Great Speech Quotes

Being Kind Not in some great deed of heroism; not in some great speech or act that may be pointed to with pride-but rather in the little kindnesses from day to day ... ~ Edgar Cayce

New Rule: Democrats must get in touch with their inner asshole. I refer to the case of Van Jones, the man the Obama administration hired to find jobs for Americans in the new green industries. Seems like a smart thing to do in a recession, but Van Jones got fired because he got caught on tape saying Republicans are assholes. And they call it news!

Now, I know I'm supposed to be all reinjected with yes-we-can-fever after the big health-care speech, and it was a great speech--when Black Elvis gets jiggy with his teleprompter, there is none better. But here's the thing: Muhammad Ali also had a way with words, but it helped enormously that he could also punch guys in the face.

It bothers me that Obama didn't say a word in defense of Jones and basically fired him when Glenn Beck told him to. Just like dropped "end-of-life counseling" from health-care reform because Sarah Palin said it meant "death panels" on her Facebook page. Crazy morons make up things for Obama to do, and he does it.

Same thing with the speech to schools this week, where the president attempted merely to tell children to work hard and wash their hands, and Cracker Nation reacted as if he was trying to hire the Black Panthers to hand out grenades in homeroom. Of course, the White House immediately capitulated. "No students will be forced to view the speech" a White House spokesperson assured a panicked nation. Isn't that like admitting that the president might be doing somethi ~ Bill Maher

Wanna know the secret to nailing a great speech? It's simple--don't trust words. ~ Stephen David Hurley

If anything, Brown is more oriented towards the other side of the Atlantic than Blair. Most of his reforming ideas and intellectual influences seem to come from the United States, and in a recent speech he went to great lengths to emphasise the historical affinity and shared characteristics of the U.K. and the U.S. ~ Martin Jacques

In the Reagan administration, a great speech was just the first step in a long process. In the Obama administration, it's the only step. ~ Kathleen Troia McFarland

I thought 'The King's Speech' was great. ~ Paul Haggis

The sheer act of listening speaks volumes that even a great speech can't communicate. ~ John C. Maxwell

The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech. ~ Dogen

A great speech is literature. ~ Peggy Noonan

A very considerable body of the German people live in America and propose to fight that Government. Bourke in his great speech last week welcoming the Belgian mission to Boston worked out the President's meaning with care. ~ Shane Leslie

The riot isn't seen in the movie, but it is alluded to. He has this one speech that gives a great sense of texture and paints a picture of what was happening in Harlem then. ~ Debbie Allen

It's too late for you Wilhelmina Grimm, great great great granddaughter of Wilhelm Grimm. ~ Chanda Hahn

The Solitary

As one who has sailed across an unknown sea,
among this rooted folk I am alone;
the full days on their tables are their own,
to me the distant is reality.

A new world reaches to my very eyes,
a place perhaps unpeopled as the moon;
their slightest feelings they must analyze,
and all their words have got the common tune.

The things I brought with me from far away,
compared with theirs, look strangely not the same:
in their great country they were living things,
but here they hold their breath, as if for shame. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

There has come to you as your birthright something beautiful and sacred and divine. Never forget that. Your Eternal Father is the Great master of the Universe. He rules over all, but He also will listen to your prayers as His daughter and hear you as you speak with Him. He will answer your prayers. He will not leave you alone. ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

I'm just more into playing golf. It's a great thing. ~ Kenny G

It's not curators, it's not critics, it's not the public, it's not collectors who find great artists - it's other artists. ~ David Galenson

A great man is the man who does something for the first time. ~ Alexander Smith

Pablo Casals is a great musician in all he does: a cellist without equal, and extraordinary conductor and composer with something to say. I have been profoundly impressed by all I have heard of his work, but he is a musician of this stature because he is also a great man. ~ Albert Schweitzer

I've learned that the most unbelievable is the most believable. ~ H.C. Deboard

A priest can achieve great victories with an army of women at his command. ~ Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Hollywood is a place of great irony at all times. ~ Mark Canton

left the cafeteria and approached the silo's airlock, that great yellow door to the open world ~ Hugh Howey

