The Perfect Speech

Be sincere, be brief, be seated. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Stories

You've got to know your story. Learn to tell it. - Michael Berry

Mr. Berry's point is that you need to be able to sell yourself. You can't do that unless you have a good story and can tell it. What got you where you are? How have you changed? What makes you great? Practice by telling stories.

Pushing Little Old Ladies

If one man pushes an old lady in front of an oncoming bus and another man pushes an old lady out of the way of an oncoming bus, to borrow Bill Buckley’s famous puncturing of moral equivalence arguments, it will not suffice to say that they are both the sorts of men who push old ladies around. - Jonah Goldberg

Details matter. It's called the whole truth.

Commendations

Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools. - Sir Richard Steele

Like the advice but love the language.

Kind Words

Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it is. - Blaise Pascal

..... Besides kind words are generally more effective than harsh.

Conversation

Conversation is an exercise of the mind; gossip is merely an exercise of the tongue. - Unknown

..... Keep your mind in shape.

Colorful Writing

Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It's the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors. - Rhys Alexander

  Think in color too.

Weak Cause

Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause. - Victor Hugo


And don't you forget it....ever!

Untruthful Actions

Actions lie louder than words. - Carolyn Wells


Beware not only of disingenuous words, but deeds as well.

Limitations

The freedom of speech is worthless without the freedom of offensive speech. Goebbels and Himmler were for freedom of speech that was inoffensive to the state. - Noam Chomsky

  If you decide someone needs to be limited prepare to be limited yourself. Is it worth it?

Rap Music

Rap music... sounds like somebody feeding a rhyming dictionary to a popcorn popper. - Tom Robbins

  Yup.

Speech

Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both. - John Andrew Holmes 

Know what you speak and act according to your words.

Communicate

It is the responsibility of the sender to make sure the receiver understands the message. - Joseph Batten

Which is why you should never stop working on your communication skills.

Government Numbers

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers. - Richard Feynman

I think "government numbers" would be more to the point.

Neither Rhyme or Reason

I was promis'd on a time,
To have a reason for my rhyme:
But from that time unto this season,
I had neither rhyme or reason. - Edmund Spenser

Follow the link to better understand the origin of "rhyme or reason."

How Do I Get To Heaven?

Living life from day to day
And reading books from page to page,
I know life is just my stage
And I wish I could, I said I would,
I know I should do something good
And my God, I fear I'm shedding tears,
The colors change from year to year
Around here

And I said
How do I get to Heaven from here,
I wanna know
How do I get to Heaven from here 

Holy Toledo, where does the time go
My dreads are locked,
My watch is stopped,
My glass half full, my gun is half-cocked
Mmmm, Holy Toledo, oooo

Now I've said too much, I'm losing touch
Step on the gas and off the clutch, mmmm
Oh, I'm gonna leave Toledo,
Have no fear well time goes slow
But I'm shifting gears

And I said
How do I get to Heaven from here,
Well I wanna know
How do I get to Heaven from here

Holy Toledo, where does the time go
My dreads are locked,
My watch is stopped,
My glass half full, my gun is half-cocked
How do I redeem my sins
Well, I sure hope
St. Peter's gonna let me in Holy Toledo, mmmm

& I said how do I get to Heaven from here,
I wanna know how in the hell
Am I gonna to Heaven from here

Holy Toledo, where does the time go
My dreads are locked,
My watch is stopped,
My glass half full, my gun is half-cocked
How do I redeem my sins
Well open up St. Peter
Ya better let me in
Holy Toledo

& I said how do I get to Heaven from here
- Crystal Bowersox   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q9h_TcnT4o&NR=1 

Tones

There are tones of voices that mean more than words. - Robert Frost

Smile when you answer the phone. It works.

Squeaky Wheels

I hate to be a kicker,
I always long for peace,
But the wheel that does the squeaking,
Is the one that gets the grease. - Josh Billings


Josh lived when you traveled in buggies or carriages. A "kicker" was an ill-behaved horse. Wheels didn't have bearings - wood to wood or metal was the normal. They squeaked when they ran dry of lubricant. The above poem is where the saying "The squeaky wheel gets the grease" comes from.

Combining Words

Words -- so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. - Nathaniel Hawthorne


If you are to do good in the world, learn and practice combining words.

Tender Words

The words you speak today should be soft and tender...for tomorrow you may have to eat them. - Unknown


Or they may come back to bite you.