Theodore C. Sorensen Quotes

Long speeches work if they’re filled with substance.

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

No man not inspired can make a good speech without preparation.

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

To make a politic speech is like being carried up a flight of steps by the pressure of a crowd.

Kennedy had a much better speech writer than I do.

Regan’s greatness as a rhetorician was in his delivery not in the content of what he said as with Churchill and Roosevelt.

Sustentative ideas are more important than applause lines. Substance makes speeches.

Many people can contribute suggestions to a speech, but only one person can write it.

Nearly every politician plagiarizes their speeches, because nearly every politician has a speech writer do the work for them.

If you look at the copies of Churchill's speeches that have survived, they are heavily marked up. He was scrupulous about the impact of each word. He preferred short words and the repetition of short words. He knew everything about the techniques of rhetoric.

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

There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.

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

Lord Chancellor, did I deliver the speech well? I am glad of that, for there was nothing in it.

Speeches are much easier if you read them. I just find when I do that, it's harder to fire up the crowd.

Trust me, I have never written a speech in my life, and if I have my way, I never will.

Then there was a maiden speech, so inaudible that it was doubted whether, after all, the young orator really did lose his virginity.

We need a new stump speech.

The curse of speech writing is being part of a team.

President Johnson wanted his speech writers to use words with fou r letters, sentences with four words, and paragraphs with four sentences

Churchill has spent the best years of his life preparing impromptu remarks.

Go ahead, Teleprompter, Go ahead!

In order to make a good speech you must have something to say and you have to believe it.

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.