Eloquence: saying the proper thing and stopping.

There is at least as much eloquence in the voice, eyes, and air of a speaker as in his choice of words.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Eloquence resides as much in the tone of voice, in the eyes, and in the expression of the face, as in the choice of…

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

A regular council was held with the Indians, who had come in on their ponies, and speeches were made on both sides through an…

— Henry David Thoreau

Language is in decline. Not only has eloquence departed but simple, direct speech as well, though pomposity and banality have not.

— Edwin Newman

A kiss is a lovely trick to stop speech.

— Ingrid Bergman

Eloquence is the appropriate organ of the highest personal energy.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Forensics is eloquence and reduction.

— Gertrude Stein

“Your goodness must have some edge to it -- else it is none.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Among all the valuable things of this world, the word is the most precious. For in the word one can find a light which…

— Hazrat Inayat Khan

Drudgery, calamity, exasperation, want, are instructors in eloquence and wisdom.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

[T]here are, at bottom, basically two ways to order social affairs, Coercively, through the mechanisms of the state - what we can call political…

— Ed Crane

Fie on the eloquence that leaves us craving itself, not things!

— Michel de Montaigne

There should be in eloquence that which is pleasing and that which is real; but that which is pleasing should itself be real.

— Blaise Pascal