity.

Ordinary people can be very articulate and very eloquent.

Eloquence is the child of knowledge.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you, trippingly on the tongue.

The ability to speak well is the shortcut to distinction.

A scientist sounds like a scientist because the things that come out of their mouth don't stumble, that's all. If they [said], "And the, um, a microwave, uh," you know, then you don't sound right, but if you can just get it out without stumbling then you're going to sound fine.

There's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.

Memory is corrupted and ruined by a crowd of memories. If I am going to have a true memory, there are a thousand things that must first be forgotten. Memory is not fully itself when it reaches only into the past. A memory that is not alive to the present does not remember the here and now, does not remember its true identity, is not memory at all. He who remembers nothing but facts and past events, and is never brought back into the present, is a victim of amnesia.

My grandfather was dying, and told the family he had decided to die. ... At that moment I wanted so badly to write and tell him that he was never going to die, that somehow he would always be present in my life, because he had a theory that death didn't exist, only forgetfulness did. He believed that if you can keep people in your memory, they will live forever. That's what he did with my grandmother.

You lose your immortality when you lose your memory.

Depend upon it, sir, it is when you come close to a man in conservation that you discover what his real abilities are; to make a speech in a public assembly is a knack.