Quotes about speaking
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“Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me?
And why should I not speak to you?”

Walt Whitman book Fulles d'herba

Source: Leaves of Grass

“Joy is in the ears that hear, not in the mouth that speaks. The world has few stories glad in themselves, and we must have gay ears to defy Despite”

Stephen R. Donaldson book Lord Foul's Bane

Foamfollower, Lord Foul's Bane

World, Joy

“You can destroy those who speak the truth, but you cannot destroy the truth itself”

Terry Goodkind book The Omen Machine

Source: The Omen Machine

Truth

“Was there a language of loss? Did everyone who suffered speak a different dialect?”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Suffering, Loss

“Roger speaking to Brianna:
It's too important. You don't forget having a dad."
You do remember your father?"
No. I remember yours.”

Diana Gabaldon (1952) American author

Source: An Echo in the Bone

Forgetting

“Sheriff Mossberg was one of those people who never stop speaking until
they are finished, so by this time he was saying: “Do you understand
these rights?”
“No, sir! Mi ne komprenas Dumbtalk!”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Shadow Souls

People, Understanding, Time

“It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Truth

“To read makes our speaking English good.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Reading

“Statistically speaking, there's a better chance that some part of me will go on to greatness somewhere in the world. I'd rather be partly great than entirely useless.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

World, Chance, Parting

“Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?”

Ralph Ellison book Invisible Man

Epilogue (last line of the novel).
Source: Invisible Man (1952)

“So I find words I never thought to speak

In streets I never thought I should revisit

When I left my body on a distant shore.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Distant

“She is . . . the moon in my night sky. And that is the beginning, middle, and end of it. There is no more to be told than that, and never shall I speak of her again.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: The Shadows

Night

“There are things of which I may not speak;
There are dreams that cannot die;
There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,
And bring a pallor into the cheek,
And a mist before the eye.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Dreams, Strong, Heart

“Don't let it worry you, not being able to speak,'Dustfinger had often told her. 'People tend not to listen anyway, right?”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkspell

People

“[She] knew that it was not precisely a body that one loved. One loved the man who shone out through the eyes and used its mouth to smile and speak.”

Louis De Bernières (1954) English novelist

Source: Corelli's Mandolin

Love, Smile

“You are speaking of my future lover. Be more respectful.”

Charlaine Harris book Club Dead

Source: Club Dead

Lovers, Future

“Poets speak of hope in ladies smiles, but give me a smirk any day, I say.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Paladin of Souls

Source: Paladin of Souls

Smile, Hope

“Achilles weeps. He cradles me, and will not eat, nor speak a word other than my name.”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

Source: The Song of Achilles

“Writer speaks a stench.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

“You speak of giving up my dreams. Have you ever, since Maeve's coven split, had a dream? Have you ever had anything worth dying for?”

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes book Snakecharm

Source: Snakecharm

Dreams

“At first, all is black and white.
Black on white.
That's where I'm walking, through pages.
These pages.
Sometimes it gets so that I have one foot in the pages and the words, and the other in what they speak of.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Source: Underdog

“We live in America,' he said. 'Everyone who speaks English understands you. How they interpret you is something else.”

Carrie Fisher book Postcards from the Edge

Source: Postcards from the Edge

Understanding

“Archer reddened to the temples but dared not move or speak: it was as if her words had been some rare butterfly that the least motion might drive off on startled wings, but that might gather a flock if it were left undisturbed.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

“We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the eclat of a proverb.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“It's often only in the lies we refuse to speak that any truth can be heard at all.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

Truth

“You bled on the Speaking stars… I bet there's a law somewhere about that.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Law, Star

“Love and hate had their own secret languages, and Mark and Kieran were speaking in them now.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Love, Hate, Secret

“An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

As quoted in Newsweek (16 May 1955) Variant translation: Asking an artist to talk about his work is like asking a plant to discuss horticulture.

Art

“Don't expect to make a difference unless you speak up for yourself.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

“I do not speak as I think, I do not think as I should, and so it all goes on in helpless darkness.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Thinking

“I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.”

André Breton book Manifestoes of Surrealism

Source: Manifestoes of Surrealism

Dreams, Reality, Future

“Only that man who has offered up himself entire to the blood of war, who has been to the floor of the pit and seen the horror in the round and learned at last that it speaks to his inmost heart, only that man can dance. - The judge”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

Source: Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

War, Learning, Heart, Dance

“Anything we need to know, we can learn it from a book. Reading, careful study, a little practice, and we’re throwing knives expertly, overhauling engines, speaking Esperanto like natives.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

Books, Study, Learning, Reading

“As for monkeys, I would have five, and they would be named: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, Do Pretty Much Whatever The Hell You Want, and Expensive Attorney.”

Tad Williams (1957) novelist

Hell, Evil

“Memory's images, once they are fixed in words, are erased," Polo said. "Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice all at once, if I speak of it, or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little.”

