Maurice Druon Quotes

At some point early on, I realized that three of the greatest speeches ever delivered were by Winston Churchill, and they were written and delivered within a four-week period of each other.

Churchill has spent the best years of his life preparing impromptu remarks.

In the dark days and darker nights when England stood alone-and most men save Englishmen despaired of England's life-he [Churchill] mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.

I love history, and Churchill is one of my favorite people to study. He's a fascinating, fascinating man.

Hey, I'm not a politician. I'm a ham. I love to give speeches.

Trust me, I have never written a speech in my life, and if I have my way, I never will.

No man not inspired can make a good speech without preparation.

Eloquence being, therefore, considered so essential, must always be a great standard of personal merit, a certain road to popular favor, and an universal passport to public honors.

Churchill would spend as many hours practicing as there were minutes in the speech.

I like that kind of stuff. I like doing speeches. I've been lucky because I've had a lot of characters, over the years, who will have three or four page speeches.

Speaking of Sir Winston Churchill: He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.

William Jennings Bryan is a much better orator than I am. I have to think.

The best way to study about speech writing is to read great speeches.

Parliament will train your men to the manners required of a statesman; but in a much less degree to the intrinsic functions of one. To these latter, it is capable of mistraining as nothing else can. Parliament will train you to talk; and above all things to hear, with patience, unlimited quantities of foolish talk. To tell a good story for yourself, and to make it appear that you have done your work

A good talker, even more than a good orator, implies a good audience. Modern society is too vast and too restless to give a conversationalist a fair chance.

To address crowds and make promises does not require very much brains

The capacity to persuade is an essential part of being a great leader.

Man is multiplied by the number of languages he possesses and speaks.

Kennedy understood something that is not so obvious, and that is that words are more important than deeds. You can’t govern 300 million people—or 180 million when Kennedy was president—by doing things. You can only do it by rhetoric.

I don't have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

I happen to have given lots of free speeches.

I am not a speaker. The more you do it, the easier it becomes, but I always want to be prepared, and I always practice my speeches; I never do it off the cuff.

I loved teaching English and giving my students confidence.

If you look at the copies of Churchill's speeches that have survived, they are heavily marked up. He was scrupulous about the impact of each word. He preferred short words and the repetition of short words. He knew everything about the techniques of rhetoric.

Learning how to be persuasive has been really crucial to my life both professionally and personally.