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101 Quotes to inspire speakers

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Inspiration sometimes runs dry, and for presenters feeling uninspired can lead to a poor performance.

Where do you go when you need a bit of extra lift?  Sometimes the well thought out words of history’s very best orators can be just the ticket. 

From drafting speeches, to calming your nerves right before you step into the spotlight , we’ve collected the top inspiring 101 quotes from thought leaders around the world.

Check nuggets of wisdom from Dale Carnegie , Mark Twain, Tony Robbins and Winston Churchill (we’ve even thrown in some William Butler Yeats and Seth Godin for good measure.) 

Continue reading more quotes below or  download the eBook from SlideShare . 

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams ( Tweet this )

“There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking.” - Jean de la Bruyere ( Tweet this )

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” – Henry Ford ( Tweet this )

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward ( Tweet this )

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou ( Tweet this )

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” –  Margaret Mead ( Tweet this )

“You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart.” – John Ford  ( Tweet this )

“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.” – D. H. Lawrence  ( Tweet this )

“Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent.” – Dionysius Of Halicarnassus  ( Tweet this )

“What we say is important… for in most cases the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” – Jim Beggs   ( Tweet this )

“If you can’t write your message in a sentence, you can’t say it in an hour.” – Dianna Booher  ( Tweet this )

“There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.” – Dale Carnegie ( Tweet this )

“It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.” – Mark Twain ( Tweet this )

“A good orator is pointed and impassioned.” – Marcus T. Cicero  ( Tweet this )

“Oratory is the power to talk people out of their sober and natural opinions.” – Joseph Chatfield  ( Tweet this)

“He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense.” – Joseph Conrad ( Tweet this )

“There are three things to aim at in public speaking: first, to get into your subject, then to get your subject into yourself, and lastly, to get your subject into the heart of your audience.” – Alexander Gregg ( Tweet this )

“The success of your presentation will be judged not by the knowledge you send but by what the listener receives.” – Lilly Walters  ( Tweet this )

“Best way to conquer stage fright is to know what you’re talking about.” – Michael H. Mescon  ( Tweet this )

“There are only two types of speakers in the world. 1. The nervous and 2. Liars.” – Mark Twain  ( Tweet this )

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell  ( Tweet this )

“90% of how well the talk will go is determined before the speaker steps on the platform.” – Somers White ( Tweet this )

“It takes one hour of preparation for each minute of presentation time.” – Wayne Burgraff  ( Tweet this )

“The most precious things in speech are the... pauses.” – Sir Ralph Richardson ( Tweet this )

“Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.” – Martin Fraquhar Tupper ( Tweet this )

“The problem with speeches isn’t so much not knowing when to stop, as knowing when not to begin.” – Frances Rodman ( Tweet this )

“Words have incredible power. They can make people’s hearts soar, or they can make people’s hearts sore. – Dr. Mardy Grothe ( Tweet this )

“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” – Mark Twain ( Tweet this )

“If you can’t communicate and talk to other people and get across your ideas, you’re giving up your potential.” – Warren Buffet ( Tweet this )

“If I went back to college again, I’d concentrate on two areas: learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.” – Gerald R. Ford ( Tweet this )

“Always give a speech that you would like to hear.” – Andrii Sedniev ( Tweet this )

“If you don’t know what you want to achieve in your presentation your audience never will.” – Harvey Diamond ( Tweet this )

“Find out what’s keeping them up nights and offer hope. Your theme must be an answer to their fears .” – Gerald C Myers ( Tweet this )

“In presentations or speeches less really is more.” – Stephen Keague ( Tweet this )

“Speeches measured by the hour die with the hour”          – Thomas Jefferson ( Tweet this )

“It’s much easier to be convincing if you care about your topic. Figure out what’s important to you about your message and speak from the heart” – Nicholas Boothman ( Tweet this )

“Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident.” – Dale Carnegie ( Tweet this )

“Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.” – Dale Carnegie ( Tweet this )

“It is not failure itself that holds you back; it is the fear of failure that paralyzes you.” -Brian Tracy ( Tweet this )

“All you need is something to say, and a burning desire to say it… it doesn’t matter where your hands are.” – Lou Holtz ( Tweet this )

“If you don’t use stories audience members may enjoy your speech, but there is no chance they’ll remember it.” – Andrii Sedniev ( Tweet this )

“There is no such thing as presentation talent, it is called presentation skills” -David JP Phillips ( Tweet this )

“The audience only pays attention as long as you know where you are going.” - Philip Crosby ( Tweet this )

“Ask yourself, ‘If I had only sixty seconds on the stage, what would I absolutely have to say to get my message across.” - Jeff Dewar ( Tweet this )

“It’s all right to have butterflies in your stomach. Just get them to fly in formation.” – Rob Gilbert ( Tweet this )

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, and to sit down and listen.”   – Winston Churchill ( Tweet this )

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin ( Tweet this )

“Designing a presentation without an audience in mind is like writing a love letter and addressing it: To Whom It May Concern.” – Ken Haemer ( Tweet this )

“The goal of effective communication should be for listeners to say ‘Me too!’ versus ‘So what?'” – Jim Rohn ( Tweet this )

“The royal road to a man’s heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.” – Dale Carnegie ( Tweet this )

“To communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world, and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” – Tony Robbins ( Tweet this )

“To sway an audience, you must watch them as you speak.” – C. Kent Wright ( Tweet this )

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein ( Tweet this )

“If you can’t state your position in eight words, you don’t have a position. “ – Seth Godin ( Tweet this )

“The way something is presented will define the way you react to it.” – Neville Brody ( Tweet this )

“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.” – William Butler Yeats ( Tweet this )

“A presentation is a chance to share, not an oral exam.” – M.F. Fensholt ( Tweet this )      

“Speech is power. Speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson ( Tweet this )

“Words do two major things: they provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.” – Jim Rohn ( Tweet this )

“Every speaker has a mouth, an arrangement rather neat. Sometimes it’s filled with wisdom, sometimes it’s filled with feet.” – Robert Orben ( Tweet this )

“Humor is a rubber sword – it allows you to make a point without drawing blood.” – Mary Hirsch ( Tweet this )

“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” – Oscar Wilde ( Tweet this )

“Once you get people laughing, they’re listening and you can tell them almost anything.” – Herbert Gardner ( Tweet this )

“The world is waiting for your words.” – Arvee Robinson ( Tweet this )

“Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.” – Jim Rohn ( Tweet this )

“A designer knows he or she has achieved perfection, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery  ( Tweet this )

“If God is in the details, then the Devil is in PowerPoint.” – @AngryPaulRand ( Tweet this )

“The more strikingly visual your presentation is, the more people will remember it. And more importantly, they will remember you.” – Paul Arden ( Tweet this )

“All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson ( Tweet this )

“Communication works for those who work at it .” – John Powell ( Tweet this )

“If you wing it when speaking, you’ll get wing it results.” – Arvee Robinson ( Tweet this )

“Your smile is a messenger of your goodwill.” – Dale Carnegie ( Tweet this )

“If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind, give it more thought.” – Dennis Roth ( Tweet this )

“Make sure you have stopped speaking before your audience has stopped listening.” – Dorothy Sarnoff ( Tweet this )

“Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much. ” - Robert Greenleaf ( Tweet this )

“If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.” - Winston S. Churchill ( Tweet this )

“The most valuable of all talents is never using two words when one will do.” -Thomas Jefferson ( Tweet this )

“Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.” -John Wooden ( Tweet this )

“Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.” - Charles de Gaulle ( Tweet this )

“Creative thinking is merely intelligent plagiarism.” - Aristotle ( Tweet this )

"Always be yourself and have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and try to duplicate it." -Bruce Lee ( Tweet this )

“Successful leaders see the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity.” - Reed Markham ( Tweet this )

“Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.” - Zig Ziglar ( Tweet this )

“A talk is a voyage with purpose and it must be charted. The man who starts out going nowhere, generally gets there.” - Dale Carnegie  ( Tweet this )

“I have not failed. I’ve simply discovered 10,000 ways that don’t work.” - Thomas Edison ( Tweet this )

“Buried deep within each of us is a spark of greatness, a spark than can be fanned into flames of passion and achievement. That spark is not outside of you it is born deep within you.” -James A. Ray ( Tweet this )

“The energy level of the audience is the same as the speaker’s. For better...or for worse.” -Andras Baneth ( Tweet this )

"One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation." -Arthur Ashe ( Tweet this )

“Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.” - Cesar Chavez ( Tweet this )

“I do not speak of what I cannot praise.” - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe  ( Tweet this )

“If you're not comfortable with public speaking - and nobody starts out comfortable; you have to learn how to be comfortable - practice. I cannot overstate the importance of practicing. Get some close friends or family members to help evaluate you, or somebody at work that you trust.” -Hillary Clinton ( Tweet this )

“Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.” -Oliver Wendell Holmes ( Tweet this )

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” - Eleanor Roosevelt ( Tweet this )

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” - Bill Gates ( Tweet this )

"Good transitions can make a speech more important to the audience because they feel they are being taken to a positive conclusion without having to travel a bumpy road." - Joe Griffith ( Tweet this )

"When speaking in public, your message - no matter how important - will not be effective or memorable if you don't have a clear structure." - Patricia Fripp ( Tweet this )

“The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid.” -Lady Bird Johnson ( Tweet this )

“The best way to conquer stage fright is to know what you are talking about.” -Michael H. Mescon ( Tweet this )

“Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.” - Robert McKee ( Tweet this )

“If something comes from your heart, it will reach the heart of your audience.” — فوزیه کوفی (Fawzia Koofi)‎ ( Tweet this )

How do we achieve our dreams and goals as a speaker? The inspiring story of Dale Carnegie's road to success

60 ideas and quotes on breaking through a creative block

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• Dale Carnegie quotes to help you become a better speaker

20 Great Quotes To Help You Deliver A Killer Speech

Want to make your next speech more powerful ? Use superb quotations and use them well. In this article, I will share 20 of my favorite quotations for beginning and professional speakers. And I will tell you when and how to use them.

But before we get into these specific sayings, here are a few introductory suggestions for using quotations when you are a keynote speaker , giving an inspirational message, annual report, sales presentation, after-dinner talk, Sunday sermon, teaching lesson, or any speech you are preparing.

• Use no more than 3 to 5 quotations in your speech. Remember that a quotation is like seasoning on a fine meal. Don’t overuse quotations in your talk. That’s like dumping an entire saltshaker worth of salt on top of your meal. Think of quotes as delicious flavor additives, not the main dish.
• Avoid using quotes that are already well known to your audience. The real (secret) power of a great quotation is its ability to surprise your listeners.
• Take the time to find the ideal quotes for your talk. Go deeper than a google search. Read inspiring books, check out relevant articles, visit your local bookstore or library. Keep a journal and collect the sayings, proverbs, quotations, and bits of wisdom that move your heart and mind.
• Whenever possible, cite the source of your quotation. Give credit where credit is due. And be sure your source is accurate. You will lose credibility if you quote George Washington as an expert on social media! If you cannot track down the original source of your quote, you can simply say, “It has been said…”
• Make sure your quotations support your main message . Sometimes it’s tempting to sneak a great quip or quote into your talk because you love it. First decide if it’s apt for what you want to communicate.

Here Are 20 of the Best Quotations for Your Next Speech Use One of These Great Quotes When You Want to…

Create laughter.

