An overview of our favorite public speaking quotes.

2. “You can speak well if your tongue can deliver
the message of your heart.”
John Ford

3. “Be still when you have nothing to say; when
genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to
say, and say it hot.”
D.H. Lawrence

4. “Let thy speech be better
than silence, or be silent.”
Dionysius Of Halicarnassus

5. “What we say is
important… for in most
cases the mouth speaks what
the heart is full of.”
Jim Beggs

6. “If you can’t write your message in a sentence,
you can’t say it in an hour.”
Dianna Booher

7. “There are always three
speeches, for every one you
actually gave. The one you practiced,
the one you gave, and the one
you wish you gave.”
Dale Carnegie

8. “It usually takes me more than three weeks
to prepare a good impromptu speech.”
Mark Twain

9. “A good orator is pointed
and impassioned.”
Marcus T. Cicero

10. “Oratory is the power to
talk people out of their
sober and natural
opinions.”
Joseph Chatfield

11. “He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right
argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been
greater than the power of sense.”
Joseph Conrad

12. “There are three things to aim at in
public speaking: first, to get into
your subject, then to get your subject
into yourself, and lastly, to get your
subject into the heart of your
audience.”
Alexander Gregg

13. “The success of your
presentation will be
judged not by the
knowledge you send but by
what the listener receives.”
Lilly Walters

14. “If you don’t know what you
want to achieve in your
presentation your audience never
will.”
Harvey Diamond

15. “Best way to conquer stage fright is
to know what you’re talking about.”
Michael H. Mescon

16. “There are only two types of
speakers in the world. 1.
The nervous and 2. Liars.”
Mark Twain

17. “No one ever complains about
a speech being too short!”
Ira Hayes

18. “90% of how well the talk will go is
determined before the speaker steps
on the platform.”
Somers White

19. “It takes one hour of
preparation for each minute
of presentation time.”
Wayne Burgraff

20. “The most precious things
in speech are the pauses.”
Sir ralph richardson

21. “Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.”
Martin Fraquhar Tupper

22. “They may forget what you said, but they
will never forget how you made them feel.”
Carl W. Buechner

23. “The problem with speeches isn’t so
much not knowing when to stop, as
knowing when not to begin.”
Frances Rodman

24. “Words have incredible power. They
can make people’s hearts soar, or they
can make people’s hearts sore.”
Dr. Mardy Grothe

25. “Speech is power: speech is to
persuade, to convert, to compel.”
Ralph waldo emerson

26. “The right word may be effective, but
no word was ever as effective as a
rightly timed pause.”
Mark Twain

27. For more on great tips for presentations,
public speaking, and design, visit
www.bigfishpresentations.com.