Selected speech quotes

1. Silence sweeter is than speech.

2. We have to put a stop to the idea that it is a part of everybody's civil rights to say whatever he pleases.

3. Here again, there is no tabulation; for us it is left to sacrifice literary charm, and even some accuracy, in order to bring out the one great point. The cause of human sectarianism is not lack of sympathy in thought, but in speech; and this it is our not unambitious design to remedy.

4. The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is beside the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.

5. I lived with people who had varied opinions, some of whom did not accept my Nazi views. I encouraged this. If a man said something that was critical of me or my ideas, I wouldn't consider him an enemy.

6. I would rather be free in my mind, and be locked up in a prison cell, than to be a coward and not be able to say what I want.

7. You are going to use this courtroom to kill me? I am going to fight for my life one way or another. You should let me do it with words.

8. Thoughts, words, ideas and information, free from any bonds or restrictions, is the very concrete which pours out a foundation strong enough that upon which a house, stable and lasting, of true freedom and liberty may be built.

9. Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group of vigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they don't seem to see this.

10. An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak, and impossible to be silent.

11. They only babble who practise not reflection.

12. Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.

13. Let thy speech of God be renewed day by day, aye, rather than thy meat and drink.

14. It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember.

15. Soun is noght but air ybroken, And every speche that is spoken, Loud or privee, foul or fair, In his substaunce is but air; For as flaumbe is but lighted smoke, Right so soun is air ybroke.

16. Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

17. It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.

18. If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

19. A full and fair discussion is essential to democracy.

20. I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to come and witness my hanging.

21. I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now watch this drive.

22. My Geordie is probably just about as bad as my English.

23. In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude.

24. Remarks are not literature.

25. Those of you who speak only English, applaud [audience applause]. Those of you who speak only Spanish, applaud [audience applause]. [In mock incredulity] Then how do you know what I just said?

26. Some people think that all the equipment you need to discuss religion is a mouth.

27. Heavens, no! It could get subpoenaed. I can't write anything.

28. Sometimes people mistake the way I talk for what I am thinking.

29. There are more ways of outraging speech than contradiction merely.

30. Words and works eat not at one table.

31. Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.

32. Don't speak evil of someone if you don't know for certain, and if you do know ask yourself, why am I telling it?

33. The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

34. The talkative man speaks from his mouth, the eloquent man speaks from his heart.

35. In the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy.

36. I like people who refuse to speak until they are ready to speak.

37. If someone had told me, don't say anything about Lillian Hellman because she'll sue you, it wouldn't have stopped me. It might have spurred me on.

38. I think, with never-ending gratitude, that the young women of today do not and can never know at what price their right to free speech and to speak at all in public has been earned.

39. I was a woman before I was an abolitionist. I must speak for the women.

40. My basic rule is to speak slowly and simply so that my audience has an opportunity to follow and think about what I am saying.

41. If a young girl is being forced into a brothel she will not talk about her rights. In such a situation the word would sound ludicrously inadequate. [p.63]

42. It's better to be quotable than to be honest.

43. I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, I speak like a child.

44. Why is there such a gap between nonspeaking animals and speaking man, when there is no other such gap in nature? Is it possible that a theory of man is nothing more nor less than a theory of the speaking creatures? [citation needed]

45. A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.

46. You say, as I have often given tongue In praise of what another's said or sung, 'Twere politic to do the like by these; But was there ever a dog that praised his fleas?

47. I had thought, seeing how bitter is that wind That shakes the shutter, to have brought to mind All those that manhood tried, or childhood loved Or boyish intellect approved, With some appropriate commentary on each; Until imagination brought A fitter welcome; but a thought Of that late death took all my heart for speech.

48. I am out of humanity's reach. I must finish my journey alone, Never hear the sweet music of speech; I start at the sound of my own.

49. Liberals were intimidated by the Reagan administration and did not want to appear naive by talking about programs that called for government support. I just said, 'The hell with that. I'm out there. I'm exposed with this book.'

50. A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purposes when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance of an idea.

