“Speak more softly to be better heard by a deaf public.”
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Joseph Joubert 253
French moralist and essayist 1754–1824Related quotes
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Ch. XV : The Peace of Righteousness http://books.google.com/books?id=Io4fAAAAIAAJ&q=%22The+only+safe+rule+is+to+promise+little+and+faithfully+to+keep+every+promise+to+speak+softly+and+carry+a+big+stick%22&pg=PA537#v=onepage
1910s, Theodore Roosevelt — An Autobiography (1913)
1900s, The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (1900), National Duties
Context: Right here let me make as vigorous a plea as I know how in favor of saying nothing that we do not mean, and of acting without hesitation up to whatever we say. A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far." If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power.
Vol. I, p. 17
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Franklyn, in Pt. II : The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)