Quoting a comedian, famous wit, ancient proverb, or even a child’s wisdom can generate an instant laugh during your presentation. And trust me, your audience wants to laugh! Here’s the key: Pause before and after you share the funny quotation or short joke. A humorous quotation will surprise, shock, exaggerate, and often convey a tough truth in a way that delights.

“If you’re looking for a helping hand, there’s one at the end of your arm.” ~Yiddish Proverb

Make them THINK

A powerful quotation will give your audience food for thought. First of course, you must determine what you want your audience to understand, believe, and embrace. Then, choose a quotation that packs a punch.

“He not busy being born, is busy dying.” ~Bob Dylan

Grab their ATTENTION

Usually the shorter the quotation, the more powerful the punch. Long quotes, like long speeches, will leave your audiences yawning. To open your speech, you may want to grab your listener’s attention with a short quotation or aphorism. If you are giving a talk about dream casting or goal-setting for example, here’s a fine quotation:

“If you know what you want, you can have it.” ~RH Jarrett

Prove your POINT

You don’t have to agree with every source you quote. Sometimes who you quote, is as important as what you quote. Here’s an example. Though I obviously detest this famous leader, this quotation makes a powerful point. When I am stressing the power of passion, I sometimes share this one. Note: After I give the source—which always shocks the audience—I remind them that he was evil and that we must use the power of passion for good.

“Only a storm of hot passion can turn the destinies of people. And he alone can arouse passion who bears it within himself.” ~Adolf Hitler

Illustrate an IDEA

A good quotation is like a good story. It’s a window in your house. Use it to let the light in. Help your audience see what you are saying. A good metaphor is one of the most helpful tools in a speaker’s toolbox. To get your idea across, use a strong word picture. Imagine giving a talk to a group of schoolteachers. Your goal is to affirm them for the great work they are doing. You want to remind them that what they do—educating children—matters forever.

“A school is a building with four walls, with tomorrow inside.” ~Lon Watters

INSPIRE your audience

The best speeches lift hearts! If your goal is to motivate your audience, insert a quotation designed to inspire the dreams of your audience members. Connect with their emotions. Choose a statement that is filled with hope and encouragement. Here’s one of my favorites, because it strikes such an emotional chord:

“If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme.” ~Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio

Issue a WARNING

You can use a quotation to sound an alarm. You may want to shake your hearers into stopping/starting a behavior. The key here is choosing a quotation that lights a fire under your people. What mindset do you want them to change? What do you want them to do?

“Unassertive salespeople have skinny kids!” ~Zig Ziglar

Make people CARE

Many speakers make the mistake of thinking that their talk is primarily about content. While content is important, the best speakers transfer their conviction to an audience. Your group doesn’t want more information. They are looking for takeaways and transformation.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~Maya Angelou

Capture an INSIGHT

Many times the quotes that will rock your speech are what I call “zingers.” What is a “zinger”? It’s a pithy statement that expresses a flash of insight. Zap your audience with a truth in capsule form. People love to read the fortune inside their fortune cookie—and often the words apply to their lives. When I am giving a speech that talks about how we learn, I love to share this one:

“I respect wisdom but I obey pain.” ~12 Step Recovery Saying

EDUCATE your attendees

Don’t make the mistake many speakers make. Never confuse a statistic with a quotation. Remember: facts tell, stories sell. Search out stories and quotations for your talk that provide “teaching moments.” Tip: Do an Amazon search for aphorism. You’ll discover some great gems and nuggets for your next speech. An aphorism, like a proverb, teaches a memorable lesson-in-a-few-words.

“Don’t expect your ship to come in—unless you’ve sent one out.” ~Belgian Proverb

STRENGTHEN your case

Know exactly what you want to say to an audience. Then you will be in a position to find the perfect quote(s) for your next keynote speech, workshop or seminar. If you are giving a talk on leadership, select a quotation from an inspiring leader. Are you motivating athletes? Choose a motivational saying from an accomplished football, basketball, or soccer player. Most importantly, know your audience. This will help you know which quotation will best support your speech.

“We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.” ~Anais Nin

Make your speech MATTER

A good question to ask yourself is: “Who cares about what I am saying?” By the way, this is the very question your audience is asking when you start your speech. How does this matter to me ? Reverse engineer your speech. Think about the big takeaway you want your group to get from your presentation. Then craft your message—and the quotes that will make it pop—based on the actions you want your audience to take.

“The meaning of communication is the response you get.” ~NLP maxim

Use the power of REPETITION

One of the great speeches in U.S. history is Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. And one of the factors that makes it so powerful? MLK’s repeated use of his awesome title: “I Have a Dream.” Consider repeating a strong quotation again and again during your talk. This can help you re-state your core message. You can also hammer home a big point with a quotation that repeats certain words to great effect. Notice how Winston Churchill did this often. (“Never, never, never give in…”), He and MLK are two of the greatest orators of the 20th century. Both leaders repeated words to maximize the impact of their language.

“We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm.” ~Winston Churchill

Enhance a CELEBRATION

Maybe you will give your speech at a wedding, an anniversary party, or an awards program. You can pump up the proceedings with a special quote. Identify a sparkling statement that will raise spirits…and maybe wine glasses. Here’s the key to doing this well: Keep the focus on who/what is being celebrated. Your quotation should amplify the purpose of the event. Honor the bride, toast the award-winner, congratulate the champion. Get clear on the reason for festivities. Your quotation should put a spotlight on what your guests are celebrating together.

“Life is short, wear your party pants.” ~Loretta LaRoche

Want to make sport of a competitor? Handle a heckler? Or lampoon an idea you don’t like? A good quote can work wonders. Just be careful about coming across as mean-spirited. Humor helps.

“Lord, help me make my enemies look ridiculous.” ~Voltaire (French Philosopher)

Increase your AUTHORITY

Don’t get the wrong idea here. Quotations are not the source of your authority, you are. But a compelling quote can boost your credibility as a speaker. Select a quote that comes from a recognized name or organization that will resonate with your audience. Quote an expert. Better yet, become one.

“I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.” ~Muhammed Ali

Speak with CONFIDENCE

Want to know a speaking secret? Your listeners aren’t paying that much attention to what you say. But they are tuned in to how you say it. They are listening for your confidence. What do you do if you don’t feel confident? Act like you are. And to take it to the next level—instill confidence in your audience too. Model it.

“Feel the fear and do it anyway.” ~Susan Jeffers

Bring CLARITY

One of the gifts you can bring people via your message is clarity. Help your audience see the path, cut through the clutter, and take decisive action. Make a statement, or share a quotation, that simplifies things for people. Sometimes this can be phrased as a question like, “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” Other times you will want to give them the answer straight up. A great quote can help you do just that. You want to communicate with great clarity. And show your audience the way forward.

“If you don’t have a plan for your life, somebody else does.” ~Michael Hyatt

Issue a call to ACTION!

You can wrap-up your speech with a mighty quotation to finish strong. Make sure that your final phrase captures the heart of your main message. Don’t end on something cliché like, “Thanks for listening” or “My name is Blah Blah.” Your end quote, if you use one, should empower your audience and echo the main thrust of your talk. And get this: You want to invite your audience to take action.

“The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.” ~Walt Disney

Create your own CATCH PHRASE

Few people remember speeches, but many people remember speakers. Can you create an original quotation that fits your personal brand? Tap into what makes you unique. What makes your message special? The final words of your speech can remind people about who you are and what you had to say. What is your signature “sign off” sentence? It might be a parting piece of advice. It could also be a statement you design to capture the way you want the group to remember the experience you created for them.

“The tribe has spoken.” ~Jeff Probst, “Survivor”

By finding and utilizing quotations that appeal to you, you will heighten the impact of your speech. Plug one or two of the above quotations into your next speech or special presentation. Better yet, discover the pitch-perfect quotes for your talk. Weave them into your speech and speak with gusto. You’ll be glad you did. And your audience will be pleased too. You can quote me on that.

Adam Christing is a professional keynote speaker, master of ceremonies , and author . He has written four humor and personal transformation books including: Comedy Comes Clean 1 & 2: A Hilarious Collection of Wholesome Jokes, Quotes, and One-liners, Your Life is a Joke: 12 Ways to Go from Ha Ha to AHA! and Bob Dylan Can Change Your Life: 61 Ways to Invent a Legendary You.  Adam has been studying and collecting quotations for more than 25 years.

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How to Use Quotes in Your Speech: 8 Benefits and 21 Tips

In this article, we examine eight benefits of using quotations in your speech, and then discuss twenty-one tips for superpowering your speech with effective quotes.

• Speech Quotations
• Rhetorical Questions
• Triads (the Rule of Three)
• Parallelism

Benefits of Using Quotations in Your Speech

There are numerous benefits to crafting quotations into your speech, including:

• The primary reason to quote material in your speech is that it reinforces your ideas . A quotation offers a second voice echoing your claims, but is more powerful than simply repeating yourself in different words.
• Quotations usually offer a concise, memorable phrasing of an idea. (This is why the quotation gets remembered and repeated, isn’t it?)
• Using a quotation boosts your credibility because it implies that the person you are quoting agrees with the rest of your argument.
• Most people do not have the ability to spontaneous offer relevant quotes to support their statements. So, when you deliver a quotation, it demonstrates your domain knowledge and preparation .
• Quotations are one way to add variety to your logical arguments , along with facts, statistics, stories, metaphors, and other material. Audiences get bored if you offer a one-dimensional string of arguments of the same type.
• Depending on how you deliver the quotation, you can create anticipation, suspense, or drama . For example, if you begin “Microsoft founder Bill Gates once said…” followed by a pause, then your audience will surely anticipate your next words. What did he say? What did he say?
• Conversely, you might choose a quotation which adds humor to your presentation , due to the content of the quote or perhaps the person you are quoting.
• If you are delivering with visuals, you might choose to display the quotation on a slide and let your audience read it. This creates a natural and purposeful pause in your vocal delivery , allowing you to check your notes, take a sip of water, and collect your thoughts.

Tips for Using Quotations in Your Speech

Okay, you are convinced of the benefits of incorporating quotations into your speech. But how do you do it? Who should you quote? When should you give the quotation? Read on to discover numerous tips for using quotes effectively in your presentations.

Do your Research

• Make sure you get the phrasing correct. A quotation should boost your credibility, but quoting inaccurately weakens your credibility. A sloppy quotation makes you look lazy.
• Get a reliable source. Wikipedia doesn’t count. Your credibility is on the line.
• Beware quoting out-of-context. Be careful when quoting material on controversial topics. Make sure you understand the intent of the speaker, not only their words. A quotation taken out of context where you’ve garbled the meaning makes you look like you are deliberately misleading your audience.

Quote People Your Audience Knows

• Quote a well-known expert in the field. Don’t quote individuals based purely on their fame or success; base your decision on their expertise in the subject area you are talking about. Quote Aristotle on philosophy or Serena Williams on tennis — doing the opposite gets you in trouble.
• Quote a lesser-known expert in the field, but only with background context. If your desired quote comes from someone who your audience won’t immediately recognize, you’ll need to introduce the speaker and establish their credibility before delivering their quote.
• Quote an earlier speaker at your event. Suppose you are speaking at an event where an earlier speaker made some statements relevant to your message. Referring back to their words will not only impress your audience, but also capitalize on the earlier speaker’s effectiveness.
• Quote yourself (playfully). I’ve done this many times, and it always receives a positive audience response. One way I do this is to introduce a particularly important point as “Dlugan’s First Law of ( whatever topic I’m speaking on )”

Use your own words to open and close; quote in the middle.

