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Public speaking is one of life’s most useful skills

• 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 that the ability to communicate effectively. President Gerald R. Ford
• If all my talents and powers were to be taken from me by some inscrutable Providence, and I had my choice of keeping but one, I would unhesitatingly ask to be allowed to keep the Power of Speaking, for through it I would quickly recover all the rest. Daniel Webster
• Communication,  Conversation,   Eloquence,  Persuasion,  Making conversation

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Public speaking is a great art …

• A speech is poetry: cadence, rhythm, imagery, sweep! A speech reminds us that words, like children, have the power to make dance the dullest beanbag of a heart.  Peggy Noonan
• Art

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… and if done well, can be the greatest thrill

• There is a strange sensation often experienced in the presence of an audience. It may proceed from the gaze of the many eyes that turn upon the speaker, especially if he permits himself to steadily return that gaze. Most speakers have been conscious of this in a nameless thrill, a real something, pervading the atmosphere, tangible, evanescent, indescribable. William Pittenge
• Of all kinds of success, that of an orator is the most pleasing. Oliver Goldsmith

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Great presentations, however short, require preparation and rehearsal

• A rule of thumb: if the presentation is important, spend 10 – 15 minutes of preparation for every minute you speak. Plan to rehearse your presentation out loud at least 4 times.
• A very simple trick that could help you with your performance is to video or tape record yourself. This will give you some immediate feedback and will enable you to fine tune your performance.
• When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing. Enrique Jardiel Poncela
• Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident. Dale Carnegie
• 90% of how well the talk will go is determined before the speaker steps on the platform. Somers White
• Proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance. Stephen Keague
• It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. Mark Twain
• It takes one hour of preparation for each minute of presentation time. Wayne Burgraff
• If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now. Woodrow Wilson
• But I never could make a good impromptu speech without several hours to prepare it.  Mark Twain
• Preparation

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Know what you message is

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

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Know your audience …

• Know your audience: Who are they? What age group are they, what attitudes do they have? What are they expecting? What is important to them?  What do they know and what do they want to know?
• Tell the audience what they NEED to know, not what YOU know.
• The audience is 50 percent of the performance. Shirley Booth
• Designing a presentation without defining the audience is like addressing a love letter: “To Whom It May Concern.”

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… for it is your audience as much as you who determines the success of your presentation

• An effective speaker knows that the success or failure of his talk is not for him to decide – it will be decided in the minds and hearts of his hearers. Dale Carnegie
• The success of your presentation will be judged not by the knowledge you send but by what the listener receives. Lilly Walters

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Know your subject back to front

• Know your material so well that you could easily do the presentation without an electronic aid such as PowerPoint. Nothing will ruin your credibility as a presenter faster than not knowing everything about your topic. Be prepared for questions and know the answers.
• Best way to conquer stage fright is to know what you’re talking about. Michael H Mescon
• There are three things to aim at in public speaking: first, to get into your subject, then to get your subject into yourself, and lastly, to get your subject into the heart of your audience. Alexander Gregg
• The best way to sound like you know what you’re talking about is to know what you’re talking about.
• Say not always what you know, but always know what you say. Claudius
• Grasp the subject, the words will follow. Cato The Elder

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Know what you want to achieve through your presentation

• Know what your purpose is in giving your presentation. Is it to inform? To persuade? To entertain?
• What do you want the audience to take away from your presentation? It could simply be you want them to feel comfortable with you to provide a particular service, or you’d like to convince them your product is the best on the market. You may want to motivate them to do something or inspire or challenge them to try something new.’   Your presentation is only a success if your objectives were achieved.  Know what your objective is. At the end, ask yourself, did I get the audience to do / think / feel what I wanted them to?
• A talk is a voyage with a purpose, and it must be charted. The man who starts nowhere generally gets there. Dale Carnegie
• The aim of forensic oratory is to teach, to delight, to move. Marcus Tullius Cicero
• If you don’t know what you want to achieve in your presentation your audience never will. Harvey Diamond

