Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in a few words.
Aprocrypha
Bore: one who has the power of speech but not the capacity for conversation.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)
Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.
Bob Marley (1945 - 1981)
Thought is the fountain of speech.
Chrysippus (280 BC - 207 BC)
Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious1. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous2.
Chuang-tzu (369 BC - 286 BC), On Leveling All Things
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects
All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action.
Demosthenes (384 BC - 322 BC)
Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.
Gore3 Vidal (1925 - )
What this country needs is more free speech worth listening to.
Hansell B. Duckett
Readiness of speech is often inability to hold the tongue.
Jean Baptiste Rousseau
The First Amendment4 is often inconvenient5. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve6 the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.
Justice Anthony Kennedy (1936 - )
Speak when you are angry--and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret.
Laurence J. Peter (1919 - 1988)
It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu7 speech.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Well-timed silence hath more eloquence8 than speech.
Martin Fraquhar Tupper
Be a craftsman9 in speech that thou mayest be strong, for the strength of one is the tongue, and speech is mightier10 than all fighting.
Maxims11 of Ptahhotep, 3400 B.C.
Do not fight verbosity12 with words: speech is given to all, intelligence to few.
Moralia
Tears at times have all the weight of speech.
Ovid (43 BC - 17 AD)
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Maxims
Speech is a mirror of the soul: as a man speaks, so is he.
Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Maxims
In anger we should refrain both from speech and action.
Pythagoras (582 BC - 507 BC)
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.
Saskya Pandita
It is a great thing to know the season for speech and the season for silence.
Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)
Speech is the mirror of the mind.
(Imago Animi Sermo Est)
Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)
Where the speech is corrupted13, the mind is also.
Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)
Discretion14 in speech is more than eloquence.
Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)
Look wise, say nothing, and grunt15. Speech was given to conceal16 thought.
Sir William Osler (1849 - 1919)
Where there is a great deal of free speech there is always a certain amount of foolish speech.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.
Sophocles (496 BC - 406 BC)
Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.
Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881)
