Speech Quotes

In anger we should refrain both from speech and action. (Pythagoras)
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. View quote
Confucius
Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another. View quote
Sophocles
In a well-governed country, speak boldly and act boldly. In a country where lawlessness prevails, let your actions be bold but your speech tactful. View quote
Confucius
Speech has been given to man to disguise his thoughts. View quote
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
Silence is as deep as eternity, speech a shallow as time. View quote
Thomas Carlyle
A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. View quote
Ingrid Bergman
It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. View quote
Mark Twain
Speech is the mirror of the soul. View quote
Publilius Syrus
If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. View quote
George Washington
It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them. (Mark Twain)
The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech. View quote
Anthony Kennedy
Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance. View quote
William O. Douglas
Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts. View quote
Thomas Carlyle
Free speech means the right to shout 'theatre' in a crowded fire. View quote
Abbie Hoffman
Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. View quote
Louis Brandeis
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
I think television has betrayed the meaning of democratic speech, adding visual chaos to the confusion of voices. What role does silence have in all this noise? View quote
Federico Fellini
Speech is the small change of silence. View quote
George Meredith
They use thought only to justify their injustices, and speech only to disguise their thoughts. (Voltaire)
Much talking is the cause of danger. Silence is the means of avoiding misfortune. The talkative parrot is shut up in a cage. Other birds, without speech, fly freely about. View quote
Saskya Pandita
The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true. This is the ordinary course in a free society. The response to the unreasoned is the rational; to the uninformed, the enlightened; to the straight-out lie, the simple truth. View quote
Anthony Kennedy
Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech. View quote
Martin Farquhar Tupper
Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better, Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time. View quote
Thomas Carlyle