“You are speaking before a man to whom all Naples is known.”

“I would have stage-fright if I had to speak with every one of the people before whom I speak.”

Karl Kraus (1874–1936) Czech playwright and publicist

“The caucus is a sort of representative meeting which sits voting and voting till they have cut out all the known men against whom much is to be said, and agreed on some unknown man against whom there is nothing known, and therefore nothing to be alleged.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

“Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to?”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

“If there is any person to whom you feel a dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.”

Richard Cecil (clergyman) (1748–1810) British Evangelical Anglican priest and social reformer

“Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody. ”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

“Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think is creation's.”

E.M. Forster (1879–1970) English novelist

“I'm known for speaking my mind, a trait I probably inherited from my parents, Louis and Mary Leakey—neither of whom was renowned for tact.”

Richard Leakey (1944) Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist, and politician

“The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“How do you speak that all men may hear you in their own tongues? It is an art known and practiced by teachers of old.”

Desmond Leslie (1921–2001) British pilot, film maker, writer, and musician