• Open your speech with a quote (sparingly). Starting with a quote can be effective, but don’t assume just  any quotation will grab your audience’s attention. I’ve watched speakers open with a quotation that wasn’t very powerful, and even irrelevant to their content. There are usually more powerful ways to grab your audience’s attention.
• Avoid closing your speech with a quote. I have heard speeches end strong with a quotation, usually when the quote refers back to the beginning. However, I would not advise it generally. Your final words should be your own. Ending with a quote is often a sign that you don’t have confidence in your own words.
• Quotations work best in the body of your speech. The best time to introduce a quote is when you need more support for one of your arguments. One particularly effective time is near the end of a section. Reinforcing your arguments with a quotation brings good closure to your argument.

Draw attention to the quote through your delivery.

• The traditional formula is okay. Most quotations are introduced simply: Albert Einstein once said “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” This simple formula is clear, direct, and acceptable.
• Reading the quote from notes is okay. When possible, I would advise delivering the quote from memory. But sometimes, reading it can be better. If the quote is lengthy, for example, it’s better to read it to ensure you are accurate. Even a short quote can be read from notes effectively. I once saw a speaker who produced the note paper from his pocket, and was almost reverent as he read it. In this case, it could be argued that not reading it would have been disrespectful.
• Or, let your audience read the quote. If you are using visuals, you might choose to display the quotation. When you do this, do NOT read it to your audience. Let them read it. (Remember, you should never read material to your audience when they can see the words.) This technique has an added benefit: you can stylize the slide to add impact. For example, you might add a photo of the speaker, or perhaps use a font which conveys mood.
• Pause before and after. You should pause briefly before the quote (a little suspense, and to grab attention) and then a little longer after the quote (to allow the meaning of the quotation to be absorbed by your audience.) Give the quotation respect, and let its impact be felt.
• Spice up your vocal delivery. Of course, you should be varying your voice throughout your presentation. Just like other key statements in your speech, a quotation deserves a little extra vocal emphasis. Maybe louder, maybe softer. Maybe happier, maybe sadder. Let the mood of the quote guide your delivery.
• Set the context when necessary. Some quotations stand on their own, but other quotations won’t be effective unless you establish the context first. A quotation which has your audience guessing is a missed opportunity. Perhaps you need to give the historical context, or explain something about the life of the speaker. Make sure the quotation has maximum impact.

Use trustworthy sources.

• Quotation compilations keep quotes within arm’s reach. Every serious speaker should own at least one quotation compilation. ( Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is my personal favorite, ever since I first found a copy of a previous edition on my brother’s bookshelf 30 years ago.) A well-edited compilation provides several sort indices to help you find the perfect quote faster. An added benefit is that these types of sources should be trustworthy.
• Biographies of famous people in your field are also rich sources. For example, a biography on Steve Jobs is sure to have numerous quotable lines on his business philosophy. Like quotation compilations, biographies are generally trustworthy.
• Online quotation search engines offer unparalleled breadth. Quotation websites help you find quotations using a given keyword or spoken by a given person. It’s quick and easy, but the sources cannot always be trusted. Whenever I use these sources, I seek out a second source to verify. (Be careful, many quotation websites might use the same flawed source…)

Be selective.

• Don’t use a quote that everyone knows. If your audience has heard the quote before, you will receive virtually no benefit from repeating it.
• Don’t overdo it. There’s no rule about how many quotes you should use, but their effectiveness gets diluted if you use too many. Remember that your speech should primarily be told with your words, not someone else’s. Keep just the best quotes you found in your research, and trim the others.

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16 comments.

Excellent post. Doing your research is vital. In January I blogged about some people who quoted Penn State football coach Joe Paterno after he’d gone from famous to infamous: http://joyfulpublicspeaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/preparation-is-vital-before-using.html

Yesterday I blogged about how two apparently startling statistics weren’t really that impressive: http://joyfulpublicspeaking.blogspot.com/2012/09/is-540-million-minutes-per-day-large.html

Great advice! I appreciate that you tell speakers to use quotations that we DON’T already know. Too often, speakers use tired quotations and it doesn’t add benefit to the presentation.

Andrew, I am trying something a bit different with quotes for one of my advanced Toastmaster speeches,…the speech is about the importance of the words we say as told to me by an elderly friend of mine who is a survivor of Auschwitz. There are two powerful, but simple, quotes during the speech and I’ve decided to imitate my friend’s German accent to make the quotes more meaningful and memorable. I’ve never heard anyone in my club purposely use a different accent to make quotes in their speech stand out more. I’m interested to see how this will work.

Generally, I think delivering the quote using an accent is a great idea. This makes it much more like storytelling and is one way to create a meaningful context for your audience.

A couple things to consider: 1) Practice. Make sure that adding an accent doesn’t prevent you from accurately quoting. 2) Make sure that the quote is still clear with an accent. If your audience cannot understand the words, it will be less effective.

the article is so helpful and clearly understandable.thumbs up.

Great topic to post about Andrew, You make some really good points!

Definitely agree re:using quotes not everyone knows. You see the same quotes repeated to death on the internet – and esp. twitter (“you are what you repeatedly do”, anyone?) that the audience rolls their eyes and thinks ‘you prepared this?’ when they hear one in a talk.

Thanks for the tips. I have just referenced your article in my blog post about using quotes in high-tech presentations.

Thanks Andrew – I really enjoyed this post.

It inspired me to come up with 6 more tips for using quotes: http://remotepossibilities.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/how-to-use-quotes-in-your-presentation-tips-six-minutes/

Hope you find them helpful!

Thanks for extending the discussion, Craig.

Lots of good points here. But I disagree about never using familiar quotes. In some cases, if you using a known quote to say something new or unexpected, it can be very effective, and often funny and memorable. P.S. #11 “stay” with problems longer. 🙂

Yes, if the known quote can be interpreted in a fresh way from a new perspective, then it may have value. Unfortunately, these common quotes are used predictably… and that’s boring.

Thanks for the typo alert, Shelly. It has been fixed.

Andrew: Great advice to not read the quote, but let the audience read the quote and then have the presenter comment on the quote and it’s meaning as it relates to the topic.

Enjoyed this article will be able to direct my speech students to your website for some good presentation tips

I completely disagree with most of this. It’s almost always feeble lazy technique to throw in a ‘famous’ quote into a speech. Why? Does not a speaker have original language of his/her own? Isn’t it annoying or presumptuous to try to dignify one’s own words with language appropriated from other people? Yes, using a quotation shows your ‘preparation’. It also shows that you’re unable to make a case without calling in bigger guns, and that shows weakness.

Sir, I have to give a speech. Should I add quote before my introduction or after my introduction?

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How to Start a Speech: 7 Tips and Examples for a Captivating Opening

By Status.net Editorial Team on December 12, 2023 — 10 minutes to read

1. Choosing the Right Opening Line

Finding the perfect opening line for your speech is important in grabbing your audience’s attention. A strong opening line sets the stage for the points you want to make and helps you establish a connection with your listeners.

1. Start with a question

Engage your audience from the very beginning by asking them a thought-provoking question related to your topic. This approach encourages them to think, and it can create a sense of anticipation about what’s coming next.

• “Have you ever wondered how much time we spend on our phones every day?”

2. Share a personal story

A relatable personal story can create an emotional connection with your audience. Make sure your story is short, relevant to your speech, and ends with a clear point.

• “When I was a child, my grandmother used to tell me that every kind deed we do plants a seed of goodness in the world. It was this philosophy that inspired me to start volunteering.”

3. Use a quote or a statistic

Incorporate a powerful quote or an intriguing statistic at the outset of your speech to engage your audience and provide context for your topic.

• “As the great Maya Angelou once said, ‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'”

4. Make them laugh

Injecting a little humor into your opening line puts everyone at ease and makes your speech more memorable. Just make sure your joke is relevant and doesn’t offend your audience.

• “They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but if the doctor is cute, forget the fruit!”

5. Paint a mental picture

Draw your audience in by describing a vivid scene or painting an illustration in their minds. This creates an immersive experience that makes it easier for your audience to follow your speech.

• “Picture this: you’re walking down the beach, and you look out on the horizon. The sun is setting, and the sky is a breathtaking canvas of reds, oranges, and pinks.”

2. Using a Personal Story

Sharing a personal story can be a highly effective way to engage your audience from the very beginning of your speech. When you open your talk with a powerful, relatable story, it helps create an emotional connection with your listeners, making them more invested in what you have to say.

Think about an experience from your life that is relevant to the topic of your speech. Your story doesn’t have to be grand or dramatic, but it should be clear and vivid. Include enough detail to paint a picture in your audience’s minds, but keep it concise and on point.

The key to successfully using a personal story is to make it relatable. Choose a situation that your audience can empathize with or easily understand. For example, if you’re giving a speech about overcoming adversity, you could talk about a time where you faced a seemingly insurmountable challenge and overcame it.

Make sure to connect your story to the main point or theme of your speech. After sharing your experience, explain how it relates to the topic at hand, and let your audience see the relevance to their own lives. This will make your speech more impactful and show your listeners why your personal story holds meaning.

3. Making a Shocking Statement

Starting your speech with a shocking statement can instantly grab your audience’s attention. This technique works especially well when your speech topic relates to a hot-button issue or a controversial subject. Just make sure that the statement is relevant and true, as false claims may damage your credibility.

For example, “Believe it or not, 90% of startups fail during their first five years in the market.” This statement might surprise your listeners and make them more receptive to your ideas on how to avoid pitfalls and foster a successful business.

So next time you’re crafting a speech, consider opening with a powerful shocking statement. It could be just the thing to get your audience sitting up and paying full attention. (Try to keep your shocking statement relevant to your speech topic and factual to enhance your credibility.)

4. Using Humor

Humor can be an excellent way to break the ice and grab your audience’s attention. Opening your speech with a funny story or a joke can make a memorable first impression. Just be sure to keep it relevant to your topic and audience.

A good joke can set a light-hearted tone, lead into the importance of effective time management, and get your audience engaged from the start.

When using humor in your speech, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Be relatable: Choose a story or joke that your audience can easily relate to. It will be more engaging and connect your listeners to your message.
• Keep it appropriate: Make sure the humor fits the occasion and audience. Stay away from controversial topics and avoid offending any particular group.
• Practice your delivery: Timing and delivery are essential when telling a joke. Practice saying it out loud and adjust your pacing and tone of voice to ensure your audience gets the joke.
• Go with the flow: If your joke flops or doesn’t get the reaction you were hoping for, don’t panic or apologize. Simply move on to the next part of your speech smoothly, and don’t let it shake your confidence.
• Don’t overdo it: While humor can be useful in capturing your audience’s attention, remember that you’re not a stand-up comedian. Use it sparingly and focus on getting your message across clearly and effectively.

5. Incorporating a Quote

When you want to start your speech with a powerful quote, ensure that the quote is relevant to your topic. Choose a quote from a credible source, such as a famous historical figure, a well-known author, or a respected expert in your field. This will not only grab your audience’s attention but also establish your speech’s credibility.

For example, if you’re giving a speech about resilience, you might use this quote by Nelson Mandela: “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

Once you’ve found the perfect quote, integrate it smoothly into your speech’s introduction. You can briefly introduce the source of the quote, providing context for why their words are significant. For example:

Nelson Mandela, an inspirational leader known for his perseverance, once said: “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

When you’re incorporating a quote in your speech, practice your delivery to ensure it has the intended impact. Focus on your tone, pace, and pronunciation. By doing so, you can convey the quote’s meaning effectively and connect with your audience emotionally.

