Frederick Douglass Quotes

A word after a word after a word is power.

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.

Who does not delight in oratory? How we gather to hear even an ordinary speaker! How often is a jury swayed and controlled by the appeals of counsel!

A man may lack everything but tact and conviction and still be a forcible speaker; but without these nothing will avail... Fluency, grace, logical order, and the like, are merely the decorative surface of oratory.

Power is the most persuasive rhetoric.

I could sway people with words—words that welled up within me.

Nothing is so difficult to believe that oratory cannot make it acceptable …

There is nothing in the world like persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.

As a Shakespeare character, if you can persuade someone in a sentence or a speech, you've got it right.

Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense.

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

The more articulate one is, the more dangerous words become.

Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art.

Every idea is an incitement... eloquence may set fire to reason.

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.

Now I see that going out into the testing ground of men it is the tongue and not the deed that wins the day.

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse qualities. There are quiet leaders and leaders one can hear in the next county. Some find strength in eloquence, some in judgment, some in courage.

I think the power of persuasion would be the greatest superpower of all time.

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.

When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

A man may lack everything but tact and conviction and still be a forcible speaker.

Mr. Lincoln is one of Nature’s orators, using his rare powers solely and effectively to elucidate and to convince, though their inevitable effect is to delight and electrify as well.

William Jennings Bryan is a much better orator than I am. I have to think.

Success depends on three things: who says it, what he says, how he says it; and of these three things, what he says is the least important.