Speech is but broken light
upon the depth of the unspoken.
-George Eliot

There is nothing in the world which does not speak.
Every thing and every being is continually calling out
its nature, its character, its secret;
and the more the inner sense is open,
the more capable it becomes of hearing the voice of all things.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan

Speech is civilization itself.
The word, even the most contradictory word,
preserves contact - it is silence which isolates.
-Thomas Mann

Speaking is an act of freedom;
the word is freedom itself.
-Ludwig Feuerbach

Speech is power:
speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

In your speaking, say only that which is purposeful.
Never utter world that lack purpose.
-Tiruvalluvar

Speech is a mirror of the soul;
as a man speaks, so is he.
-Publilius Syrus

Hear your own words.
-The Oculatum

What we speak becomes the house we live in.
-Hafiz

Speech is but the incorporation of thought.
-Joseph Joubert

Speech is external thought,
and thought internal speech.
-Antoine Rivarol

Speech is the mark of humanity.
It is the normal terminus of thought.
-Susanne K. Langer

What is uttered is finished and done with.
-Thomas Mann

Everything that can be said,
can be said clearly.
-Ludwig Wittgenstein

Speak clearly,
if you speak at all;
carve every word
before you let it fall.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

To express the most difficult matters
clearly and intelligently,
is to strike coins out of pure gold.
-Geibel

Speak words first upon the heart
then mouth.
-The Oculatum

If I am real, if I am speaking from the heart zone,
the right words will come.
They will come a spoonful at at time,
in the proper mixture.
-Gerry Spence

Grasp the subject;
the words will follow.
-Cato the Elder

Speech belongs half to the speaker,
half to the listener.
-Michel de Montaigne

Everything becomes a little different
as soon as it is spoken out loud.
-Hermann Hesse

Beware before you speak a word;
you do not know this world is a dome,
and that in a dome there is an echo.
-Author Unknown

Discretion in speech
is more than eloquence.
-Francis Bacon

To compose our minds before speaking
saves us from great error.
-Wu Wei

Remember not only to say
the right thing in the right place,
but far more difficult still,
to leave unsaid the wrong thing
at the tempting moment.
-Benjamin Franklin

True eloquence consists in saying
all that should be said, and only that.
-Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Why must you speak your thoughts?
Silence, if fair words stick in your throat,
would serve all our ends better.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

Leave all that unsaid
which, by being said, creates inharmony.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan

Every time somebody opens their mouth
they have an opportunity to do one of two things -
connect or divide.
-Joss Whedon

Never utter a word
that may jar or offend others.
-Sivananda

Remember what is unbecoming to do
is also unbecoming to speak of.
-Socrates

A man does not know what he is saying
until he knows what he is not saying.
-Gilbert K. Chesterton

No man speaks securely
but he that holds his peace willingly.
-Thomas a Kempis

Subtle souls never say things that they should not say;
it is not their desire to speak.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan

Not everyone who has the gift of speech
understands the value of silence.
-Johann Kaspar Lavater

Some things are to understand
but not to say.
Be quiet.
-Djalal ad-Din Rumi

The more you know
the less you need to say.
-Jim Rohn

We need a reason for speaking,
we need none for keeping silent.
-Pierre Nicole

If you don't have to speak,
don't speak.
-Ashokananda

Know when to speak a word
and when not to speak at all.
-Yunus Emre

True speech is the fruit of not speaking.
Too much talking clouds the heart.
-Yunus Emre

A man of few words
will rarely be thoughtless in his speech.
He will measure every word.
-Mohandas Gandhi

Where words are scarce,
they are seldom spent in vain.
-William Shakespeare

I make myself rich
by making my words few.
-Henry David Thoreau

Gracious to all, to none subservient,
Without offense he spoke the word he meant.
-Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Speak for yourself and from yourself,
or be silent.
-George Henry Lewes

Be still when you have nothing to say;
when genuine passion moves you,
say what you've got to say,
and say it hot.
-David Herbert Lawrence

Speech without soul force
is like husks without corn.
-Yogananda

Saying nothing...
sometimes says the most.
-Emily Dickinson

When you have nothing to say,
say nothing.
-Charles Caleb Colton

Discovering that one has nothing to say,
one seeks a way to say that.
-Susan Sontag

Be silent
or say something better than silence.
-Pythagoras

Of what is great
one must either be silent
or speak with greatness.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

Whereof one cannot speak,
thereof one must be silent.
-Ludwig Wittgenstein

Shut your mouth, close your lips,
and say something!
-Pai-Chang

The voice is a light.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan

Your words should bring daylight with them
when you speak.
-George Eliot

Give sense to your speech,
give it shade.
-Paul Celan

Speak all the good you know of everybody.
-Benjamin Franklin

I do not speak
of what I cannot praise.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

In the commerce of speech,
use only coin of gold and silver.
-Joseph Joubert

Speak silver,
reply gold.
-Swahili Proverb

Try to forget yourself
and rely on your voice,
your voiceless voice,
your non-verbal voice.
-Shunryu Suzuki

All speech presupposes otherness.
Be still.
-Ashokananda

Speak little.
Learn the words of eternity.
-Djalal ad-din Rumi

When you speak,
it should be Infinity speaking.
-Yogi Bhajan

I yoke the speech to the sun.
-Tandya

Although they are only breath,
words which I command
are immortal.
-Sappho

The speech is the sun itself.
-Shatapatha