Quotes on Public Speaking

I had used eclectic therapy and behavior therapy on myself at the age of 19 to get over my fear of public speaking and of approaching young women in public.

If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.

According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.

Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.

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.

History has repeatedly been changed by people who had the desire and the ability to transfer their convictions and emotions to their listeners.

The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim's sympathies.

Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still.

I never lecture, not because I am shy or a bad speaker, but simply because I detest the sort of people who go to lectures and don't want to meet them.

Publicity, publicity, PUBLICITY is the greatest moral factor and force in our public life.

The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are clever as he.

We don’t ask why God chose as his prophet a stutterer with a public speaking phobia. But we should. The book of Exodus is short on explication, but its stories suggest that introversion plays yin to the yang of extroversion; that the medium is not always the message; and that people followed Moses because his words were thoughtful, not because he spoke them well.

Public speaking is done in the public tongue, the national or tribal language; and the language of our tribe is the men's language. Of course women learn it. We're not dumb. If you can tell Margaret Thatcher from Ronald Reagan, or Indira Gandhi from General Somoza, by anything they say, tell me how. This is a man's world, so it talks a man's language.

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.

Extemporaneous speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public.

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.

Surveys show that the #1 fear of Americans is public speaking. #2 is death. That means that at a funeral, the average American would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.

Every man is eloquent once in his life.

Say not always what you know, but always know what you say.

Never be grandiloquent when you want to drive home a searching truth. Don't whip with a switch that has the leaves on, if you want it to tingle.

If your own mind is muddled, much more will the minds of your hearers be confused.