Quotes about speaking
page 18

Thomas Carlyle photo
Oliver Wendell Holmes photo

“Speak not too well of one who scarce will know
Himself transfigured in its roseate glow;
Say kindly of him what is, chiefly, true,
Remembering always he belongs to you;
Deal with him as a truant, if you will,
But claim him, keep him, call him brother still!”

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician

"Poem", read at a dinner given for the author by the medical profession of the City of New York (April 12, 1883); reported in The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, ed. Eleanor M. Tilton (1895, rev. 1975), p. 71.

Thom Yorke photo
David Crystal photo
Edward R. Murrow photo
Common (rapper) photo

“I think and speak clearer since I cut the dairy out. I can breathe better and perform at a better rate, and my voice is clearer. I can explore different things with my voice that I couldn’t do because of my meat and dairy ingestion. I am proud and blessed to be a vegetarian, everything became clear.”

Common (rapper) (1972) American rapper, actor and author from Illinois

From the documentary Holistic Wellness for the Hip-Hop Generation (2003); as quoted in "Common, Sticman, Badu Featured In New Health Documentary" https://allhiphop.com/2003/08/13/common-sticman-badu-featured-in-new-health-documentary/, AllHipHop (13 August 2003).
Interviews

Robert M. Price photo
Peggy Noonan photo
Murray Leinster photo
Russell Brand photo
Everett Dean Martin photo
Vincent Van Gogh photo

“I tell you, brother, I am not good from a clergyman's point of view. I know full well that, frankly speaking, prostitutes are bad, but I feel something human in them which makes me feel not the least scruple to associate with them; I see nothing very wrong in them... And now, as in other periods of decline of civilization, the corruption of society has turned upside down all relations of good and evil, and one falls back logically on the old saying: "The first shall be last and the last shall be first."”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote in his letter to brother Theo, from Drenthe, The Netherlands, Sept. 1883; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, (letter 326) p. 38
Vincent is referring to his former relation with Sien, in The Hague
1880s, 1883

Thomas Wolfe photo
Sinclair Lewis photo
Madonna photo
Anne-Thérèse de Marguenat de Courcelles, marquise de Lambert photo

“We are not indeed obliged always to speak what we think, but we must always think what we speak.”

Source: A Mother's Advice to Her Son, 1726, p. 149

Ernest Hemingway photo
Jiang Zemin photo

“Reporter: President Jiang, do you think it’ll be good for Mr. Tung to serve another consecutive term?
Jiang: That’ll be good!
Reporter: Does Central Government support him too?
Jiang: Of course yes!
Reporter: Recently European Union has published a report saying that Beijing will affect and influence the nomocracy of Hong Kong in some ways. What's your response to that?
Jiang: Never heard before.
Reporter: It’s Chris Patten who said that.
Jiang: You the media should always remember that Seeing is believing. You should judge by yourself after you have received the news, got it? In case you say these things out of thin air for him, you may share the responsibility in some way.
Reporter: Now in such an early time, you said that you supported Mr. Tung, will that give people the impression that there is already an internal decision or imperial appointment on Mr. Tung?
Jiang: There's no such implication whatsoever. Everything should be done in accordance with Hong Kong Basic Law and the election laws.
Reporter: But…
Jiang: Replying what you've just asked me, I could have said "No comment." But you guys wouldn't be happy. So what should I do?
Reporter: Then Mr. Tung…
Jiang: I did not say that imperially appointing him to serve the next term. You asked me whether I support him or not, I support him. I can tell you explicitly.
Reporter: President Jiang…
Jiang: You all… My feeling is that you the media need to learn more. You are very familiar with the Western set of value, but after all you are too young. Do you understand what I mean? Let me tell you, I've been through hundreds of battles. I've seen a lot. Which country in the West have I not been to? Every time… You should know Mike Wallace in the US. He's way above you all. He and I talked cheerfully and humorously, which is why the media need to raise your intellectual level. Got it or not?
Reporter: President Jiang…
Jiang: I'm anxious for you all truly. You really… I… You guys are good at one thing. Wherever you go to all over the world, you always run faster than Western journalists. But the questions you keep asking - are too simple, sometimes naive. Understand or not? Got it or not?
Reporter: But could you say why you support Tung Chee-hwa?
Jiang: I'm very sorry. Today I am speaking to you as an elder, not as a journalist. I am not a journalist. But I've seen too much. I have this necessity to tell you a bit of my life experience.
Jiang: I just wanted to… Every time… In Chinese we have saying, "Make a fortune quietly." If I had said nothing, that would have been the best. But I thought I've seen all of you so enthusiastic. If I said nothing, that wouldn't be good. So, a moment ago you just insisted… In spreading the news, if your reports are inaccurate, you must be responsible. I did not say giving an imperial appointment. No such meaning. But you insisted on asking me whether I supported Mr. Tung or not. He is still the current Chief Executive. How could we not support the Chief Executive?
Reporter: But if we talk about his serving another term…
Jiang: To serve another term, you must follow the law of Hong Kong. Of course, our right to make the decision is also very important, since the Hong Kong SAR belongs to the Central Government of the People's Republic of China. When it gets to the right time, we'll let you know our decision. Understand what I say? You all. Don't provoke an uproar. Don't make it a flash-news saying that "It has already been imperially appointed" and criticize me. You all! Naive! I'm angry! I just offend you today! Your behavior like this is annoying!”

Jiang Zemin (1926) former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China

As quoted in "Former president Jiang Zemin unleashes a long tirade after a Hong Kong reporter asks him if Beijing had issued an "imperial order" to support Tung Chee-hwa in his bid to seek a second term as Chief Executive" https://www.facebook.com/shanghaiist/videos/10152728897091030 (October 2014), Facebook.
2000s, Hong Kong reporters make Jiang see red

François Andrieux photo

“These wretched kings,
Of whom all men speak ill, have oft some good in them.”

François Andrieux (1759–1833) French man of letters and playwright

Ces malheureux rois,
Dont on dit tant de mal, ont du bon quelquefois.
Le Meunier de Sans-Souci. (Ed. 1818, Vol. III., p. 205).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 26.

Tim O'Brien photo
Alfred Rosenberg photo

“How can we still speak of the salvation and reformation of Europe, when we have to ask Europe's destroyer for help?”

Alfred Rosenberg (1893–1946) German architect and politician

On the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Quoted in "The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership" - Page 171 - by Joachim C. Fest - History - 1999.

William Kristol photo
Leo Igwe photo
Robert Pinsky photo
Willem de Kooning photo
Karen Armstrong photo
George Holmes Howison photo
Anne Brontë photo

“If we can only speak to slander our betters, let us hold our tongues.”

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. IX : A Snake in the Grass; Gilbert to Eliza

William Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett photo

“I do not object to people looking at their watches when I am speaking. But I strongly object when they start shaking them to make sure they are still going.”

William Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett (1883–1962) British judge

Robert Andrews, Famous Lines: a Columbia dictionary of familiar quotations (1997), which cites a quotation in the London Observer, 30 October 1960
Attributed

John Fante photo
Franklin Pierce photo
Bias of Priene photo

“Speak of the Gods as they are.”

Bias of Priene (-600–-530 BC) ancient Greek philosopher, one of the Seven Sages

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 230)

Donald Barthelme photo
Bob Dylan photo

“You go watch the geek, who immediately walks up to you when he hears you speak, and says, how does it feel to be such a freak?, and you say, impossible as he hands you a bone.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Ballad of a Thin Man

Michael Moorcock photo
Kazimir Malevich photo

“By Suprematism, I mean the supremacy of pure feeling in the pictorial arts. From the Suprematist point of view, the appearances of natural objects are in themselves meaningless; the essential thing is feeling – in itself and completely independent of the context in which it has been evoked. Academic naturalism, the naturalism of the impressionists, of Cézannism, of Cubism, etc., are all so to speak nothing but dialectic methods, which in themselves in no way determine the true value of the work of art.”

Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) Russian and Soviet artist of polish descent

Quote of Malevich, 1927 in: Artists on Art; from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, pp. 451
Malevich valued Cezanne's art as a temporarily necessary but still 'provincial art' in the long developing line of modern art
1921 - 1930

Joseph Priestley photo
Noah Cyrus photo
Harry V. Jaffa photo
Muammar Gaddafi photo
Frederick Douglass photo

“At 8 o’clock, the [body] of the hall was nearly filled with an intelligent and respectable looking audience – The exercises commenced with a patriotic song by the Hutchinsons, which was received with great applause. The Rev. H. H. Garnett opened the meeting stating that the black man, a fugitive from Virginia, who was announced to speak would not appear, as a communication had been received yesterday from the South intimating that, for prudential reasons, it would not be proper for that person to appear, as his presence might affect the interests and safety of others in the South, both white persons and colored. He also stated that another fugitive slave, who was at the battle of Bull Run, proposed when the meeting was announced to be present, but for a similar reason he was absent; he had unwillingly fought on the side of Rebellion, but now he was, fortunately where he could raise his voice on the side of Union and universal liberty. The question which now seemed to be prominent in the nation was simply whether the services of black men shall be received in this war, and a speedy victory be accomplished. If the day should ever come when the flag of our country shall be the symbol of universal liberty, the black man should be able to look up to that glorious flag, and say that it was his flag, and his country’s flag; and if the services of the black men were wanted it would be found that they would rush into the ranks, and in a very short time sweep all the rebel party from the face of the country”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

Douglass Monthly https://web.archive.org/web/20160309192511/http://deadconfederates.com/tag/black-confederates/#_edn2 (March 1862), p. 623
1860s

Michael Ignatieff photo

“I’m in politics to speak up for a Canada that takes risks, that stands up for what’s right. A Canada that leads.”

Michael Ignatieff (1947) professor at Harvard Kennedy School and former Canadian politician

Canada in the World Speech, University of Ottawa (30 March 2006)

Anneli Jäätteenmäki photo

“I've tried to speak as true as I can.”

Anneli Jäätteenmäki (1955) Finnish politician

Heinrich Neuhaus photo

“As for the piano, I was left to my own devices practically from the age of twelve. As is frequently the case in teachers' families, our parents were so busy with their pupils (literally from morning until late at night) that they hardly had any time for their own children. And that, in spite of the fact that with the favourable prejudice common to all parents, they had a very high opinion of my gifts. (I myself had a much more sober attitude. I was always aware of a great many faults although at times I felt that I had in me something "not quite usual".) But I won't speak of this. As a pianist, I am known. My good and bad points are known and nobody can be interested in my "prehistoric period". I will only say that because of this early "independence" I did a lot of silly things which I could have easily avoided if I had been under the vigilant eye of an experienced and intelligent teacher for another three or four years. I lacked what is known as a "school". I lacked discipline. But it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good; my enforced independence compelled me, though sometimes by very devious ways, to achieve a great deal on my own and even my failures and errors subsequently proved more than once to be useful and educational, and in an occupation such as learning to master an art, where if not all, then almost all depends on individuality, the only sound foundation will always be the knowledge gained as the result of personal effort and personal experience.”

Heinrich Neuhaus (1888–1964) Soviet musician

The Art of Piano Playing (1958), Ch. 1. The Artistic Image of a Musical Composition

Anu Garg photo

“If you speak English, you speak at least a part of more than a hundred languages.”

Anu Garg (1967) Indian author

As quoted in * http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/a-23-2005-11-15-voa1-83125067/117153.html
2005-11-15
VOA News
Avi
Arditti

Sören Kierkegaard photo
Scott Lynch photo

“I’m sure we can communicate. I speak fluent hatchet.”

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006), Chapter 10 “Teeth Lessons” section 2 (p. 457)

Mary McCarthy photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Sarah Palin photo
Tom McCarthy (writer) photo
John Greenleaf Whittier photo

“Nature speaks in symbols and in signs.”

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery

To Charles Sumner, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

George Bernard Shaw photo

“Any sort of plain speaking is better than the nauseous sham good fellowship our democratic public men get up for shop use.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Franklyn, in Pt. II : The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)

Prince photo
Ludovico Ariosto photo

“His hair stands up erect and from his face
All vestiges of colour seem to drain.
He tries to speak but can emit no trace
Of sound.”

