Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

A great speech is literature.

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

The poet is the nearest borderer upon the orator.

Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory !!

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

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.

Making clever speeches takes a lot of work and a lot of time.

I am not eloquent.

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

I'm an orator, a raconteur.

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

It really is true that an orator is simply a good man who speaks well.

Talking and eloquence are not the same.

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.

Don't talk to me of your Archimedes' lever. He was an absentminded person with a mathematical imagination. Mathematics commands all my respect, but I have no use for engines. Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world.

word thrower … phrase maker

This fellow has a silver tongue

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

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

I'm not good at throwing around rhetoric.

Writing and speaking and communicating, it's something important to me, and something I want to get better at.

The longer I live, the more I have come to value the gift of eloquence. Every American youth, if he desires for any purpose to get influence over his countrymen in an honorable way, will seek to become a good public speaker.

For me, speaking to anyone - on a stage, in an elevator - I am looking for impact and connection. The same goes for writing.

Speaking is a beautiful folly; with that man dances over all things.