Never speak more clearly than you think.

-Baker, Howard Henry,Jr
  On becoming President Reagan's third Chief of Staff. In the NewYork Times, 6 Sep.

Speak, L; for thy servant heareth.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORD1 Samuel 3:9.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Atimeto be born, and atimeto die; atimetoplant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; Atimetoweep, and atimeto laugh; atimetomourn, and a time to dance: A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Ecclesiastes 3:1^8.

He thought he saw a Rattlesnake That questioned him in Greek, He looked again and found it was The Middle of Next Week. 'The one thing I regret,' he said, 'Is that it cannot speak!'

-Dodgson
  Sylvie and Bruno, ch.6.

It is quite a three-pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes.

-Doyle, SirArthur Conan
  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,'The Red-Headed League'.

Think beforeyouspeak iscriticism'smotto; speak before you thinkcreation's.

-Forster, E(dward) M(organ)
Two Cheers for Democracy,'Raison d'e"  tre of Criticism'.

Cum studio bene vivendi semper conjunxi studium bene dicendi. I have always combined the study of how to live well with the study of how to speak well.

-Gerbert later Pope Sylvester II
  Letter to Ebrard,  Abbot of  Tours.

Speak now, and I will answer; How shall I help you, say; Ere to the wind's twelve quarters I take my endless way. 415

-Housman, A(lfred) E(dward)
  A Shropshire Lad, no.32.

Mr President, I speak for sixty thousand dead!

-Hughes,William Morris
  Reply to Woodrow Wilson at the Versailles Peace Conference,  Jan, referring to the ANZ AC fatalities in World War I. Wilson had asked 'Mr Hughes, I speak for very many millions of people. For whom do you speak?'.

Idonot caretospeak ill of any man behind his back, but I believe the gentleman is an attorney.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Quoted in  James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.2.

'Tis grown almost a danger to speak true Of any good mind, now:There are so few.

-Jonson, Ben
  The Forest,'Epistle to Katherine, Lady Aubigny'.

Look not thou on beauty's charming,ö Sit thou still when kings are arming.ö Taste not when the wine-cup glistens,ö Speak not when the people listens,ö Stop thine ear against the singer,ö From the red gold keep thy finger,ö Vacant heart, and hand, and eye,ö Easy live and quiet die.

-Scott, Sir Walter
  The Bride of Lammermoor, ch.3 (LucyAshton's song).

   Why does my Muse only speak when she is unhappy? She does not, I only listen when I am unhappy When I am happy I live and despise writing For my Muse this cannot but be dispiriting.

-Smith, Stevie (Florence Margaret)
  Selected Poems,'My Muse'.

A child should always say what's true, And speak when he is spoken to, And behave mannerly at table: At least as far as he is able.

-Stevenson, Robert Louis
  A Child's Garden ofVerses, no.5,'Whole Duty of Children'.

Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meetö Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.

-Tennyson
  'The Higher Pantheism', l.11^12.

Prompt me,God, But not yet.When I speak Though it be you who speak Through me, something is lost. The meaning is the waiting.

-Thomas, R(onald) S(tuart)
  'Kneeling'.

Was sich u« b erhaupt sagen l a« sst, l a« sst sich klar sagen; und wovon man nicht reden kann, daru«  ber muss man schweigen. What can be said at all can be said clearly; and whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent.

-Wittgenstein, LudwigJosef Johann
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, preface (translated by Frank Ramsey).