Connect the quote to your main points by briefly explaining how it relates to the subject matter of your speech. By creating a natural transition from the quote to your topic, you can maintain your audience’s interest and set the stage for a compelling speech.

In our resilience example, this could look like:

“This quote by Mandela beautifully illustrates the power of resilience. Today, I want to share with you some stories of remarkable individuals who, like Mandela, overcame obstacles and rose every time they fell. Through their experiences, we might learn how to cultivate our own resilience and make the most of life’s challenges.”

6. Starting with a Question

Opening your speech with a question can be a great way to engage your audience from the start. This strategy encourages your listeners to think and become active participants in your presentation. Your opening question should be related to your core message, sparking their curiosity, and setting the stage for the following content. Here are a few examples:

• For a motivational speech : “Have you ever wondered what you would do if you couldn’t fail?”
• For a business presentation : “What’s the biggest challenge your team faces daily, and how can we overcome it?”
• For an educational talk : “How does the way we use technology today impact the future of our society?”

When choosing the right starting question, consider your audience. You want to ask something that is relevant to their experiences and interests. The question should be interesting enough to draw their attention and resonate with their emotions. For instance, if you’re presenting to a group of entrepreneurs, gear your question towards entrepreneurship, and so on.

To boost your question’s impact, consider using rhetorical questions. These don’t require a verbal response, but get your audience thinking about their experiences or opinions. Here’s an example:

• For an environmental speech : “What kind of world do we want to leave for our children?”

After posing your question, take a moment to let it sink in, and gauge the audience’s reaction. You can also use a brief pause to give the listeners time to think about their answers before moving on with your speech.

7. Acknowledging the Occasion

When starting a speech, you can acknowledge the occasion that brought everyone together. This helps create a connection with your audience and sets the stage for the rest of your speech. Make sure to mention the event name, its purpose, and any relevant individuals or groups you would like to thank for organizing it. For example:

“Hello everyone, and welcome to the 10th annual Charity Gala Dinner. I’m truly grateful to the fundraising committee for inviting me to speak tonight.”

After addressing the event itself, include a brief personal touch to show your connection with the topic or the audience. This helps the audience relate to you and gain interest in what you have to say. Here’s an example:

“As a long-time supporter of this cause, I am honored to share my thoughts on how we can continue making a difference in our community.”

Next, give a brief overview of your speech so the audience knows what to expect. This sets the context and helps them follow your points. You could say something like:

“Tonight, I’ll be sharing my experiences volunteering at the local food bank and discussing the impact of your generous donations.”

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some effective opening lines for speeches.

A powerful opening line will grab your audience’s attention and set the stage for the rest of your speech. Some effective opening lines include:

• Start with a bold statement: “The world needs your creativity now more than ever.”
• Share a surprising fact: “Did you know that the average person spends (…) years of their life at work?”
• Pose a thought-provoking question: “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
• Tell a short, engaging story: “When I was 10 years old, I discovered my passion for baking in my grandmother’s kitchen.”

Can you provide examples of engaging introductions for speeches?

• Use humor: “As a kid, I believed that 7 pm bedtime was a form of torture. Now, as an adult, I find myself dreaming of 7 pm bedtime.”
• Share a personal experience: “On a trip to Italy, I found myself lost in the winding streets of a small village. It was there, amidst my confusion, that I stumbled upon the best gelato I’d ever tasted.”
• Use an analogy: “Starting a new business is like taking a journey into the unknown. There will be challenges to overcome, and you’ll need resilience, determination, and a strong compass.”

Which speech styles can make a powerful impact on the audience?

Different speech styles will resonate with different audiences. Some styles to consider include:

• Inspirational: Motivate your audience to take action or overcome challenges.
• Storytelling: Share personal experiences or anecdotes to illustrate your points and keep listeners engaged.
• Educational: Provide useful information and insights to help your audience learn or grow.
• Persuasive: Present a compelling argument to convince your audience to adopt a particular perspective or take specific action.

How do successful speakers establish a connection with their listeners?

Establishing a connection with your listeners is key to delivering an impactful speech. Some ways to connect with your audience include:

• Show empathy: Demonstrating understanding and concern for your audience’s feelings and experiences will generate a sense of trust and connection.
• Be relatable: Share personal stories or examples that allow your audience to see themselves in your experiences, thus making your speech more relatable.
• Keep it genuine: Avoid overrehearsing or coming across as scripted. Instead, strive for authenticity and flexibility in your delivery.
• Encourage participation: Engaging your audience through questions, activities, or conversation can help build rapport and make them feel more involved.

What are some techniques for maintaining a friendly and professional tone in speeches?

To maintain a friendly and professional tone in your speeches, consider these tips:

• Balance humor and seriousness: Use humor to lighten the mood and engage your audience, but make sure to also cover the serious points in your speech.
• Speak naturally: Use your everyday vocabulary and avoid jargon or overly formal language when possible.
• Show respect: Acknowledge differing opinions and experiences, and treat your audience with courtesy and fairness.
• Provide useful information: Offer valuable insights and solutions to your audience’s concerns, ensuring they leave your speech feeling more informed and empowered.
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Mark Twain's Best Quotes and How to Use Them in Public Speaking

When it comes to presentations that wow audiences, you can't do better than learning at the feet of an American master: Mark Twain. (To speak engagingly to your own audiences, download my free cheat sheet, "5 Ways to Captivate an Audience." )

No one lived a more interesting life — and nobody wrote about what he lived so entertainingly. Also known as a great after dinner speaker, Twain (1835-1910) entertained audiences around the world with his unique mix of sophistication and homespun humor.

If it's storytelling techniques you're after, you won't find anyone who could spin a web more succintinctly or engagingly. Speaking of conciseness (and speaking concisely), the quote at the top of this article is a clue to Twain's work ethic. Like all good humorists, he labored long and hard so that his stories could emerge short, sweet, and precisely on point.

This is the writer, after all, who said: "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."

Getting the Great Man on Your Side

As someone once said regarding using quotations in speeches: Why not bring brilliant and famous people up on stage with you? One of the most companionable and effective speaking partners available is the man who grew up in Hannibal, Missouri.

Here's a sample of some of the best Mark Twain quotes that will help enliven your talks, lectures, keynotes, or remarks at the next mining camp (an early source of employment for Twain) you speak at.

• When you're about to cite evidence: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." (Twain attributed this, perhaps erroneously, to Disraeli.) Or if you prefer: "Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
• As self-deprecating humor: "Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times."
• Praising someone's courage in standing up for the truth: " A lie can make it half way around the world before the truth has time to put its boots on."
• Giving advice to young people: "Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
• At your next author's appearance: "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot."
• When you're being honored after a lifetime of service: "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
• Speaking in New England: "There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather that compels the stranger's admiration — and regret. The weather is always doing something there; always attending strictly to business; always getting up new designs and trying them on people to see how they will go. But it gets through more business in spring than in any other season. In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of twenty-four hours."
• At a fashion event: "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."
• Discussing humor: "The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it."
• In a lecture on creativity: "You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus."
• Speaking on education: "Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned."
• Discussing music: "Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
• Lecturing on government: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
• And my favorite, for a speech on wisdom: "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." (Scholars question whether this quote can be attributed to Twain, but if he didn't say it, he should have!)

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6 Tips for Writing a Persuasive Speech (On Any Topic)

B y far, the best way to learn how to write speeches is to read the great ones, from Pericles’ Funeral Oration, to Dr. King’s Mountaintop speech, to Faulkner’s Nobel acceptance address. But if you’re looking for some quick tips, here are a few things to bear in mind next time you’re asked to give a speech:

1. Write like you talk. There is no First Law of Speechwriting, but if there were, it would probably be something like this: a speech is meant to be spoken, not read. That simple (and obvious) fact has a few important (and less obvious) implications. Use short words. Write short sentences. Avoid awkward constructions that might cause a speaker to stumble. Tip: Read the speech aloud as you’re writing. If you do it enough, you’ll start hearing the words when you type them.

2. Tell a story . I once wrote speeches for a governor whose aide told me: speechwriting is about slinging soundbites together. That approach is a recipe for writing neither good speeches nor good soundbites. Whenever we sat down to discuss a speech for the first time, President Obama would ask us: What’s the story we’re trying to tell? Like any good story, a speech has its own narrative arc. For the President, it’s usually a slow warm-up, a substantive middle, and an inspirational end. That’s his style. Tell your story in whatever way feels natural. Tip: A good story can be a lot more powerful than the most compelling facts and statistics.

3. Structure matters . It’s usually harder to figure out the right structure for a speech – the order of the points to make – than the words themselves. The order of those points matters because an argument that’s clear and logical is more likely to be persuasive. There is a reason that some of America’s greatest speechwriters – from Lincoln to JFK’s speechwriter Ted Sorensen to President Obama himself – studied the law, a profession that values the ability to make a logical argument. Tip: Lists (like this one) are one way to impose a structure on a speech.

4. Be concise. It is said that Woodrow Wilson once gave the following reply to a speaking request: “If you’d like me to speak for five minutes, I’ll need a month to prepare. If you’d like me to speak for 20 minutes, I’ll need two weeks. But if you’d like me to speak for an hour, I’m ready right now.” As Wilson knew, it’s harder to be concise than verbose. But the best way to make a point is concisely, as Churchill did when he announced during a wartime address: “The news from France is very bad.” Next time you think you can’t afford to cut that paragraph you love, remember: the Gettysburg Address, perhaps the greatest speech in American history, is fewer than 300 words. Tip: Challenge yourself to cut as many words as possible from each sentence without losing the line’s meaning.

5. Be authentic. If you’ve ever given a speech, you’ve probably been told, “Just speak from the heart.” It’s not very helpful writing advice, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Once, when we were writing President Obama’s 2008 Democratic Convention address, we got stuck on a certain section of the speech. The President advised us: Think about the moment we’re in, think about what the country is going through, and write something that feels true. It was a helpful reminder to stop focusing on polls and soundbites and simply say something we believed in as simply as we could. Tip: Sharing a personal story can help you find your voice and build a connection with the audience.

6. Don’t just speak – say something. When Michelangelo was tasked with painting the Sistine Chapel, he considered it a thankless job. He would have much rather spent his time sculpting than painting. But he used the occasion to paint perhaps the most revered fresco in history. So, the next time you’re asked to speak, don’t just write a speech, write a great one. A speech’s greatness has as much to do with its values as anything else. No one remembers the speeches of segregationists, though there were no doubt eloquent preachers spewing hate in the days of Jim Crow. No one remembers Hitler’s speeches, though few would dispute his oratorical prowess. Of course, Hitler, like the segregationists, lost. But it’s also because hope will always be more compelling than hate. It’s no accident that the best-known, best-loved speech in history – the Sermon on the Mount – is an articulation of humanity’s highest ideals. Tip: Before sitting down to write, get inspired by reading great speeches from collections like William Safire’s “Lend Me Your Ears.”

Adam Frankel is VP, External Affairs at Andela . Previously, he was Special Assistant and Senior Speechwriter to President Barack Obama.

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Quote Investigator®

Tracing Quotations

Quote Origin: If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter

Blaise Pascal? John Locke? Benjamin Franklin? Henry David Thoreau? Cicero? Woodrow Wilson?

Question for Quote Investigator: I was planning to end a letter with the following remark:

If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.

