speech - quotes

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), 1819-1880

was an English novelist

When one is grateful for something too good for common thanks, writing is less unsatisfactory than speech — one does not, at least, hear how inadequate the words are.

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), 1835-1910

was an US humorist, novelist, short story author, and wit

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

( “Following the Equator”,p 195, 1897 )

George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950

was an Irish dramatist and socialist

The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.

Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881

was a Scottish author, essayist, and historian

Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.