Italo Calvino book Invisible Cities

Source: Invisible Cities

Memory

“It seems an insult to the night to speak of purpose and intent, when this common moment is so brimming full of blessed design tranquility. All things follow their course.”

Anne Rice (1941) American writer

Source: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty

Night

“Do you know how, when you are on the verge of a breakdown, the world pounds in your ears; a rush of blood, of consequence? Do you now how it feels when the truth cuts your tongue to ribbons, and still you have to speak it?”

Jodi Picoult Change of Heart

Source: Change of Heart

Truth, World, Feeling

“Around us the night creatures have their say. We are surrounded by a symphony of crickets and frogs. Neither of us feels the need to speak, and I suppose that is one of the qualities I find comforting in Kartik. We can be alone together.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

Feeling, Night

“To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves”

Will Durant (1885–1981) American historian, philosopher and writer

Durant, Will. Commencement Speech. We Have a Right To Be Happy Today https://web.archive.org/web/20130106111821/http://www.willdurant.com/youth.htm. Webb School of Claremont, CA. 7 Jun 1958. <br class="br">Context: To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves; let us be above such transparent egotism. If you can't say good and encouraging things, say nothing. Nothing is often a good thing to do, and always a clever thing to say.

Way

“It is quite common to hear high officials in Washington and elsewhere speak of changing the map of the Middle East, as if ancient societies and myriad peoples can be shaken up like so many peanuts in a jar.”

Edward Said (1935–2003) Professor of English and literature

People, Change

“Always speak politely to an enraged dragon.”

Steven Brust book Jhereg

Source: Jhereg

“Before speaking, consult your inner-truth barometer, and resist the temptation to tell people only what they want to hear.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

People, Truth

“Ordinary adults don't like children to speak of things that are denied them by their own gray minds.”

Jasper Fforde book The Eyre Affair

Source: The Eyre Affair

Children

“Fading, fading: strength beyond hope and despair climbing the third stair. Lord, I am not worthy Lord, I am not worthy but speak the word only.”

T.S. Eliot book The Waste Land

Source: The Waste Land and Other Poems

Hope, Despair

“And, Bianca, come with me. I would like to speak with you."
"What about me?" Nico asked.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
'Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.
'What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
'I never know what you are thinking. Think.”

T.S. Eliot book The Waste Land

Source: The Waste Land

Thinking, Night

“If your eyes could speak, what would they say?.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

“It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.”

Anne Tyler (1941) American novelist

Children

“Speaking of death, LeBlanc boasted he could kill me in the waiting room. I broke his wrist. He wasn't impressed.”

Kelley Armstrong book Bitten

Source: Bitten

Death, Waiting

“The basic fact is that no, this isnt ideal. Very few things are. Sometimes, you have to manufacture your own history. Give fate a push, so to speak.
-Heidi”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Fate, History

“You are right in speaking of the moral foundations of science, but you cannot turn around and speak of the scientific foundations of morality.”

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

"Physics and Reality" in the Journal of the Franklin Institute Vol. 221, Issue 3 (March 1936), Pages 349-382
1930s
Context: It has often been said, and certainly not without justification, that the man of science is a poor philosopher. Why then should it not be the right thing for the physicist to let the philosopher do the philosophizing? Such might indeed be the right thing to do at a time when the physicist believes he has at his disposal a rigid system of fundamental laws which are so well established that waves of doubt can't reach them; but it cannot be right at a time when the very foundations of physics itself have become problematic as they are now. At a time like the present, when experience forces us to seek a newer and more solid foundation, the physicist cannot simply surrender to the philosopher the critical contemplation of theoretical foundations; for he himself knows best and feels more surely where the shoe pinches. In looking for an new foundation, he must try to make clear in his own mind just how far the concepts which he uses are justified, and are necessities.

Science

“Take the dead from the dead, the old proverb said; only a corpse may speak true prophecy.”

Stephen King book The Gunslinger

Source: The Gunslinger

Dead

“Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people. … The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

People

“Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand.”

Aphra Behn The Rover

The Rover, Part II, Act III, sc. i.

Money, Understanding, Sense

“I do not know anything about Art with a capital A. What I do know about is my art. Because it concerns me. I do not speak for others. So I do not speak for things which profess to speak for others. My art, however, speaks for me. It lights my way.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

Art, Way, Light

“The world in books seemed so much more alive to me than anything outside. I could see things I'd never seen before. Books and music were my best friends. I had a couple of good friends at school, but never met anyone I could really speak my heart to.”

Haruki Murakami book Sputnik Sweetheart

Source: Sputnik Sweetheart

Books, World, School, Music

“They fight a war and they don't know what for. Isn't that crazy? How can one man kill another and not really know the reason why he does it, except that the other man wears a different color uniform and speaks a different language?”