But the number of different people credited with this comment is so numerous that an explanatory appendix would have been required, and the letter was already too long. Here is a partial list of attributions I have seen: Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, Voltaire, Blaise Pascal, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Winston Churchill, Pliny the Younger, Cato, Cicero, Bill Clinton, and Benjamin Franklin. Did anybody in this group really say it?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Some of the attributions you have listed are spurious, but several are supported by solid evidence. The first known instance in the English language was a sentence translated from a text written by the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal. The French statement appeared in a letter in a collection called “Lettres Provinciales” in the year 1657: 1 2 3

Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.

Here is one possible modern day translation of Pascal’s statement. Note that the term “this” refers to the letter itself.

I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.

An English translation was created in 1658 and published in London. Here is an excerpt from that early rendition of the letter. The spelling differed in 1658, and the phrases “longer then” and “shorter then” occurred in this text instead of “longer than” and “shorter than”: 4

My Letters were not wont to come so close one in the neck of another, nor yet to be so large. The short time I have had hath been the cause of both. I had not made this longer then the rest, but that I had not the leisure to make it shorter then it is.

Pascal’s notion was quite memorable, and it was discussed in a French book about language. That work was translated and published in London in 1676 as “The Art of Speaking”: 5

These Inventions require much wit, and application; and therefore it was, that Mons. Pascal (an Author very famous for his felicity in comprising much in few words) excused himself wittily for the extravagant length of one of his Letters, by saying, he had not time to make it shorter.

In 1688 a religious controversialist named George Tullie included a version of the witticism in an essay he wrote about the celibacy of the clergy: 6

The Reader will I doubt too soon discover that so large an interval of time was not spent in writing this discourse; the very length of it will convince him, that the writer had not time enough to make a shorter.

Below are listed several variations of the expression as used by well known, lesser known, and unknown individuals. The philosopher John Locke, the statesman Benjamin Franklin, the transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, and the President Woodrow Wilson all presented statements matching this theme and the details are provided.

Mark Twain who is often connected to this saying did not use it according to the best available research, but one of his tangentially related quotations is given later for your entertainment.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 1688 “A Geographical Dictionary” by Edmund Bohun was published. This reference work presented an alphabetically list of cities, towns, rivers, mountains and other locations together with descriptions. The author crafted the following variant of the remark: 7

The Reader may pardon this long Discourse, because the Subject so well deserved it, and I wanted Art to make it shorter.

In 1690 the philosopher John Locke released his famous work “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” with a prefatory section called “The Epistle to the Reader”. Locke commented on the length of his essay and indicated why he decided not to shorten it: 8

I will not deny, but possibly it might be reduced to a narrower Compass than it is; and that some Parts of it might be contracted: The way it has been writ in, by Catches, and many long Intervals of Interruption, being apt to cause some Repetitions. But to confess the Truth, I am now too lazy, or too busy to make it shorter.

In 1704 the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London printed a letter from William Cowper that contained the following: 9

If in this I have been tedious, it may be some excuse, I had not time to make it shorter.

In 1750 Benjamin Franklin composed a letter describing his groundbreaking experiments involving electricity and sent it to a member of the Royal Society in London. Franklin excused the length of his report as follows: 10

I have already made this paper too long, for which I must crave pardon, not having now time to make it shorter.

The quotation is sometimes attached to famous figures in antiquity. For example, in 1824 a version of the quote was assigned to the Roman orator Cicero: 11

Cicero excuses himself for having written a long letter, by saying he had not time to make it shorter.

The German theologian Martin Luther died in 1546. A biographical work published in London in 1846 attributed the following words to him: 12

If I had my time to go over again, I would make my sermons much shorter, for I am conscious they have been too wordy.

In 1857 Henry David Thoreau wrote a letter to a friend that offered commentary about story length: 13

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.

In 1871 Mark Twain wrote a letter to a friend that included a remark about the length of his note. Twain’s comment did not really match the quotation under investigation but it is related to the general theme: 14

You’ll have to excuse my lengthiness—the reason I dread writing letters is because I am so apt to get to slinging wisdom & forget to let up. Thus much precious time is lost.

According to an anecdote published in 1918 Woodrow Wilson was asked about the amount of time he spent preparing speeches, and his response was illuminating: 15

“That depends on the length of the speech,” answered the President. “If it is a ten-minute speech it takes me all of two weeks to prepare it; if it is a half-hour speech it takes me a week; if I can talk as long as I want to it requires no preparation at all. I am ready now.”

QI has examined a family of similar sayings about speeches in an entry located here .

Mark Twain died in 1910. Decades later in 1975 an article in the “Chicago Tribune” of Illinois about writing postcards attributed a version of the saying to Twain: 16

Writing a postcard well requires effort. Mark Twain once said, “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one.”

In conclusion, Blaise Pascal wrote a version of this saying in French and it quickly moved into the English language. The notion was very popular and variants of the expression have been employed by other notable figures in history. The saying has also been assigned to some prominent individuals without adequate factual support.

Image Notes: Public domain illustration of a hand writing a message from a 1912 edition of “The Book of Knowledge” published by The Grolier Society. Image has been resized.

Acknowledgement: The investigation was motivated by an inquiry from a brilliant and entertaining writer who is also a strong leader of a writing group in Florida. Thanks to BT Smith who highlighted the use of “then” for “than” in the 1658 passage.

Update History: On March 5, 2014 the 1918 citation was added and the previous 1946 citation to a Woodrow Wilson biography was removed. On May 3, 2018 a statement about the spelling of “then” and “than” in 1658 was added. On January 28, 2020 the 1975 citation was added. On May 10, 2024 the format of the bibliographical notes was updated.

• 2006, The Yale Book of Quotations by Fred R. Shapiro, Section: Blaise Pascal, Page 583, Yale University Press, New Haven. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
• 2006, The Quote Verifier by Ralph Keyes, Page 119-120, St Martin’s Griffin, New York. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
• Oxford Dictionary of Quotations edited by Elizabeth Knowles, Section: Blaise Pascal, Oxford Reference Online, Oxford University Press. (Accessed March 27, 2012) ↩︎
• 1658, Les Provinciales, or, The Mystery of Jesuitisme by Blaise Pascal, [Translated into English], Second Edition Corrected, Page 292, Letter 16: Postscript, [Letter addressed to Reverend Fathers from Blaise Pascal], Printed for Richard Royston, London. (Google Books full view) link ↩︎
• 1676, The Art of Speaking, Written in French by Messieurs Du Port Royal: In Pursuance of a former Treatise, Intitled, The Art of Thinking, Rendred into English, Page 8, Printed by W. Godbid, London. (Google Books full view) link ↩︎
• 1688, An Answer to a Discourse Concerning the Celibacy of the Clergy by George Tullie, Preface, (Page 2 of Preface; unnumbered), Oxford, Printed at the Theater for Richard Chiswell, London. (Google Books full view) link ↩︎
• 1688, A Geographical Dictionary, Representing the Present and Ancient Names of all the Countries, Provinces, Remarkable Cities, …, Of the Whole World by Edmund Bohun, [Page unnumbered], Page Header: AT, Column 2, Printed for Charles Brome, London. (Google Books full view) link ↩︎
• 1714, The Works of John Locke Esq: In Three Volumes, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, [Essay originally published in 1690], The Epistle to the Reader, Page vii, Printed for John Churchill, London. (Google Books full view) link ↩︎
• 1706 [1704 March and April issue], Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, A Letter to Dr. Edward Tyson from William Cowper, Start Page 1576, Quote Page 1586, Printed for S. Smith and B. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, London. (Google Books full view) link ↩︎
• 1754, New Experiments and Observations on Electricity Made at Philadelphia in America by Benjamin Franklin, Second Edition, Part I, [Letter to Peter Collinson from Benjamin Franklin; Dated July 29, 1750], Start Page 50, Quote Page 82, Printed and sold by D. Henry and R. Cave, London. (Google Books full view) link ↩︎
• 1824 August, The Harmonicon: A Journal of Music, Number 20, Signor Rossini and Signor Carpani, Start Page 153, Quote Page 156, Published by William Pinnock, Music Warehouse, London. (Google Books full view) link ↩︎
• 1846, The Life of Luther: Written By Himself, Collected and Arranged by M. Michelet, [Translated by William Hazlitt], Table Talk – Preaching, Page 293, Published by David Bogue, London. (Google Books full view) link ↩︎
• 1879, Letters to Various Persons by Henry David Thoreau, (Letter dated November 16, 1857 to Mr. B: Harrison Blake), Start Page 161, Quote Page 165, Riverside Press, Cambridge, Houghton, Osgood, and Company, Boston. (Google Books full view) link ↩︎
• 1871 June 15, Letter from Mark Twain to James Redpath, Elmira, New York, UCCL 00617 (Union Catalog of Clemens Letters), Mark Twain Project Online. (Accessed marktwainproject.org on 2012 April 24) link ↩︎
• 1918 April, The Operative Miller, Volume 23, Number 4, (Short freestanding item), Quote Page 130, Column 1, Operative Miller Press, Chicago, Illinois. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
• 1975 May 7, Chicago Tribune, Traveler’s guide: Postcard writing is the vacationer’s art, by Carol Baker, Section 3, Quote Page 16, Column 2, Chicago, Illinois. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎

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25 of the Most Inspirational Graduation Quotes

In the current world of social distancing, graduation is just one of the many celebrations that has been impacted. What was supposed to be an auditorium filled with high spirits, proud scholars, and supportive friends and family, is now online ceremonies and mailed diplomas. But to the graduates reading this, know that your hard work has not gone unnoticed.

No matter if your cap and gown has been replaced with sweatpants or your celebratory hugs with virtual high fives, you are still celebrated, still recognized and still loved. So, Class of 2020, we want reassure you that the tassel was indeed worth the hassle! We applaud you. You did it!

Celebrate your accomplishments and look to the future with these 25 quotes by speakers who we all know and love:

SUCCESS Staff

SUCCESS is your guide for personal and professional development through inspiration, motivation and training.

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Copyright © 2024 SUCCESS Magazine. All rights reserved.

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• Wedding Reception Ideas

39 Funny Wedding Toasts and Speeches That'll Get the Whole Room Laughing

Plus, tips on writing and delivering a humorous speech that won't come off as a roast.

Photo by Abby Jiu Photography

In This Article

If you've been asked to give a wedding toast , it's important to recognize what a big deal this is. The couple must think very highly of you if they trust you to speak on their behalf in front of everyone they love on such a special day. Now that you recognize what a tremendous honor this is, you might be feeling a bit nervous about your new role as reception orator. Where should you begin planning your speech?

The most important thing to know about wedding speeches —whether you're the maid of honor, best man, or a parent—is that the best ones are both heartfelt and humorous. Another key feature of a perfect toast? It should be under five minutes. Now that you have the length down, you can start penning your toast by doing a deep-dive into your own memories of and feelings about the couple. For most people, those heartfelt bits come easily. It's the other half of the speech—the funny half—that tends to be tough to write. After all, coming up with zingers isn't a skill that we all naturally possess. So, to help you out in the laughs department, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite funny wedding toasts and marriage quotes below.

Feel free to borrow with abandon and mix them up as needed—whatever it takes to make your speech really shine! 

Photo by Twah Dougherty Photography

Funny Wedding Toast Ideas 

Whether you're the maid of honor, best man, or parent of the bride or groom, these one-liners and well-wishes are sure to garner some chuckles.

