Plutarch Quotes

Speech is like cloth of Arras opened and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth appear in figure; whereas in thoughts they lie but as packs.

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

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

Talking and eloquence are not the same.

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

Great things only require to be simply told, for they are spoiled by emphasis; but little things should be clothed in lofty language, as they are only kept up by expression, tone of voice, and style of delivery.

Speaking is a beautiful folly; with that man dances over all things.

Why do we embroider everything we say with special emphasis when all we really need to do is simply say what needs to he said? Of course the fact is that there is very little that needs to be said.

When we are understood, we always speak well, and then all your fine diction serves no purpose.

Thy words, I grant are bigger, for I wear not, my dagger in my mouth.

He spoke with more eloquence than wisdom.

I thought clarity of communication was the most important thing in writing, and if you really cared about getting your idea across, you would say it in the most straightforward way possible. Later, in college and grad school, I came to realize that language is a technology like any other, and that it's always evolving - clarity of expression is always evolving.

Anybody who makes speeches written by someone else is just a robot.

What most of us want is to be heard, to communicate.

There are many tongues to talk, and but few heads to think.

Neatness of phrase is so closely akin to wit that it is often accepted as its substitute.

If you say three things, you don't say anything.

Aiming at brevity, I become obscure.

Say it clear, and it will be beautiful.

Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.

A talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well is the chief instrument of cultural change.

The single most important lesson of effective communication is this: Focus on clarity. Concentrate on precisions. Don’t worry about constructing beautiful sentences. Beauty comes from meaning, not language. Accuracy is the most effective style of all.

Leave words to them whom words, not doings, move.

I counted solely on the clarity of expression of my work to gain my ends.

The thought hath good leggs, and the quill a good tongue.