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Your Quotes for 4 March 2006 - Speeches

When an American president is sworn in the tradition is to let him make a speech, and the calendar shows at least four of those took place on this day in history. George Washington delivered his second on this day in 1791, the shortest ever at 133 words. William Henry Harrison delivered the longest in 1841 - 8,443 words. (He should have trimmed it. His oration was delivered bareheaded in the rain, he caught pneumonia and died within a month.) Thomas Jefferson delivered his first, the first ever at Washington City, in 1801. And Franklin Roosevelt (father of James, quoted below) delivered his first, featuring the famous "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

An educated man ... is thoroughly inoculated against humbug, thinks for himself and tries to give his thoughts, in speech or on paper, some style.
     - Alan Simpson

Speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
     - Ambrose Bierce

My father gave me these hints on speech-making: Be sincere, be brief, be seated.
     - James Roosevelt, 1907 - 1991

A speech is a solemn responsibility. The man who makes a bad thirty-minute speech to two hundred people wastes only a half hour of his own time. But he wastes one hundred hours of the audience's time - more than four days - which should be a hanging offense.
     - Jenkin Lloyd Jones, 1843 - 1918

A speech is like a love affair. Any fool can start it, but to end it requires considerable skill.
     - Lord Mancroft

Dad and I had breakfast this morning. We had a look at each other's speeches. He would have used mine, but he's not a lesbian. I would have used his, but I'm not a Republican.
     - Diane Mosbacher

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