• "What do late nights, wild parties, and hanging out with friends on the weekend have in common? You won’t be able to do any of those things from now on. But congratulations on your wedding!"
• "May your children be blessed with rich parents." 
• "The couple asked that I don't share any embarrassing stories today... so that's it for me! Cheers to the newlyweds!"
• "Here's to you and here's to me, I hope we never disagree, But if, perchance, we ever do, Then here's to me, and to hell with you."
• "Let’s raise our glasses to the two secrets of a long-lasting marriage: a good sense of humor and a short memory."
• "May all of your ups and downs be only in the bedroom."
• "Our happy couple really struggled to find someone to give a speech today. They asked their most attractive friend first, and they said no. Then they asked their smartest friend, who also said no. After that, they went to their funniest friend, and the answer was still no. So then they asked me, and I couldn't turn them down for a fourth time!" 
• "Remember: In life there are only two tools anyone really needs in their toolbox—duct tape and WD40. Duct tape keeps things from moving when they shouldn’t, and WD40 gets things moving when they’re stuck."
• "May you both live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live."
• "May you never lie, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie with each other. And if you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink with us. Cheers to the newlyweds!"
• "We are gathered here today to honor something so truly magical, so truly unique and wonderful, that it simply had to be celebrated. I am, of course, talking about the doughnut wall."
• "As Bill and Ted once said: 'Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.'"
• "Saying 'I do' at your wedding is like clicking the 'I accept' box any time a new piece of software on your computer or phone asks you to read its terms and conditions: You do it despite having no idea what will come next. Congratulations on your marriage!"
• "Let me leave you with one piece of advice. Never laugh at your spouse’s choices. Remember: They also chose you. Cheers!"
• "Now, let’s raise our glasses to the happy couple. I actually like both of you—do you have any idea how rare that is?"
• "The couple has amazing taste, don't you think? I mean, we can all agree that they did choose the absolute best speaker tonight!"
• "May the most you wish for be the least you get." 
• "May your household multiply, and may your hearts never be divided."

Photo by Jose Villa

Funny Quotes for Your Wedding Toast 

Use these humorous bits to offer the newlyweds wisdom and advice with a wink in your toast.

• "The secret to a good marriage is to be a little deaf." — Ruth Bader Ginsburg 
• "We are all a little weird, and life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness and call it love." — Dr. Seuss 
• "I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life." — Rita Rudner
• "Marriage is not just spiritual communion. It is also remembering to take out the trash." — Dr. Joyce Brothers
• "Love is blind. Marriage is the eye-opener." — Pauline Thomason  
• "A good marriage is like a casserole: only those responsible for it really know what goes into it." — Unknown
• "All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt." — Charles Schulz
• "Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There’s too much fraternizing with the enemy." — Henry Kissinger
• "To keep your marriage brimming with love in the loving cup, whenever you're wrong, admit it; whenever you're right, shut up." — Ogden Nash
• "For marriage to be a success, every woman and every man should have her and his own bathroom. The end." — Catherine Zeta-Jones
• "If you’re wrong and you shut up, you’re wise. If you’re right and you shut up, you’re married." — Unknown
• "Marriage is the only war in which you sleep with the enemy." — Unknown
• "If at first you don’t succeed...try doing it the way your wife told you." — Unknown  
• "Spend a few minutes a day really listening to your spouse. No matter how stupid [their] problems sound to you." — Megan Mullally 
• "The secret to a happy marriage remains a secret." — Henny Youngman
• "The best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly who you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you. The right person is still going to think the sun shines out of your ass. That’s the kind of person that’s worth sticking with." — Mac MacGuff in Juno 
• "A man is incomplete until he's married. After that, he's finished." — Zsa Zsa Gabor
• "Love is sharing your popcorn." — Charles Schultz
• "Love is a lot like a backache. It doesn’t show up on X-rays, but you know it’s there." — George Burns
• "A successful marriage requires falling in love many times—always with the same person." — Mignon McLaughlin
• "Love is a lot like dancing; you just surrender to the music." — Pierce Brosnan

While quotes are great, keeping your wedding toasts personal or even providing quotes you remember from the couple getting married is always a good choice.

Photo by Les Loups

Tips for Writing and Delivering a Funny Wedding Toast

A funny wedding toast is a great way to keep everyone engaged; guests (especially after a few drinks at cocktail hour) don't always have the best attention spans for long, emotional speeches. A toast that's light, short, and appropriately funny is the recipe for one attendees will remember—and for all the right reasons. Just be sure to follow a few important tips for writing, practicing, and delivering a funny wedding toast.

Avoid too many inside jokes.

Have you ever been out with a group of friends and experienced everyone laughing about something that makes absolutely no sense to you? If so, you know that there's no worse feeling than being on the outside of an inside joke. While it's perfectly fine to include a few lines that make sense to just a few people in attendance, it's important to ensure that the vast majority of your toast resonates with everyone on the guest list.

Don't poke fun at the happy couple.

Remember that this is a toast, not a roast. It's best to be humorous but not mean-spirited or cruel. You want guests to laugh with you instead of at the happy couple, so avoid anything that feels as though you're mocking the newlyweds. Sharing funny stories and musings is a better course of action than retelling every embarrassing story you know about the bride or groom.

Be sure to strike the right balance between funny and serious.

While you don't have to pair every funny line with something more sentimental, it is nice to ensure there's a good mix of content in your speech. Balance all that (tasteful) humor with more serious sentiments—how much you love the couple, what their bond has taught you about happy relationships, and your hopes and dreams for their long, happy future together—and you've got a guaranteed hit.

Have someone else vet it.

Who can forget that scene in Wedding Crashers where Rachel McAdams thinks she's written the world's funniest speech and Owen Wilson kindly tells her to speak from the heart instead? While you might think you've penned a winner, it's best to let someone you trust weigh in before you take it to the crowd. Be open-minded about their feedback and willing to adjust if they note any major red flags.

Practice, practice, practice.

Your speech might be rock solid, but if you're tripping over every word or rushing through what you've written, guests will never know how great it is. Though definitely don't have to memorize it, you should practice it a few times through to make sure there are no clunky phrases or tough to pronounce words. Nail your timing and make sure you give your jokes a little breathing room for laughs, too.

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Don't be scared: dialogue without quotation marks

It's clear straight away what sort of fish Cynan Jones is frying in The Dig , his bleak novel of west Wales rural despair. On page one Jones's unnamed "big man" parks up overlooking the shallow valley on a "flat night" which gives his van "a strange alien colour", and when he gets out it lifts and relaxes "like a child relieved of the momentary fear of being hit". Before the reader gets much further his spare, abrupt prose has dropped a dead badger on to the road, spat on the dirty tarmac beside the body and "kicked … [it] round a little to unstiffen it".

But right there on the page alongside the despoiled corpse is another signal, a promise to the reader that there's some point to all this brutality. Or rather, it's not so much that there's something added, it's that something has been missed out. The dogs have pulled off the badger's nose, leaving it hanging "loose and bloodied … like a separate animal" – making it obvious the animal wasn't killed in a traffic accident, but was illegally ripped apart by dogs for entertainment – and the big man has second thoughts which Jones punctuates like this:

Ag, he thought. The crows will sort that.

Now these are only thoughts, of course, but pretty much all of the dialogue is laid out this way as well, speech marks blown away by the gritty blast of Jones's realism. Here's a young policeman, for example, who has come round to the big man's house to ask him a few questions:

We've had a report of fly-tipping. He waited. I just wanted to ask whether you would know anything about that. What did they tip? asked the man. The policeman didn't respond. He was looking at the junk and the big man saw and said, Does it look like I throw things away? Just wondered if you could help, sir, said the policeman.

Jones says the novel was traditionally speech marked until Granta wanted to run a chunk as part of their "celebration" of Britain's "past and present, its people, its land" . John Freeman, who was editing the magazine back in 2012, took the speech marks out, Jones explains, hoping to make it "more immediate, more with it". And it was this impact, this directness which had the novelist crossing out inverted commas left, right and centre as he pulled the rest of the book together.

Like many of the symbols habitually used to mount text on to the page, inverted commas have a long and complicated history. According to Keith Houston , the "germ" of the quotation mark is to be found in the "diple (>)" placed by first-century scribes in the margin to indicate a line which contained "some noteworthy text". Christian scholars used the diple to reveal the presence of that most noteworthy of texts, the Bible, but as their theological disputes became more and more involved they started using it to distinguish their own words from those of their opponents. With the invention of the printing press, compositors began reaching for a pair of commas (",,") to indicate quotations, hanging doubled commas in the margin of passages containing quoted text. But in the 18th century, Houston explains, the impetus to standardise the use of quotation marks came from the "drive for realism" shown by authors such as Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson as they experimented with the newest form of literature, the novel.

Eschewing paraphrased, reported speech filtered through a narrator, these new novelists presented readers with their characters' unvarnished words, and with this new directness came a need to separate speech from narration.

The 1748 edition of Clarissa separated speakers with "dashes or new lines", but sometimes placed an opening quotation mark "at the exact point at which a quotation began, with a new 'mark of silence', or closing quotation mark ("), accompanying it where the quotation ended". The 1765 edition of Moll Flanders showed changes in speaker with paragraph breaks, "though marginal inverted commas were retained for the occasional sententious quotation". But by the end of the 18th century, Houston continues, "the growing pains of the double comma were largely past". Largely past, that is, until editors like Freeman want to make things a little more direct, a little more real.

By stripping away a couple of centuries of typographical convention, Jones doesn't just jab his characters' speech right in the reader's eye, he also aligns himself with the kind of author who's been ignoring typographical convention all along. Writers like James Joyce, who lays out his dialogue as for the theatre or in the continental manner – with a new line and a horizontal dash to show when someone starts to speak – or Samuel Beckett who sometimes makes do with a simple paragraph break. There isn't much talking in Jones's dark portrait of country life, but the way he's laid out the dialogue speaks volumes for his ambition.

• James Joyce
• Samuel Beckett

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How to Write A Heartfelt Bridesmaid Speech (With Examples)

• The Speaker Lab
• May 15, 2024

Table of Contents

Your best friend’s wedding day has arrived, and as her bridesmaid, you want to deliver a speech that truly honors the love she shares with her new spouse. Crafting the perfect bridesmaid speech can feel daunting, but with a few heartfelt examples and tips, you’ll be well on your way to creating a toast that celebrates their unique bond. Whether you’re looking for sentimental stories, lighthearted anecdotes, or the right words to express your love and support, these bridesmaid speech examples will inspire you to speak from the heart and raise a glass to the happy couple.

How to Structure Your Bridesmaid Speech

The key elements of a bridesmaid speech are an attention-grabbing opening, a few memorable stories, and a toast to the newlyweds. Once you have an idea of the general structure of a bridesmaid speech, you can play around with it a bit. Remember, the goal is to write something that is both authentic and heartfelt.

To help you craft your bridesmaid speech, we’ve provided an outline with examples. This outline highlights each of the key elements of a bridesmaid speech, which you can customize as needed.

Greet the Guests

Open with a warm welcome and acknowledgment of what a joyful occasion it is. For example:

“Good evening everyone. It’s so wonderful to see all the people [Bride] and [Groom] love here to celebrate their marriage.”

Introduce Yourself

Let guests know your name and connection to the bride. Keep it brief but affectionate, like:

“For those who don’t know me, I’m [Name], and I’ve had the pleasure of being [Bride’s] best friend since we were [age].”

