Mark Twain Quotes

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

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.

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

A great speech is literature.

If only I was as eloquent as Demosthenes, I would have to do no more than repeat a single word three times.

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

Some eloquence is like a magic.

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 used to tell my husband that, if he could make me understand something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.

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

I'm not good at throwing around rhetoric.

Ordinary people can be very articulate and very eloquent.

In oratory the will must predominate.

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.

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

False eloquence is exaggeration; true eloquence is emphasis.

For my next trick I will make everyone understand me.

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

I wish I could talk like Donald Trump or Steve Wynn. Hell, I'd love it.

Great speech is impassioned; small speech cantankerous.

An orator is a man who says what he thinks and feels what he says.

When I speak, I am well articulated.

I'm not very articulate. I don't have that skill.

Some directors have the gift of the gab, but I don't.