51. We can say what we like without favour or fear and what we can't say we can breathe in your ear

52. ...the 'finely polished word' of Hans Fritzsche was as effective as the surgeon's knife in cutting through the putrefying tissue of lies and laying bare the truth.

53. And surely one of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid:

54. 'If the Jews want to get it on,' he said, 'tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.'

55. I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot', so I - so kind of an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards.

56. Those that merely talk and never think, That live in the wild anarchy of drink.

57. I often quote myself. I find it adds spice to the conversation.

58. Thy words are like a cloud of winged snakes; And yet I pity those they torture not.

59. The right honorable gentlemen is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.

60. Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.

61. You have the right to bear arms, you have the right to arm bears, what ever the hell you want to do!

62. Declamation roared, while Passion slept.

63. Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself ... She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men.

64. Honey, I forgot to duck.

65. A jest breaks no bones.

66. His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought. Ch.2, p.35

67. We do not stray out of all words into the ever silent; We do not raise our hands to the void for things beyond hope. ~ 16

68. So now, Athenian men, more than on my own behalf must I defend myself, as some may think, but on your behalf, so that you may not make a mistake concerning the gift of god by condemning me. For if you kill me, you will not easily find another such person at all, even if to say in a ludicrous way, attached on the city by the god, like on a large and well-bred horse, by its size and laziness both needing arousing by some gadfly; in this way the god seems to have fastened me on the city, some such one who arousing and persuading and reproaching each one of you I do not stop the whole day settling down all over. Thus such another will not easily come to you, men, but if you believe me, you will spare me; but perhaps you might possibly be offended, like the sleeping who are awakened, striking me, believing Anytus, you might easily kill, then the rest of your lives you might continue sleeping, unless the god caring for you should send you another.

69. Right here let me make as vigorous a plea as I know how in favor of saying nothing that we do not mean, and of acting without hesitation up to whatever we say. A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick - you will go far.' If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power. In private life there are few beings more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting, and if the boaster is not prepared to back up his words, his position becomes absolutely contemptible. So it is with the nation. It is both foolish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, and, above all, in loose-tongued denunciation of other peoples. Whenever on any point we come in contact with a foreign power, I hope that we shall always strive to speak courteously and respectfully of that foreign power.

70. Alexander von Humboldt (seeing a newspaper containing slanderous falsehoods against Jefferson on the President's desk) : Why do you not have the fellow hung who dares to write these abominable lies? Jefferson : What! hang the guardians of the public morals? No, sir, - rather would I protect the spirit of freedom which dictates even that degree of abuse. Put that paper into your pocket, my good friend, carry it with you to Europe, and when you hear any one doubt the reality of American freedom, show them that paper, and tell them where you found it. Humboldt : But is it not shocking that virtuous characters should be defamed? Jefferson : Let their actions refute such libels. Believe me, virtue is not long darkened by the clouds of calumny; and the temporary pain which it causes is infinitely overweighed by the safety it insures against degeneracy in the principles and conduct of public functionaries. When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.

71. What has Anarchism to say to all this, this bankruptcy of republicanism, this modern empire that has grown up on the ruins of our early freedom? We say this, that the sin our fathers sinned was that they did not trust liberty wholly. They thought it possible to compromise between liberty and government, believing the latter to be 'a necessary evil,' and the moment the compromise was made, the whole misbegotten monster of our present tyranny began to grow. Instruments which are set up to safeguard rights become the very whip with which the free are struck. Anarchism says, Make no laws whatever concerning speech, and speech will be free; so soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free, you will have a hundred lawyers proving that 'freedom does not mean abuse, nor liberty license'; and they will define and define freedom out of existence. Let the guarantee of free speech be in every man's determination to use it, and we shall have no need of paper declarations. On the other hand, so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.

72. 'Get out o' Mr. Fletcher's road, ye idle, lounging, little - ' 'Vagabond,' I think the woman (Sally Walkins, once my nurse,) was going to say, but she changed her mind.

73. When others insult, rebuke and speak unpleasant words to us, although an intolerable pain arises like a thorn at the heart, if we comprehend the teachings then we can recognize the essenceless nature of these words which resemble an echo. So just as when an inanimate object is scolded, we will experience not the slightest mental turmoil.