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Know what the key points of your presentation are and make them clearly

• People are likely to only remember three things from your presentation. So before you start writing your presentation, plan what your three key messages will be. Once you have these messages, structure the main part of your presentation around these three key themes.
• The audience are likely to remember only three things from your presentation or speech. Stephen Keague
• Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said. Dale Carnegie
• 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

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Ensure your presentation has a clear structure

• There should be three parts to your presentation. The beginning, the middle and the end. Start to plan out what you will do in these three parts. The beginning is ideal for an attention grabber or for an ice breaker. The end is great to summarize things and end with a grand finale.
• When preparing your presentation, make sure you have a beginning, middle and end. Tell them what you’re going to say, say it, then remind them what you said.
• Let the audience know when you are moving to the next stage of the presentation.

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Have something important to say

• A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something. Plato
• Before I speak, I have something important to say. Groucho Marx

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Be clear in your thinking and understanding

• If your own mind is muddled, much more will the minds of your hearers be confused. Dale Carnegie
• Never speak more clearly than you think. Jeremy Bernstein
• ….. understanding and communicating the essence of things is difficult, takes a lot of thought, and has a big impact. Carly Fiorina

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Aim to compress big ideas into few words

• He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I ever met. Abraham Lincoln
• His speeches left the impression of an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea. William McAdoo

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Think hard how best to express your ideas

• The ability to express an idea is well nigh as important as the idea itself. Bernard Baruch

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Write your speech before turning to PowerPoint

• Many people fall into the trap of designing their PowerPoint slides first and then write a speech around them. This gets in the way of the creativity process. Don’t turn your computer on until the very last thing. Do the creative stuff first and then the PowerPoint.

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Make it simple …

• Resist the urge to tell the audience everything you know about the topic. Stick to three, or at the most, four points about your topic and expand on them. The audience will be more likely to retain the information.  Keeping it simple means making it easy for the audience to know where you’re at, and where you’re going with your story.
• The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. Hans Hoffman
• Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Leonardo da Vinci
• Simplicity,  Clarity

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… but not simplistic

• The nature of oratory is such that there has always been a tendency among politicians and clergymen to oversimplify complex matters. From a pulpit or a platform even the most conscientious of speakers finds it very difficult to tell the whole truth.  Aldous Huxley
• Everything should be as simple as possible but no simpler. Albert Einstein

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Make the beginning powerful and attention grabbing

• Greet the audience heartily.
• Start off with as much impact as possible.
• Give an outline of the presentation at the beginning.
• First impressions are powerful. The first 2-3 minutes of the presentation are the most important. The audience wants to like you and they will give you a few minutes at the beginning to engage them so don’t miss the opportunity. Most presenters fail here because they ramble on too long about unimportant background information or their personal and professional history.  Garr Reynolds
• A bad beginning makes a bad ending. Euripides
• A great way to start strong is with a story. Not some joke, unrelated to your point. But an anecdote that people can relate to immediately. Stories are universal, accessible, engaging. They entertain and inform simultaneously, a powerful combination. Michael Troiano
• The best way to make a good speech is to have a good beginning and a good ending – and have them close together.
• The first problem of communication is getting people’s attention. Chip Heath

