Saint Augustine Quotes

The tongue is the only tool that gets sharper with use.

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

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

A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.

False eloquence is exaggeration; true eloquence is emphasis.

Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.

I'm not very articulate.

To speak and to speak well, are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.

If you're a preacher, you talk for a living, so even if you don't make sense, you learn to make nonsense eloquently.

Talking and eloquence are not the same.

I often begin a thought with spirit and finish it with nonsense. The chain of my argument often escapes me, and when lost can seldom be retrieved. These faults are so overpowering that I should sink into perpetual silence were it not that sometimes in ardor of debate, when my feelings are wound up to a high tone, elocution pours itself along with unusual rapidity, and I have passages which would not shame a good speaker; this is the only thing that makes me tolerable to others or to myself.

I'm not good at throwing around rhetoric.

Eloquence is the child of knowledge.

Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.

The writing is all done, so it's all about verbalizing everything from point A to point B, and certainly there's a bit of politics involved, so it's a different thing.

A great speech is literature.

It is but a poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk.

Speech was given to the ordinary sort or men, whereby to communicate their mind; but to wise men, whereby to conceal it.

There are people who have tremendously important things to say, but they say it so poorly that nobody would ever want to read it.

Writing is learning to say nothing, more cleverly each day.

Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.

To speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do is style.

For my next trick I will make everyone understand me.

Language is wine upon the lips.

Some eloquence is like a magic.