Share Memories and Personal Stories

This is the meat of your speech. Share 2-3 brief stories, minutes long at most, that give guests a glimpse into your bond with the bride and couple. Some ideas:

• The bride’s most admirable qualities and how they shine in her relationship
• A funny or touching story from your friendship
• How you’ve seen the couple’s love grow

Stories are a great way to engage your audience while also demonstrating positive characteristics about the bride. When preparing your bridesmaid speech, feel free to tell a funny story about the bride, but avoid anything embarrassing or disrespectful. For example:

“I’ll never forget our first girls’ trip together when [Bride] got so sunburned she looked like a lobster. She was in good spirits though—we laughed about it all week.”

While some people might consider a bad sunburn embarrassing, the bride in this story found it humorous, making it safe territory for a bridesmaid speech. A story like this can draw laughs from your audience while highlighting the bride’s healthy sense of humor.

Express Love and Admiration

Here’s where you really honor the couple. Talk about the bride’s best qualities, how happy she is with her new spouse, and the amazing life they’ll build together. For instance:

“[Bride], your kindness and sense of adventure inspire me. Seeing the love between you and [Groom] gives me so much joy. You two are truly meant for each other.”

Raise a Toast

Close your groom speech by inviting everyone to toast the happy couple . Offer your love and support with wedding speech tips like:

“Join me in raising a glass to the bride and groom. May your love be a beacon through life’s storms and your greatest adventure yet. To [Bride] and [Groom].”

Remember, the goal of a bride speeches is to make the newlyweds feel loved and celebrated. Speak from the heart and let your unique personality shine. You’ll give a toast that honors their love story and your special bond.

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Dos and Don’ts of Delivering a Memorable Bridesmaid Speech

If you’ve been asked to give a bridesmaid speech, you know it’s a huge honor. However, it can also be nerve-wracking. You want to strike the perfect balance of heartfelt and humorous, while avoiding any cringe-worthy moments. To prep you for the big day, we have several examples of what you do and don’t want to include in your bridesmaid speech. Let’s take a look.

Keep It Short and Sweet

First and foremost, aim to keep your speech concise. Aim for around 3-5 minutes max. Pick a couple of your favorite memories or anecdotes and focus on those.

Practice and Prepare

The key to delivering your speech with confidence is practice, practice, practice. Write out what you want to say, then rehearse it out loud until you feel comfortable. Pro tip: record yourself on your phone so you can get a sense of your pacing and tone.

Be Authentic and Sincere

The most memorable speeches come straight from the heart, so don’t try to be someone you’re not or force a bunch of jokes if that’s not your style. Focus on expressing your g enuine love and admiration for the couple.

Avoid Embarrassing Stories

While a little gentle ribbing can be fun, steer clear of any stories that could truly embarrass the bride or groom. Keep the bachelor(ette) party antics out of it, and definitely avoid bringing up any ex-partners. This day is all about celebrating the couple’s love story.

If there’s alcohol at a wedding, it can be tempting to rely on liquid confidence for your bridesmaid speech. However, to maintain respect for the couple as well as personal dignity, save your drinks until after your speech. No one wants to hear a slurred, rambling toast, either from a bridesmaid or a groomsman.

At the end of the day, remember that your speech doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s the sentiment behind your words that the couple will cherish for years to come. So take a deep breath, speak from your heart, and enjoy this special moment.

Inspirational Quotes and Sentiments for Your Bridesmaid Speech

When it comes to crafting the perfect bridesmaid speech, sometimes a little inspiration goes a long way. Peppering in a famous quote about love or a heartfelt wish for the couple’s future can elevate your message and leave a lasting impact. Below are a few examples in might want to include in your own bridesmaid speech.

Famous Love Quotes

Incorporating a classic quote about love and marriage can lend some timeless wisdom to your speech. Take a look:

• “The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” – Audrey Hepburn
• “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” – When Harry Met Sally
• “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” – Maya Angelou

Heartfelt Wishes for the Couple

Your speech is the perfect opportunity to share your hopes and dreams for the newlyweds’ future together. Speak from the heart and let them know how much their love has inspired you. A few examples:

• “May your love be modern enough to survive the times, but old-fashioned enough to last forever.”
• “May your love be a beautiful adventure that grows deeper with each passing year.”
• “May you always find comfort, joy, and strength in each other’s arms.”

Celebrating Their Unique Bond

Every love story is unique, so don’t be afraid to highlight what makes this couple’s bond so special. Maybe it’s the way they balance each other out, or how they’ve supported each other through thick and thin. Share a few words about why you believe their love is true and everlasting.

Remember, these quotes and sentiments are just a starting point. Use them as inspiration, but be sure to put your own spin on things. The most impactful words will be the ones that come straight from your heart.

Creative Ways to Add Humor and Personality to Your Speech

While heartfelt sentiments are a must in any bridesmaid speech, a little humor can go a long way in keeping your audience engaged. The key is to strike a balance—you want to be funny and relatable, without veering into cringe-worthy territory. Here are a few ideas for infusing your speech with some personality.

Playful Jokes and Puns

A well-placed pun or playful joke can be a great way to break the ice and get a few laughs. Maybe there’s a funny story about how the couple met, or a pun related to their shared hobbies. For example, if the groom is an author , you could add this line to your bridesmaid speech: “When she told us her fiancée was an author, we knew she had found Mr. Write.”

Lighthearted Teasing

If you’ve known the bride or groom for a long time, a little gentle ribbing can show the depth of your friendship. Just be sure to keep it affectionate and avoid anything too embarrassing. For example: “[Bride], remember when we were kids and you swore you’d marry a prince? Well, I think it’s safe to say you found your real-life Prince Charming.”

Sharing Embarrassing Moments

While you want to avoid any truly mortifying stories, sharing a mildly embarrassing moment can humanize your speech and make everyone chuckle. Just be sure it’s something you’d be okay with your own crazy family bringing up at your wedding. For example, maybe there’s a funny story about a memorable road trip or a disastrous double date.

At the end of the day, the goal is to make the couple laugh, smile, and feel loved. So choose humor that feels authentic to your relationship and the overall vibe of the wedding.

Bridesmaid Speech Ideas for a Sister or Best Friend

If you’re the bridesmaid for your sister or best friend’s wedding, you have a unique opportunity to share heartfelt memories and celebrate the couple’s love story. As someone who has witnessed their relationship unfold, you can offer a personal perspective.

When crafting your speech, consider including childhood memories and stories of growing up together with the bride. These anecdotes will not only showcase your close bond but also give the audience a glimpse into the bride’s early years and the experiences that shaped her into the person she is today.

Childhood Memories and Growing up Together

Take a trip down memory lane and share some of your favorite moments from your shared childhood. Perhaps you have fond memories of playing dress-up together, having sleepovers, or getting into mischief as young girls. These stories will bring a smile to everyone’s face and remind the bride of the unbreakable bond you share.

For example, in your bridesmaid speech you could say something like, “I remember when [Bride] and I were little girls, we would spend hours in our backyard, pretending to be princesses and dreaming of our future weddings. Little did I know that one day, I would have the honor of standing by her side as she marries her real-life Prince Charming.”

Witnessing Their Love Story Unfold

As the bride’s sister or best friend, you’ve likely had a front-row seat to her love story with the groom. Share how you’ve watched their relationship grow and evolve over time. Perhaps you were there for their first date, or you’ve seen them navigate challenges together with grace and strength.

You could say something like, “I’ve had the privilege of watching [Bride] and [Groom]’s love story unfold from the very beginning. From the moment they met, I could see the spark between them. Over the years, I’ve watched their love grow stronger with each passing day, and I know that they are truly meant to be together.”

Your Unbreakable Bond

Finally, take a moment to celebrate the special bond you share with the bride. Whether you’re sisters by blood or by choice, let her know how much she means to you and how grateful you are to have her in your life.

You could say, “[Bride], you’re more than just my sister/best friend. You’re my confidante and my partner-in-crime. I’m so grateful to have you in my life, and I know that [Groom] is the luckiest man in the world to have you by his side.”

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Crafting a Speech That Reflects the Couple’s Unique Relationship

Every couple’s relationship is unique, and your speech should reflect that. As you brainstorm ideas, consider the qualities that make the bride and groom’s bond so special. For example, you might list things they love to do together or explain how they complement each other in order to make your bridesmaid speech more personal.

Highlighting Their Shared Interests and Passions

One way to personalize your speech is by highlighting the couple’s shared interests and passions. Perhaps they bonded over a love of travel, music, or a particular hobby. Sharing these details will give the audience a deeper understanding of what makes their relationship so strong.

For example, you could say something like, “[Bride] and [Groom], your love for adventure and exploration has taken you to some of the most beautiful places in the world. From hiking in the mountains to diving in the ocean, you’ve faced every challenge together with courage and enthusiasm. I know that your shared passion for life will continue to guide you as you embark on this new chapter together.”

Celebrating Their Complementary Qualities

Another way to showcase the couple’s unique bond is by celebrating their complementary qualities. Perhaps the bride’s creativity and spontaneity are the perfect match for the groom’s practicality and steadiness. Or maybe the groom’s sense of humor brings out the best in the bride’s more serious nature.

You could say something like, “[Bride], your kindness and compassion are the perfect complement to [Groom]’s strength and determination. Together, you balance each other out and bring out the best in one another. Your love is a testament to the power of partnership and the beauty of finding your perfect match.”

Envisioning Their Future Together

Finally, take a moment to envision the couple’s future together. What dreams and aspirations do they share? How do you see their love growing and evolving over the years?

You could say something like, “[Bride] and [Groom], as you stand here today, surrounded by the love and support of your family and friends, I see a future filled with endless possibilities. I know that your love will be the foundation that supports you through all of life’s joys and challenges. May your marriage be a source of strength, comfort, and inspiration, not only for yourselves but for all those around you. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for you both, and I know that with your love to guide you, anything is possible.”

Remember, the key to a great bridesmaid speech is to speak from the heart and to share your genuine love and admiration for the couple. Whether you choose to focus on childhood memories, the couple’s unique bond, or your hopes for their future together, your words will be a cherished part of their special day.

FAQs in Relation to Bridesmaid Speech Examples

What should a bridesmaid say in her speech.

Acknowledge the couple, share heartfelt memories, sprinkle in humor, and close with sincere wishes for their future.

How long is a bridesmaid speech?

Ideally, keep it between three to five minutes. Short enough to hold attention; long enough to cover the essentials.

What to say in your best friends’ wedding speech?

Talk about shared adventures, celebrate their love journey, express gratitude for friendship, and wish them joy ahead.

Bridesmaid speech examples can be your guiding light as you honor your dear friend on her wedding day. Remember, the most memorable toasts come straight from the heart. So stay authentic as you explore the distinctive path their affection has taken, recall treasured experiences shared between them, and inject a bit of light-heartedness along the way. Your words have the power to make their special day even more unforgettable.

So take a deep breath, raise your glass, and let your love for the newlyweds shine through. A toast is in order—one that honors their beautiful relationship and cherishes the strong ties of friendship.

• Last Updated: May 7, 2024

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More From Forbes

5 chatgpt prompts to improve your public speaking (wow your audience).

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5 ChatGPT prompts to be a better public speaker (wow your audience)

If you find yourself on a stage or in the spotlight, you had better take it seriously. People are watching, so don’t let them down. Open with confidence, deliver with passion, and close with a bang. There is no other way. But if you’re not sure how to begin preparing, this might seem like a mammoth task. Luckily, there’s time to learn.