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Keep it short …

• Humans have short attention spans when it comes to passively sitting and listening to a speaker. Audience attention is greatest at the opening and then again when you say something like “In conclusion….” So, if you have 30 minutes for your talk, finish in 25 minutes. It is better to have the audience wanting more (of you) than to feel that they have had more than enough. Professional entertainers know this well. Garr Reynolds
• Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening. Dorothy Sarnoff
• A good speech should be like a woman’s skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest. Winston Churchill
• Always be shorter than anybody dared to hope. Lord Reading, on speechmaking
• Always leave them wanting more. Helen Hayes
• My father gave me these hints on speech-making: “Be sincere… be brief… be seated.” James Roosevelt
• Be sincere; be brief; be seated. Franklin D. Roosevelt, on speechmaking
• Eloquence: saying the proper thing and stopping. Francois de la Rochefoucauld
• Few sinners are saved after the first 20 minutes of a sermon. Mark Twain
• If you haven’t struck oil in five minutes, stop boring. George Jessel, on after-dinner speakers
• I’ve decided to discontinue my long talks. It’s because of my throat. Someone threatened to cut it.
• The best way to make a good speech is to have a good beginning and a good ending – and have them close together.
• Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator. Marcus Tulius Cicero
• Governor Claude A. Swanson of Virginia had made a long and rambling speech. Afterwards a woman came up to… shake his hand. “How did you like my speech?” he asked. She answered, “I liked it fine. But it seems to me you missed several excellent opportunities.” Swanson was puzzled. “Several excellent opportunities to do what?” “To quit,” she replied.
• Brevity

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… for in public speaking less is usually more …

• In presentations or speeches less really is more. Stephen Keague
• The Lord’s Prayer contains 56 words. The Gettysburg Address contains 272 words. The Ten Commandments contains 297 words. The USA Declaration of Independence contains 300 words. A bag of Lay’s Potato Chips contains 401 words. The IRS Form 1040EZ contains 418 words. Average USA-Today cover story contains 1,200 words. A recent federal publication on setting the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words.
• No one ever complains about a speech being too short! Ira Hayes
• No audience ever complained about a presentation or speech being too short. Stephen Keague
• Good things, when short, are twice as good. Baltasar Gracian

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… and there is nothing more painful and boring than a speech that leaves nothing out

• The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out. Voltaire
• When a sermon at length comes to an end, people rise and praise God, and they feel the same way after many other speeches. John Andrew Holmes

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How you deliver your speech is as important as the content

• A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power. Quintilian
• Three things matter in a speech: who says it, how he says it, and what he says – and of the three, the last matters least. John Morley, British Politician
• Speeches are like babies; easy to conceive but hard to deliver.

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Speak clearly

• Speak loudly, slowly and clearly.
• Deliver the presentation clearly but at a natural speed.
• A loud voice cannot compete with a clear voice, even if it’s a whisper. Barry Neil Kaufman

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Believe in what you are saying …

• The eloquent man is he who is no beautiful speaker, but who is inwardly and desperately drunk with a certain belief. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Enthusiasm is that ingredient of vitality mixed with a firm belief in what you are doing that ensures the success of any project you undertake. Dale Carnegie

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… and speak with passion and from the heart

• Deliver with passion. It’s amazing how catchy enthusiasm is.
• A good orator is pointed and impassioned. Marcus T. Cicero
• Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot. D. H. Lawrence
• You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart. John Ford
• The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart. Benjamin Franklin
• It’s much easier to be convincing if you care about your topic. Figure out what’s important to you about your message and speak from the heart. Nicholas Boothman
• Is enthusiasm important in selling? Yes, genuine, heartfelt enthusiasm is one of the most potent factors of success in almost any undertaking. Dale Carnegie
• Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success. Dale Carnegie
• Passion,  Enthusiasm

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Use simple language

• Think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do. Aristotle
• Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood. William Penn
• Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary. Evan Esar
• Language

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Make effective use of pauses

• Pause to let strong ideas sink in. This can be hard to remember, but your audience needs time to absorb and take breaks too!
• Welltimed silence hath more eloquence than speech. Martin Fraquhar Tupper
• The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause. Mark Twain
• The most precious things in speech are the pauses. Sir Ralph Richardson
• I don’t think I handle the notes much differently from other pianists. But the pauses between the notes – oh, there is where the artistry lies! Arthur Schnabel (responding to a reporter inquiring as to the secret of his genius)

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Engage the audience through eye contact

• Makes regular eye contact with members of the audience. Talk to individuals in the crowd.
• Use eye contact and body language to strengthen your argument.
• Try looking at individuals rather than scanning the group. Since you are using a computer, you never need to look at the screen behind you — just glance down at the computer screen briefly. One sure way to lose an audience is to turn your back on them. And while you’re maintaining great eye contact, don’t forget to smile as well. A smile can be a very powerful thing. Garr Reynolds

