Abraham Lincoln Quotes

The speeches to be wary of are those that begin with I'm just going to say a few words.

When a man is asked to make a speech, the first thing he has to decide is what to say.

A speech from Ernest Bevin on a major occasion had all the horrific fascination of a public execution. If the mind was left immune, eyes and ears and emotions were riveted.

I think nobody wants to hear a sermon. Well, some people do, but maybe not through music or not with me. No one wants to hear me give a speech that way.

Reading off a Teleprompter is an easy skill to do passably well and a difficult skill to do very well. I still have room for improvement there. I still talk too fast and I'm trying to slow myself down.

I have spoken to expert audiences occasionally, but then no audience is expert over the whole range of things I want to explore.

When you make speeches you elicit expectations against which you will be held accountable.

Speeches are not magic and there is no great speech without great policy.

I have no idea what I'm going to say when I stand up to give a toast. But I do know that anything I say I find funny.

Ultimately, the best speakers are the ones who have put 10,000 hours into listening.

When you're standing in front of an audience like this that is so enthusiastic and so much behind you, it is very hard to give a bad speech. Even a bad speech sounds good in a convention hall like this.

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.

Long speeches work if they’re filled with substance.

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

I've always loved public speaking, and that's something I definitely will pursue after the Olympics.

I didn't think I was much of a public speaker.

Always, with speeches, I feel like it's an opportunity to say something.

I've been turning it over in after-dinner speeches, but it looks awkward-it's not what people are used to-it wants a good deal of Latin to make it go down.

I wonder what my speech would be.

Chauncy Burr ... talks well, possibly better than he thinks. But this is a common failing.

What passes out of one's mouth passes into a hundred ears. It is a great misfortune not to have sense enough to speak well.

Why would you get up there and bore people? I never have figured that out. These people are supposedly in the entertainment industry, and they finally get up there to that podium and they become the most boring people in the world.

So I am hoping my second outing to your wonderful university turns out differently, because it would be highly embarrassing if I said, “Good evening Yaleites” or “Yalers”, or whatever you guys are called, and got stuck at Yaaaaa…. That wouldn’t make for much of a speech.

An orator can hardly get beyond commonplaces: if he does he gets beyond his hearers.