Peggy Noonan Quotes

Rhetoric matters, but at the end of the day policy matters more.

A great speech is literature.

I [Moses] am not a man of words.

Mayors make tough decisions; Senators make tough speeches.

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.

Regardless of how lyrical or rhetorically gifted they are in conveying big ideas, any candidate can do a good job of giving a speech if the goal of a speech is more than just delivering it well but achieving some end, whether it's convincing people of some issue or persuading them about you as a person.

To be sure, Kennedy did not discount the importance of words in rallying the nation to meet its foreign and domestic challenges. Winston Churchill's powerful exhortations during World War II set a standard he had long admired. Kennedy was hardly unmindful of how important a great inaugural address could be.

In oratory the will must predominate.

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.

With my natural communication abilities, I could probably gather a crowd even without the Spirit.

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

Using rhetorical questions in speeches is a great way to keep the audience involved. Don't you think those kinds of questions would keep your attention?

Music and politics are in essence about communication. Without over-stretching the analogy I do feel a sense of rhythm is important in getting your message across.

Nobody has a magic lamp which can tell you in advance whether what you say will be effective in persuading an audience.

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

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

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.

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.

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

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

The aim of the sculptor is to convince us that he is a sculptor; the aim of the orator, is to convince us that he is not an orator.

The practice of public speaking flourishes in every peaceful and free state.

Speechwriting is where the philosophical, ideological and political tensions of the administration get worked out.

With words we govern men.

A candidate has to reach people's heads and reach their hearts.