Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,
Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.
_Iliad, Bk. XIV_. HOMER. _Trans. of_ POPE.
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.
_Conversation_. W. COWPER.
One whom the music of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish like enchanting harmony.
_Love's Labor's Lost, Act i. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter: that, when he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still.
_King Henry V., Act i. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.
Persuasion tips his tongue whene'er he talks.
_Parody on Pope_. C. CIBBER.
Yet Hold it more humane, more heavenly, first,
By winning words to conquer willing hearts,
And make persuasion do the work of fear.
_Paradise Regained, Bk. I_. MILTON.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
_Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.
"Careful with fire," is good advice, we know,
"Careful with words," is ten times doubly so.
Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back dead:
But God Himself can't kill them when they're said.
_First Settler's Story_. W. CARLETON.