Quotes about speaking
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“Speak the truth, or it will reveal itself.”

Titon Rahmawan

#speak the truth

Truth

“If he speaks again without me knowing who he is, I will throw him out of the window. And I won't open it first.”

Dan Abnett (1965) British comic book writer, novelist

Source: Xenos

“Broadly speaking, short words are best, and the old words, when short, are best of all.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech on receiving the London Times Literary Award November 2, 1949
Never Give In! The Best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches, Hyperion (2003), p. 453 ISBN ISBN 1401300561
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Source: Never Give In!: The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches

“We all know that light travels faster than sound. That's why certain people appear bright until you hear them speak.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

People, Travel, Light, Appearance

“The mystery of death, the riddle of how you could speak to someone and see them every day and then never again, was so impossible to fathom that of course we kept trying to figure it out, even when we were unconscious.”

Francine Prose (1947) American writer

Source: Goldengrove

Death

“We can either emphasize those aspects of our traditions, religious or secular, that speak of hatred, exclusion, and suspicionwork with those that stress the interdependence and equality of all human beings. The choice is yours. (22)”

Karen Armstrong (1944) author and comparative religion scholar from Great Britain

Source: Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life

“Everything I know and I am and I have seen felt done past present past now then before now seen felt done hurt felt focus into a something beyond words beyond beyond beyond and it speaks now and it says.
Stay.
Fight.
Live.
Take it.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

Past, Fight, Hurt

“Most women fight wars on two fronts, one for whatever the putative topic is and one simply for the right to speak, to have ideas, to be acknowledged to be in possession of facts and truths, to have value, to be a human being.”

Rebecca Solnit book Men Explain Things To Me

Source: Men Explain Things to Me

Women, War, Truth, Idea

“But still there are moments when a brother and sister can lay down their instruments of torture for a moment and speak as civilized human beings and Bruno decided to make this one of those moments.”

John Boyne (1971) Irish novelist, author of children's and youth fiction

Source: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Sister

“I'm tired and I want to rest; I want to get out of this and go lie down somewhere, off where it's dark and no one speaks. Forever.”

Philip K. Dick book Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb

Source: Dr. Bloodmoney

Lie

“Wherever I go, I will speak of you with love.”

Clive Barker book The Thief of Always

Source: The Thief of Always

Love

“It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.”

Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927) English humorist

Idler Magazine, Volume 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=vMYaAAAAYAAJ&q=exceptionally+good+liar#search_anchor|The

Truth

“Let us tenderly and kindly cherish therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

1760s, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)
Source: The Works Of John Adams, Second President Of The United States

Knowledge, Thinking, Reading

“When a man says he does not want to speak of something he usually means he can think of nothing else.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Thinking

“It’s said that actions speak louder than words,” he went on, “but we still need words. We need to speak and we need to be heard.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: One with You

“Generally speaking, colour is a power which directly influences the soul. Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammer, the soul is the strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.”

Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) Russian painter

V. The psychological working of Colour: Quoted in: Hajo Düchting (2000) Wassily Kandinsky, 1866-1944: A Revolution in Painting. p. 17
Alternative translation:
Colour is a means of exerting direct influence on the soul. Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hands which plays touching one key or another purposively to cause vibrations in the Soul; in: Anna Moszynska, Abstract Art, Thames and Hudson, 1990
Source: 1910 - 1915, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1911

Soul

“Chance and chance alone has a message for us… Only chance can speak to us.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Two: Soul and Body, pg 48

Chance

“Statistically speaking, there is a 65 percent chance that the love of your life is having an affair. Be very suspicious.”

Scott Dikkers (1965) American comic writer

Source: You Are Worthless: Depressing Nuggets of Wisdom Sure to Ruin Your Day

Love, Life, Chance

“After a long silence, Dodge cleared his throat. "I think I speak for all of us when I say, 'Huh?'"
-Dodge(obviously)”

Frank Beddor Seeing Redd

Source: Seeing Redd

Thinking, Silence

“Here I am in a rabbit run, here I am in a valley of pine, waiting for you to find me. I could pretend I’m speaking to everyone—assume a middle distance and transcend myself—but I’m taking to you and you know it.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Waiting

“I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.”

Dr. Seuss The Lorax

Variant: I speak for the trees!
Source: The Lorax

Tree

“The relativism which is not willing to speak about truth but only about ‘what is true for me’ is an evasion of the serious business of living. It is the mark of a tragic loss of nerve in our contemporary culture. It is a preliminary symptom of death.”

Lesslie Newbigin (1909–1998) Christian missionary

Source: The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

Death, Truth, Business, Loss

“I was in a tailspin of confusion I hadn't experienced since the first time I heard George W. Bush speak.”

Chelsea Handler (1975) American comedian, actress, author and talk show host

Source: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands

Time

“To speak robin to a robin is like speaking French to a Frenchman”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“You must let suffering speak, if you want to hear the truth”

Cornel West (1953) African-American philosopher and political/civil rights activist

Truth, Suffering

“My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.”

Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995) American novelist and short story writer

People, Imagination

“Words deserted him immediately. He could only speak when he was not asked to.”

E.M. Forster book Maurice

Source: Maurice

“There was more to say, but for once we did not say it. There would be other times for speaking, tonight and tomorrow and all the days after that. He let go of my hand.”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

Source: The Song of Achilles

Time

“There are kinds of pain that you can't speak out loud.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Variant: Even though it hurt, there are kinds of pain you couldn't speak out loud.
Source: Handle with Care

Pain

“This is slavery, not to speak one's thought.”

Euripidés The Phoenician Women

Variant: Who dares not speak his free thoughts is a slave.
Source: The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 BC)

“The words given voice inside the mind are not always clear, however; they can be gentle and elliptical, what the prophets call the, the daughter of the voice of God, she who speaks in whispers and half-seen images.”

Laurie R. King book The Beekeeper's Apprentice

Source: The Beekeeper's Apprentice

God, Daughters

“The goodbyes we speak and the goodbyes we hear are the good byes that tell us we're still alive.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: Wolves of the Calla

“He may well speak French and Latin and half a dozen languages, but since he has nothing to say – what good are they?”

Philippa Gregory book The Constant Princess

Source: The Constant Princess

“Speaking of Sonya… I was thinking of something earlier. Something Wolfe said."

"Why, Adrian. Were you paying attention after all?"

"Don't start, Sage," he warned.(p 211)”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Thinking, Wolf

“In the future, I'll be braver, she told herself. In the future, I will always speak my mind, eloquently, passionately.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Passion, Future

“There's a light in a woman's eyes that speaks louder than words.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Hound of the Baskervilles

Source: The Hound of the Baskervilles

Light

“Solitude is not the absence of company, but the moment when our soul is free to speak to us and help us decide what to do with our life.”

Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra

Source: Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), Solitude

Life, Soul, Solitude, Help

“I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Variant: What I write is different from what I say, what I say is different from what I think, what I think is different from what I ought to think and so it goes further into the deepest darkness.

Way, Thinking

“So my own sister will not promote me? Speaking of which, weren't you supposed to find me a beautiful future wife with a small fortune? Have you had any success on that front?
- Yes - I have warned them all.”

Libba Bray book Rebel Angels

Source: Rebel Angels

Beauty, Sister, Success, Future

“It is important to speak your truth, not to convince anyone else of it. Everyone must make up their own minds.”

Barbara Marciniak (1928–2012)

Source: Family of Light: Pleiadian Tales and Lessons in Living

Truth

“Speak your mind even if your voice shakes.”

Maggie Kuhn (1905–1995) American activist

“Silence is pure and holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

People, Silence, Drawing

“I always feel uncomfortable when people speak about ordinary mortals because I've never met an ordinary man, woman or child.”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Source: The Power of Myth

People, Feeling

“It is my wish that you may have at better and freer life than I have had. Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience; this was what upheld me in time of misery.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer

Life, Money, Happiness, Children

“My grief was cold. It was nothing to share. It was nothing to speak about, nothing to feel.”

Alice Hoffman book Green Angel

Source: Green Angel

Feeling

“I have to speak my mind. Because what is in my mind is always more interesting than what is happening in the world outside my mind.”

John Wilmot (1748–1815) English politician

World

“WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES when we go against our instincts? What are the consequences of not speaking out? What are the consequences of guilt, shame, and doubt?”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

“How many times… have you encountered the saying, 'When the student is ready, the Master speaks?' Do you know why that is true? The door opens. The Master is everywhere, but the student has to open his mind to hear the Masters Voice.”

Robert Anton Wilson book Masks of the Illuminati

Source: Masks of the Illuminati

Time

“It was a rather extraordinary conversation if you think about it -- both of us speaking in code. But not military code, not Intelligence or Resistance code -- just feminine code.”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

Intelligence, Thinking

“I am troubled, immeasurably
by your eyes.
I am struck by the feather
of your soft reply.
The sound of glass
speaks quick, disdain
and conceals
what your eyes fight
to explain.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

Source: Wilderness: The Lost Writings, Vol. 1

Fight

“Lips to lips, mouth to mouth,
Comes the speaker of the shrouds,
Suck in the spirit, speak the words,
Let secrets of the dead be heard.”

Yasmine Galenorn (1961) American writer

Source: Witchling

Secret, Dead

“Because they knew each other's thoughts, they even quarrelled without speaking.”

Bruce Chatwin (1940–1989) English novelist

Source: On The Black Hill

“Sorry, No conprendo I don't speak Loser.”

Lisi Harrison book The Clique

Source: The Clique

“It is important that you say what you mean to say. Time is too short. You must speak the words that matter.”

Kate DiCamillo The Magician's Elephant

Source: The Magician's Elephant

Time

“There were some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Marriage Plot

Variant: There are some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things.
Source: The Marriage Plot

Life, Books

“Sometimes, you have to manufacture your own history. Give fate a push, so to speak.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Fate, History

“Learn a language of another country and then you can go to that country: a place where the problems of your family will not follow. A language they do not speak.”