Get your texts from God - your thoughts, your words, from God ... It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart full of God's Spirit, is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin. ~ Robert Murray M'Cheyne

But in the books again, great joy through love seemed always to go hand in hand with frightful pain. Still, he thought, looking out across the meadow, still, the joy would be worth the pain - if, indeed, they went together. If ~ Sheldon Vanauken

The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything is has to face without wavering. If we take this view, life becomes one great romance, a glorious opportunity for seeing marvelous things all the time.
God is disciplining us to get us into this central place of power. ~ Oswald Chambers

Some people show evil as a great racehorse shows breeding. They have the dignity of a hard chancre. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

Contrariety triumphed in the great hullaballoo of the end of the world! ~ Catulle Mendes

Years ago, the writers were telling me that I'd make the Hall of Fame, so I kind of prepared a speech. But somewhere along in the 28 years, it got lost. ~ Johnny Mize

I would like to invite the citizens of Great Britain and the citizens of the U.S. and the citizens of the world to come here and walk freely through the streets of Venezuela, to talk to anyone they want, to watch television, to read the papers. We are building a true democracy, with human rights for everyone, social rights, education, health care, pensions, social security, and jobs. ~ Hugo Chavez

As Karl Marx once noted: 'Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.' William Jennings Bryan and the Scopes trial was a tragedy. The creationists and intelligent design theorists are a farce. ~ Michael Shermer

If I find out I have to write today and nothing else, that's a perfect day. I know a lot of people who are great at it and make it look easy who are tortured and miserable people. Writing for me is perfect peace. ~ Joss Whedon

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The purpose of God's blessing is to enable you to be a great channel of blessing to others. If you have nothing, there is nothing you can do for anyone else; if you have a little, you can only help a little; but if you have plenty, there is a whole lot you can do. When you are blessed, you have a mighty foundation from which to impact others. You are blessed to be a blessing. ~ Brian Houston

In these dark and uncertain times, there can be great value in imagining a bit of star in each human soul.
Not just that it gives some hope for humanity at a time when man's inhumanity to man seems ever on the increase; but also because it points to an inner brightness
that can light the way
in dark times. ~ Michael Meade

Most great entrepreneurs I know are nothing like the other kids. They're almost like tangent lines - those lines that seem to go nowhere. Nothing connects them, until they get out in the real world. Then they connect just fine. ~ Barbara Corcoran

It's not Big Brother that we now have to be afraid of, but Big Browser. ~ Eliot Spitzer

Bram stared into a pair of wide, dark eyes. Eyes that reflected a surprising glimmer of intelligence. This might be the rare female a man could reason with.
"Now, then," he said. "We can do this the easy way, or we can make things difficult."
With a soft snort, she turned her head. It was as if he'd ceased to exist.
Bram shifted his weight to his good leg, feeling the stab to his pride. He was a lieutenant colonel in the British army, and at over six feet tall, he was said to cut an imposing figure. Typically, a pointed glance from his quarter would quell the slightest hint of disobedience. He was not accustomed to being ignored.
"Listen sharp, now." He gave her ear a rough tweak and sank his voice to a low threat. "If you know what's good for you, you'll do as I say."
Though she spoke not a word, her reply was clear: You can kiss my great wolly arse.
Confounded sheep. ~ Tessa Dare

But little Carlos's most important defense was not his good punch but rather the beginnings of a great education. ~ Gina Capaldi

The best antidote against evils of all kinds, against the evil thoughts that haunt the soul, against the needless perplexities which distract the conscience, is to keep hold of the good we have. Impure thoughts will not stand against pure words and prayers and deeds. Little doubts will not avail against great certainties. Fix your affections on things above, and then you will less and less be troubled by the cares, the temptations, the troubles of things on earth. ~ Arthur Penrhyn Stanley

In following your inclinations and moving toward mastery, you make a great contribution to society, enriching it with discoveries and insights, and making the most of the diversity in nature and among human society. ~ Robert Greene

