Robert South Quotes

To speak and to speak well, are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.

Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.

To speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do is style.

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

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

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

Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.

Writing is learning to say nothing, more cleverly each day.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.

He that will write well in any tongue, must follow this counsel of Aristotle, to speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do: and so should every man understand him, and the judgment of wise men allow him.

A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend him.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.

Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be cracked or not; so men are proved, by their speeches, whether they be wise or foolish.

Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.

Talking and eloquence are not the same.

We love to hear some men speak, though we hear not what they say.

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

I'm not very articulate. I don't have that skill.

The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.

Silence hides nothing. Words conceal.

Silence is not always a sign of wisdom, but babbling is ever a mark of folly.

Because a thing is eloquently expressed it should not be taken to be as necessarily true; nor because it is uttered with stammering lips should it be supposed false.