Ogni pelo arricciossi
E scolorossi al Saracino il viso,
La voce ch'era per uscir fermossi.
Canto I, stanza 29 (tr. Barbara Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

Gloria Estefan photo

“Those of you who speak only English, applaud [audience applause]. Those of you who speak only Spanish, applaud [audience applause]. [In mock incredulity] Then how do you know what I just said?”

Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada

"trick" question at innumerable concerts— always with the same result
2007, 2008

Alexander Bain photo

“Disinterestedness is as great a puzzle and paradox as ever. Indeed, strictly speaking, it is a species of irrationality, or insanity, as regards the individual’s self; a contradiction of the most essential nature of a sentient being, which is to move to pleasure and from pain”

Alexander Bain (1818–1903) Scottish philosopher and educationalist

Alexander Bain, On the Study of Character, including an estimate of phrenology http://books.google.com/books?id=xLhcAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA292, 1861, p. 292.

Johannes Grenzfurthner photo
Tim Gunn photo
Enoch Powell photo

“She is becoming afraid to go out. Windows are broken. She finds excreta pushed through her letterbox. When she goes to the shops, she is followed by children, charming, wide-grinning piccaninnies. They cannot speak English, but one word they know. 'Racialist,' they chant.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

A quotation from a letter Powell said had been sent to him from Northumberland, referring to one of his constituents. (According to a BBC radio programme broadcast in January 2007, the person in question was Druscilla Cotterill. However, this is open to question as some of the personal characteristics of Mrs Cotterill were not identical to the description given by Powell; in contrast to the woman referred to by Powell, Mrs Cotterill was childless and did not have a telephone. Source: Document, Radio 4, 22 January 2007. A contemporary investigation by journalists from The Express and Star, a local newspaper, could find no trace of the woman, and the paper had itself received similar letters which it had traced back to the National Front. Source: " Enoch Powell was wrong http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/9349376/Enoch-Powell-was-wrong.html", Ian Austin, The Telegraph, 22 June 2012.).
The 'Rivers of Blood' speech

Joseph Massad photo
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury photo
Narendra Modi photo
John Ruysbroeck photo
Kent Hovind photo
Andrei Lankov photo
Diogenes Laërtius photo

“Xenophanes speaks thus:
And no man knows distinctly anything,
And no man ever will.”

Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers

Pyrrho, 8.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 9: Uncategorized philosophers and Skeptics

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Thomas Friedman photo
Henry Fairfield Osborn photo
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall photo

“There are lots of things I do feel strongly about, but if I speak about them I will be on my best behaviour.”

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (1947) second wife of Prince Charles

During a tour at BBC radio
Charles and Camilla tour bbc radio MSN 2 February 2014 http://news.uk.msn.com/charles-and-camilla-tour-bbc-radio

Ursula K. Le Guin photo

“Despair speaks evenly, in a quiet voice.”

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer

Source: Earthsea Books, Tehanu (1990), Chapter 6, "Worsening"

Andrea Dworkin photo
John Lancaster Spalding photo

“One may speak Latin and have but the mind of a peasant.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 234

Wendy Doniger photo
Harry V. Jaffa photo
Jerome David Salinger photo
Daniel James Jr. photo

“[T]he lawlessness, rioting, men like Stokely Carmichael acting as if they speak for the Negro people. They aren't, and set civil rights back 100 years!”

Daniel James Jr. (1920–1978) United States general

As quoted in The Right to Fight: A History of African Americans in The Military (1998), by Gerald Astor, De Capo Press, pp. 440–443

Mark Pesce photo
Eugene V. Debs photo
Marcus Tullius Cicero photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“in order to make himself thoroughly undesirable, he will speak.”

(463).
Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)

Alex Salmond photo
Ayn Rand photo
Arnold Schwarzenegger photo
Lee Smolin photo
Boniface Mwangi photo
Thomas Jefferson photo
Aron Ra photo