Orson Scott Card Quotes

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.

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.

I know that one is able to win people far more by the spoken that by the written word, and that every great movement on this globe owes its rise to the great speakers and not to the great writers.

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

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

Pitching is the art of instilling fear.

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

Oratory is the masterful art. Poetry, painting, music, sculpture, architecture please, thrill, inspire - but oratory rules. The orator dominates those who hear him, convinces their reason, controls their judgment, compels their action. For the time being, he is master.

I [Moses] am not a man of words.

In a Democracy, look how many … many powerful Orators there are with the people.

Great men don't 'move to the center' — great men move the center!

Power comes through public persuasion.

I suppose my critics will call that preaching, but I have got such a bully pulpit.

The longer I live, the more I have come to value the gift of eloquence. Every American youth, if he desires for any purpose to get influence over his countrymen in an honorable way, will seek to become a good public speaker.

Gold is a deep-persuading orator.

Thence to the famous orators repair, Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmin'd over Greece, To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne.

Eloquence shows the power and possibility of man. There is one of whom we took no note, but on a certain occasion it appears that he has a secret virtue never suspected - that he can paint what has occurred and what must occur, with such clearness to a company, as if they saw it done before their eyes. By leading their thought he leads their will, and can make them do gladly what an hour ago they would not believe that they could be led to do at all.

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.

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.

I'm not in power, but my ideas are in power. And my ideas will prevail.

To me, presentations are the most powerful device. You can't really name a movement that didn't start with the spoken word.

Some politicians that I've seen have been brilliant with the public. They almost speak with the skill of an actor.

A single question can be more influential than a thousand statements.

Speeches are not magic and there is no great speech without great policy.

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.