O'Shaughnessy is hitting Denholt on the side of his head with his free arm, great, walloping, pile-driver blows. The two of them stagger together, like partners in a crazy dance. Glass is breaking all around them. Gray smoke from the six shots, pink-and-white dust from the chipped brick-and-plaster walls, swirl around them in a rainbow haze. Something vividly green flares up from one of the overturned retorts, goes right out again. O'Shaughnessy tears the emptied gun away, flings it off somewhere. More breaking glass, and this time a tart pungent smell that makes the nostrils sting. The crunch of pulverized tube glass underfoot makes it sound as if they were scuffling in sand or hard-packed snow. ("Jane Brown's Body") ~ Cornell Woolrich

Withhold no part of the precious truth, but speak what you know and declare what you have seen. Do not allow the toil or darkness or possible unbelief of your friends to dissuade you. Let us rise and march to the place of duty, and there declare what great things God has shown to our soul. ~ Alistair Begg

You have everything within you to do great things in this world. Maybe, you are inspired to sing a song, write a book or poems, create art in various forms. Or you may decide to find a cure for disease, end world hunger, prevent abuse, or take a stand politically. The question is how to begin the process of fulfilling your vision. Start where you are and use the resources you have to build from there. Inspiration is what motivates you to achieve your remarkable ideas. Also it takes time and dedication to excel to the next level. ~ Amaka Imani Nkosazana

It was Elvis who really got me hooked on beat music. When I heard 'Heartbreak Hotel' I thought, this is it. ~ Paul McCartney

And heaved and heaved, still unrestingly heaved the black sea, as if its vast tides were a conscience; and the great mundane soul were in anguish and remorse for the long sin and suffering it had bred. ~ Herman Melville

Would be a great comfort to her, and that was in fact exactly why she resisted. She had sensed if she gave in once, just once, the next time would be easy. They ~ Joe Hill

I see the face of a child. He lives in a great city. He is black. Or he is white. He is Mexican, Italian, Polish. None of that matters. What matters, he's an American child. ~ Richard M. Nixon

A stock market decline is as routine as a January blizzard in Colorado. If you're prepared, it can't hurt you. A decline is a great opportunity to pick up the bargains left behind by investors who are fleeing the storm in panic. ~ Peter Lynch

Where there is fear, there is power." When we look at what we are afraid of, we can unlock great resources of strength. ~ Christopher Penczak

The things that I have said when I was young and curious about whatever the subject matter was, I respect those - those are growing pains. Even if you make mistakes, I go back to those things, my not-so-great moments because those are my truest moments; those are my human moments. I'm not even mad at the things I said that were a little dicey. ~ Nas

I have never felt any inward assurance of genius, or any presentiment of glory or of happiness. I have never seen myself in imagination great or famous, or even a husband, a father, an influential citizen. This indifference to the future, this absolute self-distrust, are, no doubt, to be taken as signs. What dreams I have are all vague and indefinite; I ought not to live, for I am now scarcely capable of living. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel

Im winning races, Im still challenging for the world championships, the team is fantastic and I have a great relationship with everybody here - so why would I want to even consider changing? ~ Kimi Raikkonen

Experimental investigation, to borrow a phrase employed by Kepler respecting the testing of hypotheses, is "a very great thief of time." Sometimes it costs many days to determine a fact that can be stated in a line. ~ John William Draper

I don't have one specific dream role: I'm an actor, so I want to play everything. In this business, they'll pigeonhole you in two seconds if you're great at the role you play. Everyone assumes that you're really just like that character. ~ Jaime Pressly

For DC, I'm working on the new 'Red Lanterns' and 'JLA Dark.' Both of these are very different books, which is great for me. I've heard 'JLA Dark' described as a team of people with supernatural powers - but that's only half the story. ~ Peter Milligan

My great-grandchildren will not be able to enjoy the Gulf Coast of Louisiana the way I have. ~ Ian Somerhalder

You can get into a very fancy car and know everything about the engine, but when you drive in that car, you feel that rush. In the same way, I think the more you know about love, the more you can enjoy it. And knowing about your personality type, who you are and what kind of person you're dealing with gives you a great leg up. ~ Helen Fisher

Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright