Public Speaking Quotes

“There are two types of speakers, those that are nervous and those that are liars.”
– Mark Twain

“The most precious things in speech are pauses.”
– Ralph Richardson

“All speaking is public speaking, whether it’s to one person or a thousand.”
– Roger Love

“BAD: Being at a meeting where everyone’s thinking, ‘I’ll never get this time back.’ WORSE: Being at a meeting whereeveryone’s thinking, ‘I’ll never get this time back,’ and you are the presenter.”
– Peter George

“To sway an audience, you must watch them as you speak.”
– C. Kent Wright

“The worst speech you’ll ever give, will be far better than the one you never give.”
– Fred Miller

“All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It’s better to say nothing than spend 1,000 words or an hour speech saying nothing. Get to the point.”
– Richard Branson

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
– Albert Einstein

“No matter your industry, sharing compelling stories sets you apart form your competition.”
– Peter George

“Blessed is the man who, having nothing more to say, refrains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.”
– George Eliot

“Audience interaction should be proportional to the amount of trust you’ve earned.”
– Michael Port

“Public speaking isn’t a soft skill; it’s a power skill.”
– Peter George

“Be sincere, be brief, be seated.”
– Franklin Roosevelt

“You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart.”
– John Ford

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

“Communication works for those who work at it.”
– John Powell

“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.”
– Dale Carnegie

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

“The goal of effective communication should be for listeners to say ‘Me too!’ versus ‘So what?'”
– Jim Rohn

“It’s not the time and money spent on becoming a better public speaker that should concern you. What should concern you is the time and money you forfeit by not becoming a better public speaker.”
– Peter George

“Feel the fear of public speaking and do it anyway.”
– Arvee Robinson

“If it is to be a minute speech, I shall need four weeks in which to prepare. If a half hour speech, then two weeks. But if I am to talk all day, I’m ready now.”
– Rufus Choate

“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”
– Mark Twain

“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”
– W. B. Yeats

“I don’t like to hear cut-and-dried sermons. When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees!”
– Abraham Lincoln

“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it’s taken place.”
– George Bernard Shaw

“Through the picture, I see reality. Through the word, I understand it.”
– Sven Lidman

“A successful presentation leaves each member of the audience feeling like you had a private conversation with them.”
– Peter George

“Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership.”
– James Humes

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

“Public speaking is the art that goes directly in the ears and straight to the mind.”
– Peter George

“No audience ever complained about a presentation or speech being too short.”
– Stephen Keague

“Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.”
– Martin Fraquhar Tupper

“Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident.”
– Dale Carnegie

“It’s what you practice in private that you will be rewarded for in public.”
– Tony Robbins

“Storytelling is more than mere communication. It engages people. It moves them. It engulfs them.”
– Peter George

“Words do two major things: they provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.”
– Jim Rohn

“Simple and to the point is always the best way to get your point across.”
– Guy Kawasaki

“The best speech has a good beginning and a good ending – and has them close together.”
– Anonymous

“Stories open the hearts of your listeners, and then their wallets.”
– Arvee Robinson

“Isn’t it ironic that we shine the spotlight on the speaker and leave the audience in the dark?”
– Peter George

“If you don’t know what you want to achieve in your presentation your audience never will.”
– Harvey Diamond

“Speak clearly, if you speak at all. Carve every word before you let it fall.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes

“You are not being judged, the value of what you are bringing to the audience is being judged.”
– Seth Godin

“Between your brain and your mouth is magic: your power to choose what you say next. Use that magic.”
– Chris Brogan

“Stories have a life of their own, born from the heart and soul of the storyteller.”
– Peter George

“Speak like you talk, not like you write.”
– Craig Valentine

“The single most important skill you must have to lead is the ability to tell your own story.”
– Bo Eason

“Your ability to communicate with others will account for fully 85% of your success in your business and in your life.”
– Brian Tracy

“You cannot speak that which you do not know. You cannot share that which you do not feel.”
– Jim Rohn

“Public speakers are artists, painting pictures in the minds of others.”
– Peter George

“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 Churchill

“Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Communication is the most important skill any leader can possess.”
– Richard Branson

“Your smile is a messenger of your goodwill.”
– Dale Carnegie

“The best way you can improve yourself is to learn to communicate better.”
– Warren Buffett

“An effective presentation is not determined by your topic but rather by your objective.”
– Peter George

“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

“If you wing it when speaking, you’ll get wing it results.”
– Arvee Robinson

“The first 30 seconds and the last 30 seconds have the most impact in a presentation.”
– Patricia Fripp

“The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.”
– George Jessel

“Winging a presentation is equivalent to handing in the first draft of a report.”
– Peter George

“Make sure you have stopped speaking before your audience has stopped listening.”
– Dorothy Sarnoff

“Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.”
– Pablo Picasso

“The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but it is the most difficult to play.”
– Richard Strauss

“If I miss one day of practice, I notice it. If I miss two days, the critics notice it. If I miss three days, the audience notices it.”
– Ignacy Jan Paderewski

“My public speaking course was arguably the best investment I made in my life.”
– Warren Buffett

“They say that we are living in the Information Age. I believe that, even more so, we are living in the Communication Age.”
– Peter George

“You cannot over-invest in communication skills.”
– Indra Nooyi

“One cannot not communicate.”
– Paul Watzlawick

“A good speech is like a pencil; it has to have a point!”
– Anonymous

“A picture can speak a thousand words, but a thousand words can paint you a thousand pictures.”
– Evy Michaels

“Seeing is believing, but feeling is the truth.”
– Thomas Fuller