John Milton Quotes

a fair degree of literacy of speech ... is increasingly rare in politicians and not necessarily regarded as an asset.

Unlike the current occupant of the White House [George W. Bush], he has no difficulty in orally extemporizing a series of grammatical English sentences, each containing a main verb.

There is no talent so pernicious as eloquence to those who have it under command.

Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation ready. Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?

An orator is a good man who is skilled in speaking.

The most attractive sentences are, perhaps, not the wisest, but the surest and roundest. They are spoken firmly and conclusively,as if the speaker had a right to know what he says, and if not wise, they have at least been well learned.

Eloquence is the appropriate organ of the highest personal energy.

The gifts of nature are necessary; but they are not sufficient to make a complete orator without art and study.

Use your logick, and then your rhetorick. Rhetorick without logick, is like a tree with leaves and blossoms, but no root; yet I confess more are taken with rhetorick than logick, because they are catched with a free expression, when they understand not reason. Logick must be natural, or it is worth nothing at all: Your rhetorick figures may be learned.

It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short. The laws of prose writing are as immutable as those of flight, of mathematics, of physics.

If all our agents would abridge their speeches one half, I am satisfied the effect produced would be much greater. The 'art of leaving off' at the right time, and in the right place, is one of the most difficult things to learn.

It is said that Obama speaks 'professorially,' a fact that understates the quickness and agility of his mind.

I've always had the ability to manipulate words and communicate ideas and thoughts.

Nor use too swelling, or ill-sounded words . . . .

There is no power like oratory. Caesar controlled men by exciting their fears, Cicero by . . . swaying their passions. The influence of the one perished; that of the other continues to this day.

Eloquence is the child of knowledge.

I'm going to make a long speech because I've not had the time to prepare a short one.

Bright is the ring of words When the right man rings them.

Always have something to say. The man who has something to say and who is known never to speak unless he has, is sure to be listened to.�

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

Eloquence is vehement simplicity.

They are eloquent who can speak low things acutely, and of great things with dignity, and of moderate things with temper.

Nothing is so difficult to believe that oratory cannot make it acceptable, nothing so rough and uncultured as not to gain brilliance and refinement from eloquence.

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

Eloquence, when in its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection.