John Quincy Adams Quotes

I'm not good at throwing around rhetoric.

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

Talking and eloquence are not the same.

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.

A great speech is literature.

He steps on stage and draws the sword of rhetoric, and when he is through, someone is lying wounded and thousands of others are either angry or consoled.

I'm not very articulate.

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

If you're a preacher, you talk for a living, so even if you don't make sense, you learn to make nonsense eloquently.

Some eloquence is like a magic.

I [Moses] am not a man of words.

This trial has developed in the most remarkable manner, the insane love of speaking among public men. We are wading knee deep in words, words, words ….

The ability to speak well is the shortcut to distinction.

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

The subject is said to have the property of making dull men eloquent.

Speech is the best show a man puts on.

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

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.

I am not eloquent.

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

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

False eloquence is exaggeration; true eloquence is emphasis.

The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

I wasn't a great debater.