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Engage the audience by asking questions

• Ask some questions to your audience to involve them into the talk.
• Interact with your audience and create a conversation. An easy way to do this is to ask them questions as well as letting them ask you questions.
• Questions are powerful tools to persuade and get people involved. Jackson Brown, Jr.
• Questions

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Appeal to the emotions of your audience, not just their intellect

• Push emotional buttons. Include stories, anecdotes, analogies and metaphors to reinforce the key points of your presentation.
• A speaker who is attempting to move people to thought or action must concern himself with Pathos (i.e., their emotion.) Aristotle
• When we are dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bustling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity. Dale Carnegie
• They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. Carl W. Buechner
• History has repeatedly been changed by people who had the desire and the ability to transfer their convictions and emotions to their listeners. Dale Carnegie

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Harness the power of humour

• Smile, joke and laugh if appropriate. A little humor can go a long way, but don’t overdo it.
• But when you’re in front of an audience and you make them laugh at a new idea, you’re guiding the whole being for the moment. No one is ever more him/herself than when they really laugh. Their defenses are down. It’s very Zen-like, that moment. They are completely open, completely themselves when that message hits the brain and the laugh begins. That’s when new ideas can be implanted. If a new idea slips in at that moment, it has a chance to grow. George Carlin
• Once you get people laughing, they’re listening and you can tell them almost anything. Herbert Gardner
• Humour

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Harness the power of stories

• Tell stories. Stories will get your idea across much better than charts and graphs and numbers. They also have the added benefit of helping to engage your audience.
• Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Relevant detail, couched in concrete, colorful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience. Dale Carnegie
• Maybe stories are just data with a soul. Brené Brown
• If you don’t use stories audience members may enjoy your speech, but there is no chance they’ll remember it. Andrii Sedniev
• Stories

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Be yourself and speak in your own style

• Years of actually getting up in front of audiences have taught me only three lessons. One: you don’t die. Two: there’s no right way to speak—only your way. Three: it’s worth it. Gloria Steinem
• Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly. Francis (François) de Sales
• Be who you are

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Make use of powerful visuals

• Always use visual aids where you can – especially pictures.
• Presenters using visuals conduct meetings in 28% less time, increase audience retention as much as five times, and get proposals approved twice as often. Claire Raines and Linda Williamson
• The power of the visual: Consider the safety instructions sheet found on every airplane. This serves as a excellent example of the power of the visual over the written. Why? Overcomes language barriers, catches your attention, more info in shorter amount of time, get a “gestalt” viewpoint, easier to remember. Use visuals to capture the attention and retention of your audiences.

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Keep text on slides to a minimum

• No more than 5 bullet points on a slide
• When making a slide for a presentation, avoid the “Lord’s prayer on the head of a pin” syndrome. A whole King James Version Bible has been placed on one 2 1/4 inch Microfiche. Interesting, but not very useful. Are the slides in your presentation too busy?

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Don’t read your slides

• What is the amateur speaker’s number one mistake? Looking away from the audience to read from slides or visual aids. Use a script or cue cards instead, or look at the original on the overhead projector while facing the audience.

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End your presentation strongly

• Remind the audience of your main points of your speech at the end.
• Thank the audience at the end for listening to you.
• The end of your speech, like the end of a pencil, should have a point! Richard C. Borden

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Invite the audience to ask questions at the end

• Invite the audience to ask questions at the end of the presentation.
• The question-and-answer part of the presentation may be more important than the actual presentation — particularly the questions that could throw you. Remember to paraphrase the questions before answering them and take into account the questioner’s reasons for asking. When answering, keep looking around the audience – others may have had the same question. Treat all questions and questioners with respect. Rafaela Lazarini

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At all times, be courteous, gracious, & professional

