James A. Garfield Quotes

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.

The practice of public speaking flourishes in every peaceful and free state.

Political speeches are a particularly low form of rhetoric.

Nobody wants to hear long speeches.

Cicero said loud-bawling orators were driven by their weakness to noise, as lame men to take horse.

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.

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

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

Talking and eloquence are not the same.

Every man in it is a great man—an orator, a critic, a statesman, and therefore every man upon every question must show his oratory, his criticism, and his political abilities. The consequence is that business is drawn and spun out to immeasurable length.

I [Moses] am not a man of words.

People [in politics] do go on and talk.

We love to hear some men speak, though we hear not what they say.

Great speech is impassioned; small speech cantankerous.

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

An orator is a man who says what he thinks and feels what he says.

I don't have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

Speech is the best show a man puts on.

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

Making clever speeches takes a lot of work and a lot of time.

An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say 'Gentlemen' to the person with whom he is conversing.

A great speech is literature.

I am not eloquent.

If only I was as eloquent as Demosthenes, I would have to do no more than repeat a single word three times.

In an easy matter. Anybody can be eloquent.