When the Roman people had listened to the diffuse and polished
discourses of Cicero, they departed, saying one to another, "What a
splendid speech our orator has made!" But when the Athenians heard
Demosthenes, he so filled them with the subject-matter of his oration,
that they quite forgot the orator, and left him at the finish of his
harangue, breathing revenge, and exclaiming, "Let us go and fight
against Philip!"--_Colton._
Let not a day pass without exercising your powers of speech. There is no
power like that of oratory. Caesar controlled men by exciting their
fears; Cicero, by captivating their affections and swaying their
passions. The influence of the one perished with its author; that of the
other continues to this day.--_Henry Clay._
It was reckoned the fault of the orators at the decline of the Roman
empire, when they had been long instructed by rhetoricians, that their
periods were so harmonious as that they could be sung as well as spoken.
What a ridiculous figure must one of these gentlemen cut, thus measuring
syllables and weighing words when he should plead the cause of his
client!--_Goldsmith._
~Originality.~--Originality is nothing but judicious
imitation.--_Voltaire._
One couldn't carry on life comfortably without a little blindness to the
fact that everything has been said better than we can put it
ourselves.--_George Eliot._
The most original writers borrowed one from another. Boiardo has
imitated Pulci, and Ariosto Boiardo. The instruction we find in books is
like fire. We fetch it from our neighbor's, kindle it at home,
communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of
all.--_Voltaire._