Public Speaking Quotes

Public Speaking Quotes

If you have a presentation or public speaking opportunity in the near future, you’re likely in need of some inspiration and insight from other public speakers and accomplished communicators. If that’s the case, here are some of the best quotes to inspire your next presentation or speech.

public speaking quotes

1. “A good speech should be like a woman’s skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest.”

– Winston S. Churchill

2. “The royal road to a man’s heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.”

– Dale Carnegie

3. “To sway an audience, you must watch them as you speak.”

– C. Kent Wright

4. “Eloquence is the essential thing in a speech, not information.”

– Mark Twain

5. “If you can’t state your position in eight words, you don’t have a position. “

– Seth Godin

6. “Speak clearly, if you speak at all. Carve every word before you let it fall.”

– Oliver Wendell Holmes

7. “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like cuttlefish squirting out ink.”

– George Orwell

8. “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”

– William Butler Yeats

public speaking quotes

9. “Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

10. “Once you get people laughing, they’re listening and you can tell them almost anything.”

– Herbert Gardner

11. “Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.”

– Jim Rohn

12. “The best speeches come from the heart and reflect your passion. Speak as if your life depended on it.”

– Arvee Robinson

13. “The more strikingly visual your presentation is, the more people will remember it. And more importantly, they will remember you.”

– Paul Arden

14. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

– Abraham Lincoln

public speaking quotes

15. “The most precious things in speech are pauses.”

– Ralph Richardson

16. “So much is said with the electricity of the eyes, the intensity of a whisper. Less is more.”

– Elizabeth Taylor

17. “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”

– William Strunk, Jr.

18. “Be sincere, be brief, be seated.”

– Franklin Roosevelt

19. “The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.”

– Voltaire

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

– Dianna Booher

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

– Mark Twain

22. “If you’re not comfortable with public speaking – and nobody starts out comfortable; you have to learn how to be comfortable – practice. I cannot overstate the importance of practicing. Get some close friends or family members to help evaluate you, or somebody at work that you trust.”

– Hillary Clinton

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

– Lilly Walters

24. “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

25. “The difference between the almost-right word and the right word is really a large matter–’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

– Mark Twain

26. “You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart.”

– John Ford

27. “Make sure you have stopped speaking before your audience has stopped listening.”

– Dorothy Sarnoff

28. “If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time — a tremendous whack.”

– Winston S. Churchill

public speaking quotes

29. “Always give a speech that you would like to hear.”

– Andrii Sedniev

30. “90% of how well the talk will go is determined before the speaker steps on the platform.”

– Somers White

31. “All you need is something to say, and a burning desire to say it… it doesn’t matter where your hands are.”

– Lou Holtz

public speaking quotes

32.“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

– Carl W. Buechner

33. “Find out what’s keeping them up nights and offer hope. Your theme must be an answer to their fears.”

– Gerald C Myers

Conclusion

Love these quotes? Check out the presentations included below, designed by Ethos3.

21 Earth-Shaking Quotes To Start A Presentation from Ethos3

Quotes to Inspire Simplicity from Ethos3

13 Inspiring Quotes about Design from Ethos3

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