The Art of Public Speaking

Know your subject better than your hearers know it, and you have nothing to fear.

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

No one can learn how to speak who does not first speak as best he can.

Success or failure in business is caused more by mental attitude even than by mental capacity."

It is too late to think about the cut of your coat when once you are upon the platform, so centre your interest on what you are about to say—fill your mind with your speech–material and, like the infilling water in the glass, it will drive out your unsubstantial fears.

"Get your principles right," said Napoleon, "and the rest is a matter of detail."

But they cannot be mastered and applied by thinking or reading about them—you must practise, practise, PRACTISE. If no one else will listen to you, listen to yourself—you must always be your own best critic, and the severest one of all.

therefore the first thing both in time and in importance is that the man should be and think and feel things that are worthy of being given forth. Unless there be something of value within, no tricks of training can ever make of the talker anything more than a machine—albeit a highly perfected machine—for the delivery of other men's goods. So self–development is fundamental in our plan.

Destiny is not a matter of chance. It is a matter of choice."

man must enthrone his will to rule over his thought, his feelings, and all his physical powers, so that the outer self may give perfect, unhampered expression to the inner.