Michael Morpurgo book War Horse

Source: War Horse

War, Color, Fight

“You speak of Lord Byron and me; there is this great difference between us. He describes what he sees I describe what I imagine. Mine is the hardest task.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Imagination

“Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Men

“For to speak the truth, there are but few that care thus to spend their time, but choose rather to be speaking of things to no profit.”

John Bunyan The Pilgrim's Progress

Source: The Pilgrim's Progress

Truth, Time

“Don’t be stupid, Katra. Never speak in anger and never try to force your will onto someone else. You’ll never find peace in that. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

Stupidity, Peace, Anger

“He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Dreams, Idea, Waiting

“To me, poetry is somebody standing up, so to speak, and saying, with as little concealment as possible, what it is for him or her to be on earth at this moment”

Galway Kinnell (1927–2014) Poet

“Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be from his *true* self and not from the self he thinks he *should* be.”

Brenda Ueland (1891–1985) Journalist and writer

Source: If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit

Truth, Thinking

“And he understands. He understands why people hold hands: he’d always thought it was about possessiveness, saying This is mine. But it’s about maintaining contact. It is about speaking without words. It is about I want you with me and don’t go.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

People, Understanding

“It's hard to not like a man who not only notices the colors, but speaks them.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Color

“The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit with out speaking. This is the great paradox.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

People, Silence, Drawing

“He held her close enough to kiss, close enough to whisper the most important secrets in the world, and he spoke to her as he would have wanted some good angel to speak to his family, to his own shivering young soul, long ago and in a land far away.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Saving Raphael Santiago

Secret, World, Family, Angels

“Scars speak for you. They say you're strong, and you've survived something that might have killed others.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: A Mad Zombie Party

Strong

“The names of persons and living creatures demand respect, because when we speak to them we touch their heart and become a part of thier life force.”

Isabel Allende book The Stories of Eva Luna

Source: The Stories of Eva Luna

Life, Heart, Parting, Personality

“Clearly she was expected to say something, but panic at having to speak stole the thoughts from her head.”

Shannon Hale The Goose Girl

Source: The Goose Girl

“Language transcends us and yet, we speak.”

Maurice Merleau-Ponty book Phenomenology of Perception

Source: Phenomenology of Perception (1945), p. 349

“It is a waste, for silence is pure.
Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are
comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great
paradox.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

People, Silence, Drawing

“When in doubt, just spit it out. That all challenges can be overcome by speaking the truth, no matter how itcomes out.”

Dan Brown book Deception Point

Source: Deception Point

Truth

“I like on the table,
when we're speaking,
the light of a bottle
of intelligent wine.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Intelligence, Light, Wine

“You dare speak to me in such an insolent manner?'

'Stop talking like you’re two hundred years old. You’re sixteen, just like me.”

Michelle Rowen (1971) Canadian writer

Source: Reign Fall

“The world is speaking to you every day, you just don't know how to listen.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

World

“Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Source: Self-Reliance

Thinking

“Honey, you need to get laid. (Selena)
Why don’t you speak a little louder, Lanie? I don’t think the guys in Canada were able to hear you. (Grace)
Oh, I don’t know. They’re probably headed south even as we speak. (Waiter)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Fantasy Lover

Source: Fantasy Lover

Guy, Thinking

“Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Source: The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives

Happiness

“She shouldn't speak her thoughts; nothing good ever came of speaking your thoughts.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

“The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

As quoted in Know Your Limits — Then Ignore Them (2000) by John Mason, p. 46

Life, Truth

“If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water's edge.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Variant: If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it...

Water

“It is, I think, that we are all so alone in what lies deepest in our souls, so unable to find the words, and perhaps the courage to speak with unlocked hearts, that we don't know at all that it is the same with others.”

Sheldon Vanauken (1914–1996) American journalist

Source: A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy and Triumph

Soul, Courage, Thinking, Heart

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Attributed to Bonhoeffer on the Internet, and supposedly from Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy http://books.google.com/books?id=aG0q3X8TVpsC&pg=PA486#v=onepage (2010) by Eric Metaxas; however, there is no actual reference in that book. However, in advertising the book Metaxas does state on his site that the quote is from Bonhoeffer. http://ericmetaxas.com/books/bonhoeffer-pastor-martyr-prophet-spy/ First attributed to Bonhoeffer in Explorations 12:1 (1998), p. 3, as referenced by James Cone (2004) Theology's Great Sin: Silence in the Face of White Supremacy, Black Theology, 2:2, 139-152, footnote 1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/blth.2.2.139.36027 <br class="br">Compare "Not to Act, is to Act!" by Francis W. McPeek http://www.ergo-sum.net/pics/McPeek.jpg, The Missionary Herald at Home and Abroad, v.141-142 (1945-1946), "Missionary herald, 1945 - Congregational churches," pp.34-35 (We must realize that church inaction is a form of political action, and it is altogether negative. “Not to act, is to act.”) <br class="br">Misattributed

God, Silence, Evil