Public Speaking Quotes from Famous Speakers
You can improve your value by 50 percent just by learning communication skills, especially public speaking.
Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory. He who enjoys it wields a power more durable than that of a great king.
Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership.
According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.
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.
Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.
All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.
Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.
If I went back to college again, I'd concentrate on two areas: learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.
The success of your presentation will be judged not by the knowledge you send but by what the listener receives.
If you want to impress people, talk about your successes. But if you want to impact people, talk about your failures.
It usually takes me several hours to prepare a good impromptu speech.
Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.
Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.
Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible.
It is not enough to know what we ought to say; we must also say it as we ought.
Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.
Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.
Great communication begins with connection.
Communication is like a dance. One person takes a step forward, the other takes one back. Even one misstep can land both on the floor in a tangle of confusion.
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
To communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world, and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.
It's important to make sure that we're talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.
Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weakness.
Courage is a heart word. The root of the word courage is cor, the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage meant to speak one's mind by telling all one's heart.
Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity.
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.
One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.
I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.
Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.
In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.
When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.
We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Broadly speaking, short words are best, and the old words, when short, are best of all.
The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.
I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.
Vigorous writing is concise.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
It always seems impossible until it's done.
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.
Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn, and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.
A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason.
Done is better than perfect.
Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.
People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Never, never, never give up.
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.
Communication is the most important skill any leader can possess.
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.
Turn your wounds into wisdom.
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
The time is always right to do what is right.
Don't raise your voice, improve your argument.
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
When someone really hears you without passing judgment on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good.
Your number-one mission as a speaker is to take something that matters deeply to you and to rebuild it inside the minds of your listeners.
Presentation literacy isn't an optional extra for the few. It's a core skill for the twenty-first century.
You are not the hero who will save the audience; the audience is your hero.
The audience does not need to tune themselves to you—you need to tune your message to them.
Listening is our access to understanding.
Don't fake it till you make it. Fake it till you become it.
Your body language shapes who you are.
Tiny tweaks can lead to big changes.
If you're not comfortable with public speaking – and nobody starts out comfortable – practice. I cannot overstate the importance of practicing.
Your ability to communicate with others will account for fully 85% of your success in your business and in your life.
When speaking in public, your message – no matter how important – will not be effective or memorable if you don't have a clear structure.
Simple and to the point is always the best way to get your point across.
Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be cracked or not; so men are proved, by their speeches, whether they be wise or foolish.
Actors train not to get rid of the fear but to be able to dance with it, because it can never truly be vanquished.
I get so nervous on stage I can't help but talk. I try telling my brain: stop sending words to the mouth. But I get nervous and turn into my grandma.
Everybody's frightened a bit. But how many of us just go through the fear and do it anyway?
Negotiation is not an act of battle; it's a process of discovery.
He who has learned to disagree without being disagreeable has discovered the most valuable secret of negotiation.
Tactical empathy is understanding the feelings and mindset of another... and hearing what is behind those feelings.
If you don't talk it out, you'll act it out.
When it's safe, you can say anything.
To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.
If you need to invoke your academic pedigree or job title for people to believe what you say, then you need a better argument.
People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.
If the truth were self-evident, eloquence would be unnecessary.
He is an eloquent man who can treat humble subjects with delicacy, lofty things impressively, and moderate things temperately.
Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds: the personal character of the speaker [ethos], putting the audience into a certain frame of mind [pathos], and the proof provided by the words of the speech itself [logos].
Rhetoric is useful because things that are true and things that are just have a natural tendency to prevail over their opposites.
People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.
Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge.
Trust is built on telling the truth, not telling people what they want to hear.
Communication is not about saying what we think. Communication is about ensuring others hear what we mean.
A star wants to see themselves rise to the top. A leader wants to see those around them rise to the top.
Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.
When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.
We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.
One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.
We must tell girls their voices are important.
Your silence will not protect you.
What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say?
That visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength.
There's power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice.
If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's the power of using your voice.
Am I good enough? Yes I am.
