In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

Substitute ‚damn‘ every time you’re inclined to write ‚very‘; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.

If you want to influence people, you want them to accept your suggestions, you don’t say, ‚You don’t know how to use the English language,‘ or ‚How could you make that argument?‘ It will be welcomed much more if you have a gentle touch than if you are aggressive.

When a politician uses the word ‚folks,‘ we should brace ourselves for the deceit, or worse, that is coming.

Syllables govern the world.

If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.

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 Four Levels of Comedy: Make your friends laugh, Make strangers laugh, Get paid to make strangers laugh, and Make people talk like you because it’s so much fun.

My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.

I have been – I have spoken in Bir Zeit a number of times.

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!

Words, words, words! They shut one off from the universe. Three quarters of the time one’s never in contact with things, only with the beastly words that stand for them.

I don’t believe it. Prove it to me and I still won’t believe it.

I told you I’m not going to criticize my successor. I’ll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don’t believe that persuasion isn’t going to work. Therapy isn’t going to cause terrorists to change their mind.

When I was a college student and I got interested in linguistics the concern among students was, this is a lot of fun, but after we have done a structural analysis of every language in the world what’s left? It was assumed there were basically no puzzles.

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.

I liked school, but I used to dread those moments when the teacher would call me up to give an oral report. I forced myself to deal with it and not dwell on the class in front of me – to keep a straight face, give the report and concentrate on getting it right. That’s normally how I perform. That’s how I am.

Being politically correct means saying what’s polite rather than what’s accurate. I like to be accurate.

Words are but the signs of ideas.

It’s really fun to be on stage in front of people.

I’ve been known to preach.

Dance music is no longer a simple Donna Summer beat. It’s become a whole language that I find fascinating and exciting. Eventually, it will lose the dance tag and join the fore of rock.

I like the language in Proust but not the context.

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

I don’t know why you use a fancy French word like detente when there’s a good English phrase for it – cold war.

Be as polite to the custodian as you are to the chairman of the board.

For, if a good speaker, never so eloquent, does not see into the fact, and is not speaking the truth of that – is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?

I grew up cursing a lot. It felt natural. My parents told me to stop.

People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.

I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people.

I love it when people say things to me in public and want to meet me, because I want to meet them! Early on, my manager told me, ‚If you want to sell 500,000 records, then go out there and meet 500,000 people.‘

The poet, being an imitator like a painter or any other artist, must of necessity imitate one of three objects – things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be. The vehicle of expression is language – either current terms or, it may be, rare words or metaphors.

My name can’t be that tough to pronounce!

Very rarely do I talk off the top of my head on stage. I’m not an improv guy. I’m a writer-guy who presents what he’s written.

I ain’t never called nobody no redskin. I’ve never been mad, like, ‚Get out of this restaurant, you redskin.‘

I could never give relationship advice to anybody!

Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.

I’ve been a lot more into Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, which was a bit complicated for me to understand the language of each social media, because they all talk in different ways. It’s a nice way for me to tell people I appreciate them, which I forget to do sometimes.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – ‚tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

If you can talk, you can write.

Always remember that your calmness under fire is your best defense in any argument or discussion.

In my opinion, the only way to conquer stage fright is to get up on stage and play. Every time you play another show, it gets better and better.

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

I have trouble reading modern Hebrew. In the 1950s, I could read anything. I don’t know how much experience you’ve had with contemporary Hebrew. It’s quite difficult.

I’ve always appreciated a turn of phrase.

It’s funny because I’ve made a living off of words, but words get in the way of what you really want to say.

Women have to be active listeners and interrupters – but when you interrupt, you have to know what you are talking about.

When you meet with someone and you try to assess whether they’re telling you the truth or not, there’s several things you can do. You judge demeanor and credibility. You look at corroboration.

Finality is not the language of politics.

Speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.

And poets, in my view, and I think the view of most people, do speak God’s language – it’s better, it’s finer, it’s language on a higher plane than ordinary people speak in their daily lives.

Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.

I can move any crowd.

If you can’t convince them, confuse them.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.

The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.

I have never talked publicly or privately about the Jewish people, including conversations with President Nixon, except in the most positive terms.

I remember the first time I heard a teenager say ‚LOL.‘ Just what? But it means ‚laugh.‘ Why don’t you just laugh? What are you doing?

Charm is a way of getting the answer ‚Yes‘ without asking a clear question.

What’s another word for Thesaurus?