• Never argue with any audience members.
• When audience members ask questions or give comments, you should be gracious and thank them for their input. Even if someone is being difficult, you must keep to the high ground and remain courteous. The true professional can always remain cool and in control. Garr Reynolds
• Politeness and courtesy

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It’s normal to be fearful of having to speak in public

• 99% of the population is afraid of public speaking, and of the remaining 1%, 99% of them have nothing original and interesting to say. Jarod Kintz
• 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. Jerry Seinfeld
• There are only two types of speakers in the world. 1. The nervous and 2. Liars. Mark Twain
• The best speakers know enough to be scared…the only difference between the pros and the novices is that the pros have trained the butterflies to fly in formation. Edward R. Murrow
• It is said that the fear of public speaking is a fear greater than death for most people. According to psychiatrists, the fear of public speaking is caused by the fear of ostracism, the fear of standing out, the fear of criticism, the fear of ridicule, the fear of being an outcast. The fear of being different prevents most people from seeking new ways to solve their problems. T. Kiyosaki
• Fear

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Overcome fear by being courageous

• Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. Winston Churchill
• Courage

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Overcome fear, by visualising a positive outcome

• Whenever fear strikes, flip it over. Instead of thinking of something bad that can happen, think of something positive. What’s a positive outcome to the action you fear? Henri Junttila
• All worry is your imagination. Why not use your imagination to explore happier options? Marta Davidovich Ockuly
• For every negative imagining (worry thought), practice positive pretending (imagining the most wonderful outcome). Marta Davidovich Ockuly
• Fear is nothing more than a negative expectation. Think about it, when you’re afraid, what are you imagining? You’re imagining what could go wrong. If you want to get rid of the fear, you’ve got to swap your negative expectation for a positive one. It really is that simple. Brian Johnson
• Visualisation

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Overcome fear by learning to breathe

• Your breath can set you free. It can anchor you in the now and help you vanquish and overcome your most pervasive fears. I saved it for last, because it’s one of the simplest and most powerful ways of overcoming fear. Henri Junttila
• The best advice I can give you is to take big, easy breaths when you feel fear. Feel the fear instead of pretending it’s not there. Celebrate it with a big breath, just the way you’d celebrate your birthday by taking a big breath and blowing out all the candles on your cake. Do that, and your fear turns into excitement. Do it more, and your excitement turns into exhilaration. I find it very empowering to know that I’m in charge of the exhilaration I feel as I go through life. I bet you will, too. Gay Hendricks
• Fear is excitement without the breath. Gay Hendricks
• The very same mechanisms that produce excitement also produce fear, and any fear can be transformed into excitement by breathing fully with it. Gay Hendricks
• Next time you feel the stress gremlins taking over, remember to take a nice, deep breath and exhale with a sigh. Brian Johnson
• Breathing

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Overcome fear by asking what the worst is that can happen

• What’s the worst that could happen? If you’re afraid of public speaking, imagine yourself on a stage with everyone laughing at you. How do you feel afterward? You’re still alive, aren’t you? Life goes on. Henri Junttila

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Overcome your fear by presenting often

• Students of public speaking continually ask, “How can I overcome self-consciousness and the fear that paralyzes me before an audience?” Did you ever notice in looking from a train window that some horses feed near the track and never even pause to look up at the thundering cars, while just ahead at the next railroad crossing a farmer’s wife will be nervously trying to quiet her scared horse as the train goes by? How would you cure a horse that is afraid of cars—graze him in a back-woods lot where he would never see steam-engines or automobiles, or drive or pasture him where he would frequently see the machines? Apply horse-sense to ridding yourself of self-consciousness and fear: face an audience as frequently as you can, and you will soon stop shying. You can never attain freedom from stage-fright by reading a treatise. A book may give you excellent suggestions on how best to conduct yourself in the water, but sooner or later you must get wet, perhaps even strangle and be “half scared to death.” There are a great many “wetless” bathing suits worn at the seashore, but no one ever learns to swim in them. To plunge is the only way. Dale Carnegie

