The quote library
Frankisms
Short truths, collected over a lifetime of writing and teaching. Read a few, or lose an afternoon.
- Collected
- 1,993
“I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. — Henry David Thoreau (18171862), Walden [1854], ch. 1, Economy”
speaking
“I’ll preach to the choir anytime, but burly sinners run the world. It’s the latter who are tougher, but ultimately more important, to change. — Alan Weiss”
speaking
“If we were all taught to speak the same way we were taught to write, we’d all stutter. — Mark Twain”
speaking
“If you give people what they want, they’ll listen to you. — Joe Vitale”
speaking
“If you have a direct experience of the unknowable, you will not be able to speak of it, for it would be impossible to translate the experience into language. — Robert Fritz”
speaking
“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 with a tremendous whack. — Winston Churchill”
speaking
“If you wouldn’t write it and sign it, don’t say it. — Earl Wilson”
speaking
“In a verbal confrontation, lower your voice to the degree that the other person raises his or hers. — H. Jackson Brown Jr”
speaking
“In addition to making your message simple, try to make it memorable. — Daniel Kahneman”
speaking
“In many ways, verbal communication is an artificial and remote language. To be truly effective the voice needs to combine with our visual and tactile behavior. — Mark Asher”
speaking
“More than half of our face-to-face communication is carried out non-verbally. We constantly send out signals, from the clothes we wear to the smiles we wear. — Mark Asher”
speaking
“Nobody likes the man who brings bad news. — Sophocles (495-406 BC), Antigone, 1.277”
speaking
“Of course, sometimes it is not possible to prepare an address fully, but it is much better to do so even if you intend to speak extemporaneously. — Robert A. Taft”
speaking
“Often, what is left unspoken says more than words. — Cheryl St.John”
speaking
“One thought driven home is better than three left on base. — James Liter”
speaking
“Practice not to be perfect but to be comfortable. Audiences don’t care if you’re perfect, but they will only be comfortable if you are. — Alan Weiss”
speaking
“Research has found that is much as 93 percent of our interpersonal communication is nonverbal. — Tonya Reiman”
speaking
“Sandwich every bit of criticism between two layers of praise. — Mary Kay Ash”
speaking
“Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice. — H. Jackson Brown Jr”
speaking
“Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. — Ambrose Bierce”
speaking
“Speaking concretely is the only way to ensure that our idea will mean the same thing to everyone in our audience. — Chip Heath”
speaking
“Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts. — Robert Fulghum”
speaking
“Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy. — Howard W. Newton”
speaking
“Talk slow but think quick. — H. Jackson Brown Jr”
speaking
“The first problem of communication is getting people’s attention. — Chip Heath”
speaking
“The secret of being tiresome is in telling everything. — Voltaire”
speaking
“The spoken word loses most of its impact in the absence of the accompanying gestures and postures. — Mark Asher”
speaking
“To make our communications more effective, we need to shift our thinking from What information do I need to convey? to What questions do I want my audience to ask? — Chip Heath”
speaking
“True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary. — François de La Rochefoucauld”
speaking
“Very few of us take advantage of opportunities to keep quiet. — Herbert V. Prochnow Jr”
speaking
“We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us. — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, 18441900”
speaking
“When giving a speech, concentrate on what you can give the audience, not what you can get from them. — H. Jackson Brown Jr”
speaking
“When I’m getting ready to reason with a man I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say—and two-thirds thinking about him and what he is going to say. — Abraham Lincoln”
speaking
“A good example is the best sermon. — H. Jackson Brown Jr”
storytelling
“A good fight is what makes a story interesting. — Jill Dearman”
storytelling
“A story is like a chess game, and every piece on the board has a highly specific function to fulfill. — Eric Edson”
storytelling
“A story must not retreat to actions of lesser quality or magnitude, but move progressively forward to a final action beyond which the audience cannot imagine another. — Robert McKee”
storytelling
“All story is emotion based—if we’re not feeling, we’re not reading. — Lisa Cron”
storytelling
“As a story develops, you must willingly entertain opposite, even repugnant ideas. — Robert McKee”
storytelling
“Before you’re ready to tell that story well, you might have to study and learn the equivalent of an entire specialized college education on the society in which your story takes place, because all sorts of things were happening that you need to understand before you can even begin to tell a story in that milieu. — James Thom”
storytelling