These five public speaking experts have you covered, along with a little help from ChatGPT. Copy, paste and edit the square brackets in ChatGPT, and keep the same chat window open so the context carries through.

Wow your audience with your words: ChatGPT prompts for public speaking

Get ideas for keynotes.

Keynote speaker, leadership performance coach, and host of the Compete Every Day podcast Jake Thompson uses ChatGPT to get ideas for keynotes, “as a baseline to start and then adjust the copy and tune.” He said it’s helpful if you’re “stuck generating a strong starting point.” Don’t let the blank page intimidate you. Give ChatGPT information about your audience and their goals, to get brand new ideas you can roll with in minutes. Prompt like a winner from the very start, following Thompson’s lead.

“You are an expert marketing copywriter. Create a list of five ideas for keynote speech titles for my talk for [describe your audience, e.g. new managers and leaders], aspiring to be [describe their goal, e.g. high performance in their role].”

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Once you have options for ideas, choose your favorite and request a framework with examples tailored to your field of expertise.

“The talk will discuss the importance of [outline the key learning objectives, e.g. self-leadership, building rapport with team members, investing in your professional network]. Create a structure for the talk. Include titles and subtitles that incorporate examples and metaphors from [your signature topic, e.g. sports, business] to [outcome you want to achieve, e.g. inspire, motivate] the audience.”

Resonate with your audience

Keynote speaker, corporate facilitator and founder of Breakthrough Play , Gary Ware, has worked with some household name brands, including HP HP , Intuit Intuit and GoFundMe, to improve the public speaking skills of their outward-facing team members. Ware is all about the audience. Use these prompts to make a speech you have already written super relevant to the people in the room. Don’t miss the mark by taking them in turn.

“The audience of my next talk consists of [describe your audience including their profession, typical age, and any other characteristics] and the theme of the [event, e.g. conference] is [describe the theme, e.g. marketing]. Based on this information, outline the key interests or concerns my speech should address to be most relevant to them.”

When you have your answer, incorporate the learning into your speech, then check it aligns.

“Based on your recommendations given, review my attached talk to ensure my message is aligned with this audience’s expectations and needs. [Paste speech]”

Balance warmth and competence

Vanessa Van Edwards is founder of The Science of People and bestselling author of books Captivate, unpacking the science behind succeeding with people, and Cues, mastering the secret language of charismatic communication . She delivers 50 keynote speeches every year and knows how to make a great impression that lasts long after her talk is over.

“The best presenters have the perfect blend of warmth and competence,” Van Edwards explained. “But most of us have an imbalance between the two.” To redress the balance, Van Edwards pastes her script into ChatGPT and asks for recommendations. Here’s a prompt you can try for yourself.

“Review the script for an upcoming keynote I’m delivering. Identify three sections that lack warmth, and suggest the most appropriate way to improve that (for example, with a story, joke, case study, example or warm words) being specific about what to add or remove. Then, identify three sections with the potential to signal more competence, and suggest what to add (for example data, facts, analytics or competent words), being specific. [Paste script]”

Breathe more often

Founder of Best Speech Mike Pacchione, a keynote coach who has worked with renowned speakers such as James Clear , Donald Miller, Amy Porterfield and Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton, wants you to focus on breathing. Sounds simple? There’s much more to it. “Speakers can speak with more power when they breathe frequently,” he explained. “But they write notes in paragraphs and long sentences. That leads to being out of breath by the time you hit a full stop.”

Pacchionne recommends that speakers write their scripts as if they're song lyrics. In other words, format your keynote wording in such a way where you are reminded to take a breath. An ideal task for ChatGPT.

"Rewrite the following text with the exact same words, but add a line break every 7-10 words. The end product should resemble song lyrics instead of written paragraphs. [Paste your script]"

When you have your reworked speech, Pacchionne recommends you “go back and make sure the breathing breaks are in natural spots,” adding that “a speaker would be far better served with that format versus paragraphs.”

Make a backup plan

Entrepreneur, bestselling author, podcast host and keynote speaker Liz Bohannon is hired to give keynotes of different lengths, usually between 30 and 60 minutes. But the story is sometimes different on the day. “Often the event is running late, so I have less time than I'd planned for.” Bohannon uses ChatGPT to make a robust backup plan, so she’s prepared for any eventuality before she arrives.

"This speech is [duration]. I need to shorten it by [number] minutes but maintain [topic of speech, lesson or takeaway] as the main point. Make suggestions as to which parts I can cut while maintaining the powerful message: [Paste script]"

Stand out on stage: ChatGPT prompts to show up and wow

Give your audience everything they want and more when you prepare well using ChatGPT. Get ideas for talks with suitable examples, resonate with your audience whatever the event, and balance warmth and competence for charismatic delivery. Don’t forget to breathe by seeing your paragraphs as lyrics, and make a backup plan to fit in with questionable organizer timings.

Show up, stand tall, and say your words with pride. Secure raving fans and repeat bookings. The mic is yours, don’t let us down.

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Donald Trump Accused of 'Editing' Notes for Allies' Speeches During Trial

New York Magazine journalist Andrew Rice has said that Donald Trump was "making notations" and "editing" quotes that his allies would make to the press even as his former fixer Michael Cohen took the stand at the Manhattan Criminal Court in the hush money trial.

"In court yesterday, actually, I was sitting close enough that I could look over Trump's shoulder and see what he was reading," Rice said on MSNBC Live on Tuesday night. "At one point he was actually reading the quotes that these individuals were [going to say to the press]... and going through and making notations with a pen on the paper."

According to Rice, this was happening "while testimony was going on." He said: "While Michael Cohen was testifying against him, he was actually going through and annotating and editing the quotes that these people were going to say."

Under a gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan and upheld by a New York appeals court on Tuesday, Trump is currently unable to publicly take aim at the judge or the witnesses testifying against him. This hasn't stopped his closest allies from "doing the dirty work for him," a political scientist previously told Newsweek .

"Whether it's carrying out shady business deals or trying to contaminate a jury pool, Trump always relies on his surrogates to do the dirty work for him," Thomas Gift, founding director of the Center on U.S. Politics at University College London, U.K., said.

"The remarkable thing is just how many GOP underlings he has lined up eager and willing to do his bidding. For some Republican politicians, there seems to be no limit in how far they're willing to go in defending the leader of their party who's consistently scorned the very idea of the rule of law," he said.

Beside Rice's personal testimony, there's no proof that Trump is giving directions to his allies on what to tell the press about the trial. Newsweek contacted Rice and Trump's 2024 campaign for comment by email early on Wednesday.

Ohio Senator J. D. Vance, who was among Trump's allies attending the New York court this week to show support to the former president, told Fox News on Tuesday that the prosecution doesn't have "much of a case" as their star witness, Cohen, is a "serial liar."

He called the trial "a sham," repeating Trump's allegations that the case is part of a political "witch hunt" to sway the 2024 presidential election. The former president is currently facing 91 felony counts across four states. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied any wrongdoing.

Vivek Ramaswamy, who endorsed Trump after dropping out of the Republican primary race, told reporters on Tuesday that the New York trial was a "weaponization of justice."

Both Vance and Ramaswamy complained that the gag order imposed by the New York court on Trump was a violation of the former president's freedom to talk about the trial, parroting complaints that Trump has repeatedly expressed.

The gag order was put in place by Merchan to ensure that the former president does not intimidate or threaten witnesses taking the stand. On Tuesday, a New York appeals court denied Trump's attempt to end the gag order, siding with Merchan.

Trump is allowed to talk about the trial and respond to testimony should he decide to take the stand, though he has the right not to testify in his own trial.

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Iain Maciver: After shocking Stornoway closure, trust in the trustee bank has gone

TSB didn’t write; they didn’t phone. They didn’t consult before deciding to close the doors on loyal communities like Stornoway.

There wasn’t even a farewell note.

Loyalty to a bank was something we used to be proud of.

It started back in school, when a class teacher encouraged his charges to put even 10p now and then in a savings account in the Aberdeen Trustee Savings Bank, as it then was. One lad’s pocket money was only 50p for the week then, but this wasn’t yesterday.

They gave him and his classmates blue passbooks, and encouraged them to prepare for adulthood. They were assured they would never regret it.

Years passed, and that wee boy grew up, left school, became a man and went out into the big, wide world. As a very handsome chap, he always dreamed about getting cool wheels to take himself back and forth from home in Great Bernera at the weekends, and to be a boy racer the rest of the week, roaring endlessly around Stornoway from Newton Street to Manor Park in a souped-up Lotus after work.

Then he discovered Lotuses cost a lot of money, so he ended up looking at buying an old minivan for £750. It had been resprayed and had new carpets in it. Wow, the dames would love that.

Despite getting a bank loan from another bank, he was still short £50. Wait, he would check the Trustee Savings Bank passbook. It had £36.73 in it. That will do for me, he thought. He somehow scraped it all together and, with the help of two great banking institutions, he eventually roared along the Cromwell Street main drag in his wee van, with the immaculate carpets, but which sounded like a hairdryer that was about to explode.

Bye bye, bank

A few years later, he put all of his money in the trust of his favourite Aberdeen savings bank. They got along just fine, and he could use their branches or an affiliated bank anywhere in the world. In Stornoway, they had the best staff. Genuinely good people.

He had loans for other big buys, insurances for this and that, a critical illness policy that he never got a penny back on – because he was lucky and had no critical illnesses. No refund? The bank made a few bob out of him on that one, you bankers.

What do you mean, who was this? Yes, I do mean myself. Who else did you think I was talking about?

Then, last week, came the bolt from the blue. The TSB, for that is now the bank’s name, was closing another rake of Scottish branches, including in Stornoway .

They can’t do that, surely? I have all my spondulicks in there.

They didn’t write; they didn’t phone. They didn’t consult. No one asked me. That was so painful. That bank was like family. I had to read about our divorce and when it would happen in the newspaper.

So, the trust in the trustee bank has gone. They can’t be trusted to stay around and serve this community, me and my meagre savings accounts.

Did you see the northern lights?

Like the northern lights on Friday night, which I regret I didn’t see. They didn’t stay around either, although I was out all Saturday evening and saw not as much as a shooting star. It was a bit cloudy, though.

Yet, some people were lucky enough to see the aurora borealis , those heavenly sheets of pink, green and blue, cascading like shimmering dancers in the night sky. The Gaelic phrase for them is “fir-chlis”, which literally means nimble or merry dancers. Some people described the sights at the weekend as spiritual, memorable and ethereal.

I like the word ethereal. It conjures such interesting imagery of the soft glow of galaxies in the night sky over the Callanish Stones. It also sounds like a person with a lisp telling me to eat cereal.

The French have a saying: “Après moi, le déluge.” It is a sort of expression of indifference to whatever happens when one shuffles off this mortal coil. Do they have a phrase for “after the northern lights, the déluge”?

It has been many years since we had such violent thunder and lightning, followed by heavy rain dancing off the pavement on Sunday evening. Was it connected to the aurora? Some say yes, some say no. I don’t know which answer to trust.

Fatherly financial advice

My father had trust in both banks and a strong work ethic. He always said: “They go together.”

I remember what he once said to me: “Life can be easy. All you have to do is open another savings account – your career account. Then just work as hard as you can, and do not stop until the balance of your bank account looks like a phone number.” Thanks, dad. So, I did exactly that.

I’ve just checked the balance in my career account. Yep, it looks like a phone number: £9.99.

Iain Maciver is a former broadcaster and news reporter from the Outer Hebrides

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