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

I think that if I would talk on a political subject, if I talk about it, it would divide the audience on that issue. That’s not my issue.

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.

It’s very intense to be in front of a live audience. It’s just an amazing experience. It’s dangerous. Everything out there is heightened. The bad stuff is extra-worse. The silences are extra-silent. The good stuff is amazing. It’s electric when you walk out there. For 90 minutes, you’re on this other planet.

The truth is, hardly any of us have ethical energy enough for more than one really inflexible point of honor.

Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

God made and governs the world invisibly, and has commanded us to love and worship him and no other God; to honor our parents and masters, and love our neighbours as ourselves; and to be temperate, just, and peaceable, and to be merciful even to brute beasts.

To be recognized for the hard work my team and I put into ‚Starboy‘ is an honor.

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

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.

There will be days when I walk in an arena and people will cheer and then there might be days when I walk in an arena and people might boo, but it all sounds the same to me because it’s all just noise that lets me know that I’m relevant.

Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honour for me.

My family didn’t have a lot of money, so I worked my heart out to get my degrees. But the minute I graduated, suddenly everyone was asking me, ‚Well, when are you going to get married and start having kids?‘ And the truth is I had no idea how I would balance the expected role of wife and mother with a challenging career.

I can move any crowd.

Certainly it is valuable to a trained writer to crash in an aircraft which burns. He learns several important things very quickly. Whether they will be of use to him is conditioned by survival. Survival, with honor, that outmoded and all-important word, is as difficult as ever and as all-important to a writer.

Honor is the reward of virtue.

The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honored by all in the world, Like a flower waving its head, Or else he disappears into the silent forest.

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 think there is a single social issue I haven’t spoken on.

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.

One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.

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.

This man used to go to school with his dog. Then they were separated. His dog graduated!

I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.

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

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

I was the punk outsider who nobody messed with. I was fearless. At 16, I graduated and moved out.

Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.

For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.

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

I graduated from the University of Delaware with a double major in history and political science.

No greater nor more affectionate honor can be conferred on an American than to have a public school named after him.

In oratory the will must predominate.

Wherever I go meeting the public… spreading a message of human values, spreading a message of harmony, is the most important thing.

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

Honor is simply the morality of superior men.

As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him.

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 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.

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

The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covet praise; yet cannot avoid its rewards in honours.

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

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

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.‘

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

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.

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.

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

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

People make suggestions on what to say all the time. I’ll give you an example; I don’t read what’s handed to me. People say, ‚Here, here’s your speech, or here’s an idea for a speech.‘ They’re changed. Trust me.

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.

Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.

Forty is when you actually begin even deserving to be on stage telling people what you think.

At first, I wasn’t really keen on the idea of me being on stage having to sing in front of people.

The main rule to me is to honor God with your life. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others. But that’s really the essence of the Christian faith.

No matter how much you rehearse on that stage, once you add 30,000 screaming people with flashing cameras into the equation, it’s pretty intense.

Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.

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.

I write all my sermons.

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.