Eloquence has a client which, before all, it must save or make triumph. It matters little whether this client be a man, a people, or an idea.
—Victor Cousin
It is to this early speaking practice in the great art of all arts, oratory, that I am indebted for the primary and leading impulses that stimulated me forward.
—Henry Clay
Ninety-nine men in every hundred in the crowded professions will probably never rise above mediocrity because the training of the voice is entirely neglected and considered of no importance.
—William E. Gladstone
He who does not use a gift, loses it; the man who does not use his voice or limbs, loses power over them, and becomes disqualified for the state of life to which he is called.
—Cardinal Newman
I recognize but one mental acquisition as an essential part of the education of a lady or gentleman, namely, an accurate and refined use of the mother-tongue.
—Charles W. Eliot