We fear that the glittering generalities of the speaker have left an impression more delightful than permanent.
There is no true orator who is not a hero.
Glittering generalities! They are blazing ubiquities.
Emerson—Remark on Choate's words.
You'd scarce expect one of my age
To speak in public on the stage;
And if I chance to fall below
Demosthenes or Cicero,
Don't view me with a critic's eye,
But pass my imperfections by.
Large streams from little fountains flow,
Tall oaks from little acorns grow.
David Everett—Lines Written for a School Declamation.
| seealso = (See also Duncombe under Growth)
| author =
| work =
| place =
| note =
| topic = Oratory
| page = 573
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 5
| text = Allein der Vortrag macht des Redners Gliick,
Ich fiihl es wohl noch bin ich weit zuriick.
Yet through delivery orators succeed,
I feel that I am far behind indeed.
Goethe:—Faust. I. 1. 194.
Es tragt Verstand und rechter Sinn,
Mit wenig Kunst sich selber vor.
With little art, clear wit and sense
Suggest their own delivery.
Goethe—Faust. I. 1. 198.
Intererit multum Davusne loquatur an heros.
It makes a great difference whether Davus or a hero speaks.
Horace—Ars Poetica. CXIV.
The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims. No. 9.
The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.
Macaulay—Essay on Athenian Orators.
Thence to the famous orators repair,
Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce democratic,
Shook the Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece,
To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne.
The capital of the orator is in the bank of the highest sentimentalities and the purest enthusiasms.
Edw. G. Parker—The Golden Age of American Oratory. Ch. I.
Praeterea multo magis, ut vulgo dicitur viva vox afficit: nam licet acriora sint, quae legas, ultius tamen in ammo sedent, qua? pronuntiatio, vultus, habitus, gestus dicentis adfigit.
Besides, as is usually the case, we are much more affected by the words which we hear, for though what you read in books may be more pointed, yet there is something in the voice, the look, the carriage, and even the gesture of the speaker^ that makes a deeper impression upon the mind.
Pliny the Younger—Epistles. II. 3.
When Demosthenes was asked what was the
first part of Oratory, he answered, "Action,"
and which was the second, he replied, "Action,"
and which was the third, he still answered
"Action."
| author = Plutarch
| work = Morals. Lives of the Ten Orators.
| note = Referred to by Cicero—De Oratore. III. 214. Oration 55, and Brutus. 234.
| seealso = (See also Colman)
| topic = Oratory
| page = 573
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration,—nay, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome.
| author = Plutarch
| work = Of Hearing.
| place = VI.
| topic = Oratory
| page = 573
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 15
| text = Eire in each eye, and papers in each hand,
They rave, recite, and madden round the land.
| author = Pope
| work = Prologue to Satires.
| place = L. 5.
| topic = Oratory
| page = 573
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = Very good orators, when they are out, they will spit.
As You Like It. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 75.
| author =
| work =
| place =
| note =
| topic = Oratory
| page = 573
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = Be not thy tongue thy own shame's orator.
| author = Comedy of Errors
| work = Act III. Sc. 2. L. 10.
| place =
| note =
| topic = Oratory
| page = 573
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in music.
What means this passionate discourse,
This peroration with such circumstance?
Henry VI. Pt. II. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 104.
I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts:
I am no orator, as Brutus is;
- * * I only speak right on.
Julius Caesar. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 220.
Fear not, my lord, I'll play the orator
As if the golden fee for which I plead
Were for myself.
Richard III. Act III. Sc. 5. L. 95.
Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear,
Or, like a fairy, trip upon the green.
Venus and Adonis. L. 145.
Charm us, orator, till the lion look no larger than the cat.