74. (when Eddie tries to interupt Rock after La Bamba) Y arriba y arriba!

75. 'Thank you, thank you very much!'

76. Excuse me while I light my spliff, good God i gotta get a lift

77. I love freedom of speech.

78. Positiveness is a good quality for preachers and orators, because he that would obtrude his thoughts and reasons upon a multitude, will convince others the more, as he appears convinced himself.

79. There are 'white niggers'; I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time, if you want to use that word.

80. A Parliament speaking through reporters to Buncombe and the twenty-seven millions, mostly fools.

81. When I warned them that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, 'In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken... ' Some chicken; some neck.'- Refering to France in a speech to the Canadian Parliament 1941

82. As far as Hitler is concerned, we regarded him as a true man. He was only a corporal when he earned the Iron Cross First Class in World War I. In those days that was quite an achievement. When he spoke at meetings or rallies he managed to captivate his audience. He was able to get us in a mood where we believed everything he said and we left fired with enthusiasms. Everyone I met respected and trusted Hitler and I myself shared these feelings and opinions.

83. Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vols. 1 and 2, Oxford University Press, 1942.

84. Murder? Don't talk to me about murder. I invented murder!

85. Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition. Since, under present circumstances, free and unhindered discussion of these problems has come under a powerful taboo, I consider the foundation of this magazine to be an important public service.

86. This laurel greener from the brows Of him that uttered nothing base.

87. You, why do you let me say such things when and where I shouldn't?' 'the problem is not ordering the course of your speech. Its shutting you up in the first place'

88. I'm here, I'm not queer, and I'm not going away.

89. There is, perhaps, no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilised and free countries, than the neccessity of listening to sermons.

90. Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd rather have been talking.

91. I've known Reverend Wright for almost twenty years. The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met twenty years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church. They certainly don't portray accurately my values and beliefs and if Reverend Wright thinks that's political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn't know me very well and based on his remarks yesterday, well I may not know him as well as I thought either.

92. And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama... Obama. Well, both would look good. [laughs]

93. One, though he be excellent and the chief, is not to be imitated alone; for never no imitator ever grew up to his author; likeness is always on this side truth. Yet there happened in my time one noble speaker, who was full of gravity in his speaking; his language (where he could spare or pass by a jest) was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough, or look aside from him, without loss. He commanded where he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end.

94. Cited as being from a December 1913 speech by William Manley German in the Canadian House of Commons, on what he said Franklin claimed 'was the real cause of the War of Independence.'

95. Ahern has had his speaking style described as 'Bertispeak 'It is not correct, and if I said so, I was not correct -- I cannot recall if I said it, but I did not say, or if I did, I did not mean to say it -- ' [6]

96. Let me tell you something-wait a minute. You know one thing that's wrong with this country? Everybody gets a chance to have their fair say-my budget did more to fight AIDS than any in history, and we're having to put up with this. Tell them to let me talk. If you want to give a speech-go out there and raise your own crowd. We'll be glad to listen to you. So there were those-I'll make you a deal. I'll ignore them if you will.

97. When Bob's talking, have no doubt, seen?

98. I have a crazy quirk, Eugene. I like to say what I think. And if you're gonna work for the Jews, you can no longer say what you think. You can't say the holocaust never happened, for example. That is an absolute no-no. You can't say that circumcision is a crime. There are so many things you cannot say once you get on the Jewish bandwagon. ... There used to be a lot of people like me, but little by little the Jewish spirit seems to be conquering all.

99. Lynda Carter, Wonder Woman, is a beautiful, lovely woman and it broke my heart when she married that dirty Jewish thief. She married a dirty Jewish criminal who got in trouble for some huge scam like all the Jews... Lynda, if you ever leave this Jewish thief, if you've ever had enough, give me a call. Maybe it's not too late for us.

100. Prudence: 'Speak rarely, but then speak carefully. Speak with great calculation and discretion before your rivals and with great nobility of manner before friends. The opportunity to make your thoughts known arise with every social gathering, but the ability to conceal them once liberated never comes.'