For mankind, speech with a capital S is especially meaningful and committing, more than the content communicated. The outcry of the newborn and the sound of the bells are fraught with mystery more than the baby's woeful face or the venerable tower.

I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.

What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably... have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature.

Never try to impress people with the profundity of your thought by the obscurity of your language. Whatever has been thoroughly thought through can be stated simply.

Speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.

When you have spoken the word, it reigns over you. When it is unspoken you reign over it.

A long tongue shortens life.

All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer.

A witty saying proves nothing.

Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.