A man may lack everything but tact and conviction and still be a forcible speaker; but without these nothing will avail... Fluency, grace, logical order, and the like, are merely the decorative surface of oratory.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Grace, respect, reserve, and empathetic listening are qualities sorely missing from the public discourse now.
A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.
When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths or to reject absurdities and palpable contradictions.
If we divine a discrepancy between a man's words and his character, the whole impression of him becomes broken and painful; he revolts the imagination by his lack of unity, and even the good in him is hardly accepted.
He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.
Our judgments judge us, and nothing reveals us, exposes our weaknesses, more ingeniously than the attitude of pronouncing upon our fellows.
For all right judgment of any man or things it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.
If one has a good disposition, what other virtue is needed? If a man has fame, what is the value of other ornamentation?
A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself.
The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words.