S. E. Hinton Quotes

The ability to speak well is the shortcut to distinction.

Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.

I do like to turn a phrase, but it's all about how you turn it.

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

Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.

Eloquence is the art of saying as little as possible but making it sound as much as possible.

It's not 'natural' to speak well, eloquently, in an interesting, articulate way. People living in groups, families, communes say little - have few verbal means. Eloquence - thinking in words - is a byproduct of solitude, deracination, a heightened painful individuality. In groups, it's more natural to sing, to dance, to pray: given, rather than invented (individual) speech.

Her fluency was marvelous. She would say things at random, intricate, flamelike, or slide off into a parenthetical limbo peppered with fireworks-- admirable linguistic feats which a practiced writer might struggle for hours to achieve.

There are so many people, especially among our comrades, who imagine that words are nothing - on the contrary, isn't it true that saying a thing well is as interesting and as difficult as painting it?

It is of eloquence as of a flame; it requires matter to feed it, and motion to excite it; and it brightens as it burns.

To many men well-fitting doors are not set on their tongues.

It is not sufficient to know what one ought to say, but one must also know how to say it.

Take eloquence and wring its neck.

It is true that I do not speak as well as I can think. But that is true of most people, as nearly as I can tell.

Eloquence is a painting of thought; and thus those who, after having painted it, add something more, make a picture instead of a portrait.

It is not enough that a man has clearness of vision, and reliance on sincerity, he must also have the art of expression, or he will remain obscure.

The language of women should be luminous, but not voluminous.

A politician is a man who can be verbose in fewer words than anyone else.

Though I'm anything but clever, I could talk like that forever.

Clichés are static, the emotion behind them long spent. If you are tempted to use them, here is a saying of my mother’s: Fang pi bu-cho, cho pi bu-fang. Basically that translates to: "Loud farts don’t stink, and the really smelly ones don’t make a sound." In other words: When you’re full of beans, you just blow a lot of hot air. If you want to have a real impact, be deadly but silent. Oh, also recognize the difference between a bad cliché and a good quotation. My mother’s saying is a good quotation. You should use it often.

If you say three things, you don't say anything.

All the fun is in how you say a thing.

Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.

Though old the thought and oft exprest, Tis his at last who says it best.

I have no gift of words, but I speak the truth.