Alice Sebold book Lucky

Source: Lucky

Family, Problem, Learning, Country

“Speak in extremes, it'll save you time.”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

Time

“… if I have ever met someone without a single shadow on their heart, it was surely a child too young for speaking.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Heart

“Did you really think I was too fragile to know what Deryn was?"

"Fragile?" Volger looked about. "I hadn't thought so, but now I find you brooding in a bathroom. This doesn't speak well of your sturdiness.”

Scott Westerfeld book Goliath

Source: Goliath

Thinking

“… if a child waited to speak until all the grown-ups settled down and gave her some room to say her piece, the most important things would never get said.”

Katherine Hannigan Ida B.

Source: Ida B.

Waiting

“The day we see the truth and cease to speak is the day we begin to die”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Truth

“Death is the number two fear that people have and public speaking is the first!”

Sidney Sheldon (1917–2007) American writer

Death, People, Fear

“Speaking of hope, did you see that shot Alec got off with his bow? That's my boyfriend.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Hope

“When speaking to a Bear of Very Little Brain, remember that long words may bother him.”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

Variant: For I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me.
Source: Pooh's Little Instruction Book

“The Wise are silent, the Foolish speak, and children are thus led astray.”

Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951) English short story writer and novelist

Children

“Speaking of ways, pet, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

Mrs Whatsit, Ch. 1
Source: A Wrinkle in Time (1962)

Way

“Until I understood why you didn't cry, even though it hurt: there are kinds of pain you couldn't speak out loud.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Pain, Hurt, Cry

“He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands.”

Susanna Clarke book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Source: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

World, Understanding, Time, Waiting

“No one gets angry at a mathematician or a physicist whom he or she doesn't understand at all, or at someone who speaks a foreign language, but rather at someone who tampers with your own language, with this 'relation,' precisely, which is yours.”

Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) French philosopher (1930-2004)

Derrida Jacques, Elisabeth Weber (1995), Points...: Interviews, 1974-1994. p. 115

Understanding

“You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking and looking, and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Women, Thinking

“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

Learning

“When I pass, speak freely of my shortcomings and my flaws. Learn from them, for I'll have no ego to injure.”

Aaron McGruder (1974) American cartoonist

Source: The Boondocks: Because I Know You Don't Read the Newspaper

Learning

“It is not theft, properly speaking, to take secretly and use another's property in a case of extreme need: because that which he takes for the support of his life becomes his own property by reason of that need”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

Life, Support

“We can speak without voice to the trees and the clouds and the waves of the sea. Without words they respond through the rustling of leaves and the moving of clouds and the murmuring of the sea.”

Paul Tillich (1886–1965) German-American theologian and philosopher

Tree, Sea

“Explaining something makes it go away, so to speak; what's important is left after you have explained everything else.”

Edward Gorey (1925–2000) American writer, artist, and illustrator

Source: Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“The muffled syllables that Nature speaks
Fill us with deeper longing for her word;
She hides a meaning that the spirit seeks,
She makes a sweeter music than is heard.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

Music, Nature

“I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

Source: Dubliners

“After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?”

Russell Hoban (1925–2011) American British novelist, children's writer and illustrator

People

“Actions speak louder than words, and a smile says, ‘I like you. You make me happy. I am glad to see you.”

Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People

Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Happiness, Smile, Happy

“I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more as I grow older.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book iii. Chap 2. Of Repentance
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Truth

“Costis bowed stiffly. “I am here to make sure that you stay in bed, Your Majesty, because if this offends you and you order me summarily executed, it is no loss. Politically speaking.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Loss

“There is no other way of guarding oneself against flattery than by letting men understand that they will not offend you by speaking the truth; but when everyone can tell you the truth, you lose their respect.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 23; translated by Luigi Ricci

Men, Truth, Way, Understanding

“Quantum theory provides us with a striking illustration of the fact that we can fully understand a connection though we can only speak of it in images and parables.”

Werner Heisenberg book The Part and The Whole

Die Quantentheorie ist so ein wunderbares Beispiel dafür, daß man einen Sachverhalt in völliger Klarheit verstanden haben kann und gleichzeitig doch weiß, daß man nur in Bildern und Gleichnissen von ihm reden kann. <br class="br">Der Teil und das Ganze. Gespräche im Umkreis der Atomphysik (1969); also in "Kein Chaos, aus dem nicht wieder Ordnung würde", Die Zeit No. 34 (22 August 1969) http://www.zeit.de/1969/34/kein-chaos-aus-dem-nicht-wieder-ordnung-wuerde/komplettansicht; as translated in Physics and Beyond : Encounters and Conversation (1971)

Understanding

“Choosing with integrity means finding ways to speak up that honor your reality, the reality of others, and your willingness to meet in the center of that large field. It’s hard sometimes.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Way, Reality

“So you're not going to speak tonight," Tessa said. "At all."
"Not unless you instruct me to," said Will.
"This evening sounds as if it might be better than I thought.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel