Mark Twain

It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.

Topic: Communication, Public Speaking, Speech
Location: Bermuda
Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin

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I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.

› Mark Twain

Fear Worry

Friendship Grief Happiness

Most men die at 27, we just bury them at 72.

Action Communication Leadership

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably gracious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

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Children must be taught how to think, not what to think. — Margaret Mead

Education Example Thinking

Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility. — Sigmund Freud

Fear Freedom Responsibility

We are afraid to care too much, for we fear that the other person does not care at all. — Eleanor Roosevelt

Expectations Fear Self-esteem

Both optimist and pessimist contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute. — George Bernard Shaw

Attitude Optimism Pessimism Society

Virtue

Every one is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing it is stupid. — Albert Einstein

Education Inspiration Perception

We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls. — Anais Nin

Perception Travel

It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate. — Henry David Thoreau

Destiny Thinking

It is not the big farmers who reap all the harvest. — Irish Proverb

Action Success Work

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An empty bag cannot stand up straight. — Benjamin Franklin

Character Communication Confidence Integrity Leadership Respect

If you want to win friends, make it a point to remember them. If you remember my name, you pay me a subtle compliment; you indicate that I have made an impression on you. Remember my name and you add to my feeling of importance. — Dale Carnegie

Communication compliment

If I listen I have the advantage. If I speak, others have it. — Confucius

Communication Listening Speech

I have never been hurt by anything I didn't say. — Calvin Coolidge

Communication Listening

No one cares to speak to an unwilling listener. — St. Jerome

Communication Listening Speech

Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled. — Horace

Communication

Words are the physicians of the mind diseased. — Aeschylus

Affirmation Communication Health

I have a respect for manners as such, they are a way of dealing with people you don't agree with or like. — Margaret Mead

Communication Conflict Respect

Madness does not govern a country; discussion does.

› Ethiopian Proverb

Communication Conflict Peace

The first duty of love is to listen. — Paul Tillich

Communication Listening Love

Whatever advice you give, be brief. — Horace

Advice Communication Speech

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.

› Cicero

Communication Listening

It is a bad game where nobody wins. — Italian Proverb

Communication Conflict Negotiation Persuasion Wisdom

The empty vessel makes the greatest sound. — William Shakespeare

Character Communication Leadership Reputation

To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing. — Mark Twain

Communication

The world is a mountain, in which your words are echoed back to you.

› Rumi

Communication Life

A man's ruin lies in his tongue. — Egyptian Proverb

Communication Listening Speech

The better you are at communicating negotiating, and handling your fear of rejection, the easier life is.

› Robert Kiyosaki

Communication Fear Negotiation

Whatever you think about and talk about, eventually comes about. — Jeffrey Benjamin

Affirmation Communication Thinking

Many people who have the gift of gab don’t know how to wrap it up. — Arnold Glasow

Communication

Brevity is the soul of wit. — William Shakespeare

Communication Public Speaking Speech

Mend your speech a little, Lest you may mar your fortunes. — William Shakespeare

Communication Public Speaking Speech Wisdom

Listening is the best way to learn. — Jeffrey Benjamin

Communication Learning Listening

You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life. — Zig Ziglar

Communication

For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, to stir men's blood: I only speak right on. — William Shakespeare

Communication Public Speaking Speech

Oral delivery aims at persuasion and making the listener believe they are converted. Few persons are capable of being convinced; the majority allow themselves to be persuaded. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Accountability Listening Negotiation Persuasion Public Speaking Self

Be not careless in your deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought. — Marcus Aurelius

Action Communication Public Speaking Speech Thinking

We know how to speak many falsehoods which resemble real things, but we know, when we will, how to speak true things.

› Hesiod

Public Speaking Speech Truth

I never met a speaker more important than a listener. — Jeffrey Benjamin

Leadership Listening Public Speaking Speech

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself. — Blaise Pascal

Action Public Speaking Reputation Speech

You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere. — Lee Iacocca

Communication Confidence Public Speaking Speech

Fear will either control you or set you free. — Jeffrey Benjamin

Courage Fear Freedom Public Speaking

Don't raise your voice, improve your argument. — Desmond Tutu

Communication Conflict Listening Negotiation Persuasion Public Speaking

Public speaking is a skill you get great at, just like anything else, with practice. — Jeffrey Benjamin

Practice Public Speaking Speech Work

Give thy thoughts no tongue. — William Shakespeare

Communication Listening Public Speaking Solitude Speech Thinking

Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style. — Jonathan Swift

Communication Public Speaking Speech

A wise man fills his brains before emptying his mouth. — Kenyan Proverb

Knowledge Public Speaking Speech Wisdom

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. — Coco Chanel

Courage Public Speaking Self Self-esteem Thinking

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

Communication Public Speaking

Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. — Aristotle

Communication Persuasion Public Speaking Speech

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. — Winston Churchill

Courage Listening Public Speaking Speech

We cannot have expression till there is something to be expressed. — Margaret Fuller

Communication Public Speaking Speech

People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint.

› Steve Jobs

Communication Public Speaking Speech

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

Communication Practice Public Speaking Speech

A scared thing is timely silence, and better than any speech. — Plutarch

Public Speaking Speech

Speak, hands, for me! — William Shakespeare

Communication Public Speaking

Understanding a question is half an answer.

› Socrates

Communication Listening Public Speaking Speech Thinking

A poet can survive everything but a misprint. — Oscar Wilde

Integrity Mistakes Public Speaking Speech

If we tried to sink the past beneath our feet, be sure the future would not stand. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Freedom Liberty Society Speech

We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green.

› G. K Chesterton

Liberty Speech

When angry, count to ten before you speak; if very angry, one hundred.

› Thomas Jefferson

Communication Public Speaking Speech

Let no one be willing to speak ill of the absent. — Sextus Propertius

Communication Criticism Speech

Speech is a mirror of the soul: as a man speaks, so is he. — Publilius Syrus

Communication Perception Speech

Though I sit down now, the time will come when you will hear me. — Benjamin Disraeli

Leadership Listening Patience Speech Time

It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.

› Thomas Sowell

Speech Thinking

Listen with ears of tolerance, see through the eyes of compassion, speak with language of love.

› Rumi

Communication Listening Love Speech

The way to become boring is to say everything. — Voltaire

Communication Listening Speech

Man's tongue is soft, and bone doth lack; yet a stroke therewith may break a man's back.

› Benjamin Franklin

Communication Speech

You have the right to offend me. — Jeffrey Benjamin

Confidence Conflict Self-esteem Speech

A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

› John Adams

Freedom Liberty Speech

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. — George Washington

Freedom Speech

In anger we should refrain both from speech and action. — Pythagoras

Action Anger Speech

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees. — Benjamin Franklin

Communication Peace Speech

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the right of the people to peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. -First Amendment

› Constitution of the United States

Freedom Speech