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To be a great speaker requires much practice

• All the great speakers were bad speakers at first. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Practice

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A common aim of speeches is to persuade

• Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Oratory is the power to talk people out of their sober and natural opinions. Joseph Chatfield
• Persuasion

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To persuade, pick your words carefully

• 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. Joseph Conrad
• Words

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To persuade, speak with passion

• Is enthusiasm important in selling? Yes, genuine, heartfelt enthusiasm is one of the most potent factors of success in almost any undertaking. Dale Carnegie
• Passion

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To persuade, appeal to the emotions

• A speaker who is attempting to move people to thought or action must concern himself with Pathos (i.e., their emotion.) Aristotle
• Emotions

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To persuade, let the audience come to the  conclusion on their own without forcing it

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

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Give all sides of the argument

• The essential mark of an unbiased presentation is whether it addresses opposing views accurately, in their strongest forms. Propaganda, on the other hand, ignores or caricatures its opponents, or gives weak, watered-down renditions of their arguments. Michael Behe
• Reason,  Logic

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Share what life has taught you

• Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners. Dale Carnegie

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Some subjects are best avoided

• Commencement oratory must eschew anything that smacks of partisan politics, political preference, sex, religion or unduly firm opinion. Nonetheless, there must be a speech: Speeches in our culture are the vacuum that fills a vacuum. John Kenneth Galbraith

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Realise that even a great speaker can’t hope to please everyone

• Honestly, if everyone likes what you say something is wrong with your message. Ashley Ormon
• The great orator always shows a dash of contempt for the opinions of his audience. Elbert Hubbard

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• 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. Jerry Seinfeld
• Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary. Evan Esar
• Oratory is like prostitution. You have to have little tricks. Vittorio Emanuele Orlando
• Political speeches are like steer horns. A point here, a point there, and a lot of bull in between.  Alfred E. Neuman
• But I never could make a good impromptu speech without several hours to prepare it. Mark Twain
• Commencement speeches were invented largely in the belief that outgoing college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated. B. Trudeau
• I love a finished speaker, I really, truly do. I don’t mean one who’s polished. I just mean one who’s through. Richard Armour
• Why doesn’t the fellow who says, “I’m no speechmaker,” let it go at that instead of giving a demonstration? Kin Hubbard
• When the main portion of the meal was finished, the presiding person whispered to the first speaker, “Shall we let the people enjoy themselves a little longer, or would you like to deliver your speech now?”
• When I get through with my speech, there’s usually a great awakening.
• My father gave me these hints on speech-making: “Be sincere… be brief… be seated.” James Roosevelt
• Understand it? Why this is so simple a 4-year-old child could understand it. Quick, someone run out and get me a 4-year-old child. Groucho Marx
• I’ve decided to discontinue my long talks. It’s because of my throat. Someone threatened to cut it.
• If you haven’t struck oil in five minutes, stop boring. George Jessel, on after-dinner speakers
• 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. Gore Vidal
• His speeches left the impression of an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea.
• There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you. Winston Churchill
• The story is told of the way Secretary of State William M. Evarts began a Thanksgiving dinner speech. He said, “You have been giving your attention to a turkey stuffed with sage; you are now about to consider a sage stuffed with turkey.”
• The problem with speeches isn’t so much not knowing when to stop, as knowing when not to begin. Frances Rodman
• The human brain is a wonderful organ. It starts to work as soon as you are born and doesn’t stop until you get up to deliver a speech. George Jessel
• The great orator always shows a dash of contempt for the opinions of his audience. Elbert Hubbard
• The duty of a toastmaster is to be so dull that the succeeding speakers will appear brilliant by contrast. Clarence B. Kelland
• The best audience is intelligent, well-educated and a little drunk.
• ORATORY: The art of making deep noises from the chest sound like important messages from the brain.
• Speeches are like babies; easy to conceive but hard to deliver.
• Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how commencement speakers are caught. Sydney J. Harris

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