George F. Hoar

Bolingbroke's speeches, though so enthusiastically praised by the best judges, have perished by their own worthlessness.

The orator that does not persuade men that righteousness is on his side will seldom persuade them to think or act as he desires; and if he fail in that he fails in his object; and the orator who has not in fact righteousness on his side…

But such is the nature of man that the loftiest moral emotions are still the overmastering emotions.

When I say that I am not sure that this is not the single gift most to be coveted by man, I may seem to have left out the moral quality in my conception of what is excellent.

Each must so express and clothe his thought that it shall penetrate and take possession of the soul, and, having penetrated, must abide and stay.

The orator must know how so to utter his thought that it will stay.

What he says must not only accomplish the purpose of the hour, but should be fit to be preserved for all time, or he can have no place in literature, and a small and ephemeral place in human memory.

If he miss the mark he is a failure, although his sentences may survive everything else in the permanent literature of the language in which he speaks.

Eloquence is the feather that tips his arrow.

His object is to convince the understanding, to persuade the will, to set aflame the heart of his audience or those who read what he says.

He must have, in perfection, the eye and the voice which are the only and natural avenues by which one human soul can enter into and subdue another.

An eye that tears can on a sudden fill And lips that smile before the tears are gone.

He must himself respond to every emotion as an AEolian harp to the breeze.

He must have knowledge, wit, wisdom, fancy, imagination, courage, nobleness, sincerity, grace, a heart of fire.

He must be able to play at will on the mighty organ, his audience, of which human souls are the keys.

What he says ought to have as permanent a place in literature as the highest poetry.

To be a perfect and consummate orator is to possess the highest faculty given to man.

Indeed, I am not sure that it is not the single gift most to be coveted by man.

The longer I live, the more highly I have come to value the gift of eloquence.

Washburn as Governor of Massachusetts was due not only to the fact that I originally proposed him as a candidate, but to my active efforts in the campaign which preceded the Convention which nominated him.

I believe that the following gentlemen, beside others less distinguished, who have been very satisfactory, able and faithful public servants, owe their appointment to my original suggestion, or would not have been appointed without my…

But on second thought, it is fair to say that while no human being can be entitled to be worshipped by any other, yet that we got our love of Liberty from our ancestors, or at any rate that is where I got mine, and that they are entitled…

But it must be remembered that a public man who has to encounter so much bitter reviling and objurgation, is fairly entitled to have a little extravagance on the other side that the balance may be even.

Thanks to the awakening in America, thanks to the forces that are at work to chase out the degenerating, demoralizing passion for territorial aggrandizement from the noble American mind and save it for itself and the world at large from…

I do not believe that there is a respectable or intelligent Filipino to-day, unless possibly some Macabebe scout, who would not get rid of the Government of the United States at once, if he could.