Ben Jonson Quotes

Talking and eloquence are not the same.

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

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

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

I often begin a thought with spirit and finish it with nonsense. The chain of my argument often escapes me, and when lost can seldom be retrieved. These faults are so overpowering that I should sink into perpetual silence were it not that sometimes in ardor of debate, when my feelings are wound up to a high tone, elocution pours itself along with unusual rapidity, and I have passages which would not shame a good speaker; this is the only thing that makes me tolerable to others or to myself.

I'm not good at throwing around rhetoric.

When I speak, I am well articulated.

The ability to speak well is the shortcut to distinction.

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

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

A great speech is literature.

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.

There are people who have tremendously important things to say, but they say it so poorly that nobody would ever want to read it.

False eloquence is exaggeration; true eloquence is emphasis.

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

For my next trick I will make everyone understand me.

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

I'm not very articulate.

Some eloquence is like a magic.

I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me understand something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.

I [Moses] am not a man of words.

No one can speak well, unless he thoroughly understands his subject.

Some directors have the gift of the gab, but I don't.