Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

In oratory the will must predominate.

He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense.

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

Great speech is impassioned; small speech cantankerous.

Eloquence is the essential thing in a speech, not information.

As a Shakespeare character, if you can persuade someone in a sentence or a speech, you've got it right.

Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory !!

There is nothing like oratory, it is a skill that can turn a commoner into a king.

Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.

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

An orator is the worse person to tell a plain fact.

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

Eloquence, n. The art of orally persuading fools that white is the color that it appears to be. It includes the gift of making any color appear white.

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

Talking and eloquence are not the same.

Some eloquence is like a magic.

He who wants to persuade should put his trust, not in the right argument, but in the right word.

A man may lack everything but tact and conviction and still be a forcible speaker.

The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.

Henry Clay's eloquence did not consist, as many fine specimens of eloquence do, of types and figures, of antitheses and elegant arrangements of words and sentences, but rather of that deeply earnest and impassioned tone and manner which can proceed only through conviction in the speaker of the justice and importance of his cause. This it is that truly touches the chords of sympathy; and those who heard Mr. Clay never failed to be moved by it, or ever after forgot the impression. All his [oratorical] efforts were made for practical effect. He never spoke merely to be heard.

Don't talk to me of your Archimedes' lever. He was an absentminded person with a mathematical imagination. Mathematics commands all my respect, but I have no use for engines. Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world.

I could sway people with words—words that welled up within me.

It lies deep in our habits, confirmed by all manner of educational and other arrangements for several centuries back, to consider human talent as best of all evincing itself by the faculty of eloquent speech.

A good orator is pointed and impassioned.

There is nothing in the world like persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.