I’ve had the honor of speaking at many commencements.

My great-grandfather and his two brothers fought at Gettysburg. They were in artillery, and they survived the war, thank goodness. So I revere what they did. I think their motivations were honorable when they undertook the war and participated in it along with other Southerners.

Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.

I myself have been on my own and utterly independent since I graduated. I haven’t belonged to any company or any system. It isn’t easy to live like this in Japan.

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.

The honor of a nation is its life.

I don’t have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

In retrospect, I can see I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching about. Ha! Like, that sure made sense!

The U.S.S. George H. W. Bush is a great thing in my life. It’s amazing. A great honor.

A person standing in front of an audience without enthusiasm for his subject and his actions is disconnected from his spirit.

So when I speak in front of thousands, tens of thousands of people, I don’t really get nervous because I know what I want to say and I know what message I want to give.

The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name.

I have observed that society in general always seems to honor its living conformists and its dead troublemakers.

When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

Honor is the reward of virtue.

It is rather for us here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.

To me there has never been a higher source of earthly honor or distinction than that connected with advances in science.

The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.

When I talked to him on the phone yesterday. I called him George rather than Mr. Vice President. But, in public, it’s Mr. Vice President, because that is who he is.

There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

In the television age, the key distinction is between the candidate who can speak poetry and the one who can only speak prose.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money.

Show me the person you honor, for I know better by that the kind of person you are. For you show me what your idea of humanity is.

You’ve all seen over the last eight years what President Obama means to this country. He is the embodiment of honor, resolve, and character – one of the finest presidents we have ever had.

Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would yield every honor which has been accorded by war.

The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

Physical elegance, which is what I am talking about here, comes from the body. This is no superficial matter, but rather the way that man found to honour the way he places his two feet on the ground.

There’s something about being in front of a live audience that’s fun. It’s a really interesting, very electric, very alive, and intense experience, and you can’t get it anywhere else. And I’ve been doing it since I was 23, so it’s part of my being – it’s part of my fabric as a person.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

For the mission’s sake, for our country’s sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division’s colors in past battles – carry out your mission and keep your honor clean.

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

It shows nobility to be willing to increase your debt to a man to whom you already owe much.

I think about the milestones from my childhood and what it will be like to watch our kids go through them. Taking Riley to her first day of school was a whirlwind. I can’t imagine what middle school is going to be like, and high school, and graduation.

Ability without honor is useless.

It could be if I fight in front of one person or one million people. It’s still the same emotions.

If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor.

I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.

I’ve been thinking of humorous things since I was… I can’t remember when. All the way through elementary school, all the way through junior high, all the way through high school, through college and after college, I was thinking of the same kinds of things that I say in front of an audience now.

By 2018, an estimated 63 percent of all new U.S. jobs will require workers with an education beyond high school. For our young people to get those jobs, they first need to graduate from high school ready to start a postsecondary education.

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

I’ve spent too much time giving speeches, traveling the world.

To Marines, love of liberty is not an empty phrase… Rather, it’s displayed by blood, sweat, and tears for the fallen.

I go onstage and I talk, and I remember what I’m saying, and I track it.

PowerPoint makes us stupid.

I had a lot of success from the start. I never really was tested for long periods of time. I got my first professional job while I was a senior in college. I signed with the William Morris Agency before I graduated.

I never lecture, not because I am shy or a bad speaker, but simply because I detest the sort of people who go to lectures and don’t want to meet them.

When you walk out onstage in front of 65,000 people, it can bring you to tears.

All honor’s wounds are self-inflicted.

Becoming a ‚Sir‘ is slightly uncomfortable at first, although it is a considerable honor. It is amazing how quickly you become accustomed to it.

It is not necessary that whilst I live I live happily; but it is necessary that so long as I live I should live honourably.

I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

I spoke to a million in one service, in Korea, in Seoul. And that was the largest audience I ever have had.

I was honoured when they asked me to appear at the president’s birthday rally in Madison Square Garden. There was like a hush over the whole place when I came on to sing ‚Happy Birthday,‘ like if I had been wearing a slip, I would have thought it was showing or something. I thought, ‚Oh, my gosh, what if no sound comes out!‘

I don’t want to spend the rest of my life giving speeches.

I just didn’t want to get out there anymore; I didn’t want to get back into what I call ‚the swamp.‘ And the other reason why is I don’t think it’s good for the presidency for a former president to be opining about his successor. President Obama’s got plenty of critics – and I’m just not gonna be one.

I’ve been known to preach.