The parts that were a source of shame are actually my warrior fuel.
Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.
Choose courage over comfort.
If you're not in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I'm not interested in your feedback.
Whatever anybody says or does, assume positive intent.
A good rule of thumb is to hire only people who are better than you.
We don't just have healthy skepticism about other people's arguments; we dare to disagree with our own arguments.
Listening is a way of offering others our scarcest, most precious gift: our attention.
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
You are stopping you. You are giving up instead of getting hard.
The only way to achieve greatness is to have patience, consistency, and discipline.
Creativity is a path for the brave, yes, but it is not a path for the fearless, and it's important to recognize the distinction.
There's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.
Don't think of introversion as something that needs to be cured.
Soft power is quiet persistence.
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
The most fundamental aggression to ourselves is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.
When we protect ourselves so we won't feel pain, that protection becomes like armor that imprisons the softness of the heart.
Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.
Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.
Make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules.
If you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would.
The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.
The human struggle is the engine of all good stories.
Stories are data with a soul.
Fiction is the truth inside the lie.
You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.
If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.
The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.
It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are.
The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.
Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.
Stories are the most primitive and purest form of communication.
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it's like giving them emotional oxygen.
We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy.
The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
There is only one rule for being a good talker—learn to listen.
The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.
One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.
The art of conversation lies in listening.
To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well.
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings.
The road to hell is paved with adverbs.
The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.
You need to think and act like you're running a start-up: your career.
For life in permanent beta, the trick is to never stop starting.
The person who gets hired is not always the best at the job, but the best at getting hired.
Always define WHAT you want to do... not in terms of a job-title.
No matter what you do, your job is to tell your story.
Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.
Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.
If you just communicate, you can get by. But if you communicate skillfully, you can work miracles.
The only reason to give a speech is to change the world.
Great stories happen to those who can tell them.
Those who tell the stories rule society.
Be sincere, be brief, be seated.
All speaking is public speaking, whether it's to one person or a thousand.
Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.
Speak clearly, if you speak at all. Carve every word before you let it fall.
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Successful people become great leaders when they learn to shift the focus from themselves to others.
All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time.
The quality of leadership, more than any other single factor, determines the success or failure of an organization.
One can lead a nation only by helping it see a bright outlook. A leader is a dealer in hope.
You have earned the right to use your mouth, you have not earned the right to have people listen to you.
Communication works for those who work at it.
A leader must face danger. He must take the risk and the blame, and the brunt of the storm.
No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.
A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice.
A leader has to appear consistent. That doesn't mean he has to be consistent.
The born leader is a fiction invented by 'born followers'. Leadership is not a gift at birth; it is an award for growing to full moral stature. It is the only prize that a man must win every day.
'Safety first' has been the motto of the human race for half a million years; but it has never been the motto of leaders. A leader must face danger.
Persistence in a single view has never been regarded as a merit in political leaders.
When we think we lead, we are most led.
Fear paralyses you - fear of flying, fear of the future, fear of leaving a rubbish marriage, fear of public speaking, or whatever it is.
People think actresses find public speaking easy, and it's not easy at all; we're used to hiding behind masks.
Being introverted, it doesn't mean necessarily being shy or being afraid of public speaking; it just means that it's hard for me to interact with people for too long.
I enjoy my public speaking. That's what I love doing. It's what I'm good at.
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.
I have a fear of public speaking. It's very hard work. Words are not my skill, and because they're not my skill, I have to work doubly hard.
Public speaking is scary, I think. I've gotten way better at it.
With real estate, it's location, location, location. In public speaking, it's acoustics, acoustics, acoustics.
If you're public speaking, imagine yourself feeling confident; if you're nervous about a date and thinking, 'I'm gonna be a dork,' picture yourself being funny.
I blush easily. I have difficulty meeting people's eye, difficulty with public speaking, the normal afflictions of the shy, but not to a paralysing degree.
Public speaking is something I fear more than death itself.
I've been an educator all my life pretty much. It's important as a manager and also as a record label, to educate your artists on public speaking.