Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Eloquence
The most eloquent voice of our century uttered, shortly before leaving the world, a warning cry against the “Anglo-Saxon contagion.”
Matthew Arnold—Essay on Criticism, Second Series. Essay on Milton. First Par. (“Most eloquent voice” said to be Emerson’s; claimed for Coleridge and Hugo.)
He adorned whatever subject he either spoke or wrote upon, by the most splendid eloquence.
Chesterfield—Character of Bolingbroke.
Is enim est eloquens qui et humilia subtiliter, et magna graviter, et mediocria temperate potest dicere.
He is an eloquent man who can treat humble subjects with delicacy, lofty things impressively, and moderate things temperately.
Cicero—De Oratore. XXIX.
Discourse may want an animated “No”
To brush the surface, and to make it flow;
But still remember, if you mean to please,
To press your point with modesty and ease.
Cowper—Conversation. L. 101.
Il embellit tout qu’il touche.
He adorned whatever he touched.
Fenelon—Lettre sur les Occupations de l’Académie Française. Sec. IV.
A good discourse is that from which nothing can be retrenched without cutting into the quick.
St. Francis de Sales—Letter upon Eloquence.
L’éloquence est au sublime ce que le tout est à sa partie.
Eloquence is to the sublime what the whole is to its part.
La Bruyère—Les Caractères. Ch. I.
Eloquence may be found in conversations and in all kinds of writings; it is rarely found when looked for, and sometimes discovered where it is least expected.
La Bruyère—The Characters. Ch. I. 55.
Profane eloquence is transfered from the bar, where Le Maître, Pucelle, and Fourcroy formerly practised it, and where it has become obsolete, to the Pulpit, where it is out of place.
La Bruyère—The Characters. Ch. XVI. 2.
There is as much eloquence in the tone of voice, in the eyes, and in the air of a speaker as in his choice of words.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims and Moral Sentences. No. 261.
True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims and Moral Sentences. No. 262.
When your crowd of attendants so loudly applaud you, Pomponius, it is not you, but your banquet, that is eloquent.
Martial—Epigrams. Bk. VI. Ep. 48.
***as that dishonest victory
At Chæronea, fatal to liberty,
Killed with report that old man eloquent,
[Isocrates, the celebrated orator of Greece.]
Milton—Sonnet X.
In causa facili cuivis licet esse diserto.
In an easy cause any man may be eloquent.
Ovid—Tristium. III. 11. 21.
L’éloquence est une peinture de la pensée.
Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.
Pascal—Pensées. XXIV. 88.
It is with eloquence as with a flame; it requires fuel to feed it, motion to excite it, and it brightens as it burns.
William Pitt the Younger—Paraphrase of Tacitus.
Pour the full tide of eloquence along,
Serenely pure, and yet divinely strong.
Pope—Imitation of Horace. Bk. II. Ep. II. L. 171.
Action is eloquence.
Coriolanus. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 76.
A man in all the world’s new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain.
Love’s Labour’s Lost. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 165.
That aged ears play truant at his tales
And younger hearings are quite ravished;
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.
Love’s Labour’s Lost. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 74.
Every tongue that speaks
But Romeo’s name speaks heavenly eloquence.
Romeo and Juliet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 32.
Say she be mute and will not speak a word;
Then I’ll commend her volubility,
And say she uttereth piercing eloquence.
Taming of the Shrew. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 175.
Omnium artium domina [eloquentia].
[Eloquence] the mistress of all the arts.
Tacitus—De Oratoribus. XXXII.
Magna eloquentia, sicut flamma, materia alitur, et motibus excitatur et urendo clarescit.
It is the eloquence as of a flame; it requires matter to feed it, motion to excite it, and it brightens as it burns.
Tacitus—De Oratoribus. XXXVI.
But while listening Senates hang upon thy tongue,
Devolving through the maze of eloquence
A roll of periods, sweeter than her song.
Thomson—The Seasons. Autumn.
But to a higher mark than song can reach,
Rose this pure eloquence.
Wordsworth—Excursion. Bk. VII.