As the character is, such is the speech.

-Aelius Aristides
Pros Platona Peri Rhetorikes, bk.2,1.392.

Nature, as we say, does nothing without some purpose; and for thepurpose of making mana political animal she has endowed him alone among the animals with the power of reasoned speech.

-Aristotle
c.330  BC  Politics, bk.1, ch.2,1253b (translated by T  A Sinclair).

And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know, Self-schooled, self-scanned, self-honoured, self-secure, Didst tread on Earth unguessed at.öBetter so! All pains the immortal spirit must endure, All weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow, Find their sole speech in that victorious brow. Arnold

-Arnold, Matthew
  The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems,'Shakespeare'.

[The translator] will find one English book and one only, where, as in the Iliad itself, perfect plainness of speech is allied with perfect nobleness; and that book isthe Bible.

-Arnold, Matthew
On Translating Homer, lecture 3.

When he killed a calf he would do it in a high style, and make a speech.

-Aubrey,John
  Brief Lives (published1813),'William Shakespeare'.  Aubrey had been misinformed that Shakespeare's father was a butcher. He was in fact a glover.

A dance is a measured pace, as a verse is a measured speech.

-Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans
  The Advancement of Learning, bk.2, ch.16, section 5.

It isgenerally better to deal by speech than by letter.

-Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans
  Essays, no.47,'Of Negotiating'.

Think of what our Nation stands for, Books from Boots'and country lanes, Free speech, free passes, class distinction, Democracy and proper drains. Lord, put beneathThy special care One-eighty-nine Cadogan Square.

-Betjeman, SirJohn
  Old Lights for New Chancels,'In Westminster  Abbey'.

But I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. 88

-Bible (Old Testament)
Exodus 4:10.

Give ear,O ye heavens, and I will speak: and hear,O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon thetender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Deuteronomy 32:1^2.

   Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves'eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead. Thy teeth are like a flockof sheep that are evenshorn, whichcameup from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them. Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks. Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. Thy two breasts are liketwo young roesthat aretwins, which feed among the lilies.Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and tothehill of frankincense.Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Song of Solomon 4:1^7.

For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel; Not many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Ezekiel 3:5^6.

Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in few words; be as one that knoweth and yet holdeth his tongue.

-Bible (Apocrypha)
Ecclesiasticus 32:8.

Let yourspeech be alway withgrace, seasoned withsalt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Colossians 4:6.

It's ironical that the first people to demand free speech are the first people to deny it to others.

-of)
  Of student protesters who disrupted the appearance of Clark Kerr, former President of Berkeley, at the University of Toronto, 5 Feb. Recalled in Halfway up Parnassus (1974).

Without deviation, without exception, without any ifs, buts, or whereases, freedom of speech means you shall not do something to people for views they have, express, speak, or write.

-Black, Hugo LaFayette
Quotedin Irving Dillard (ed) OneMan'sStand for Freedom (1963).

The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament sheweth his handywork.One day telleth another: and one night certifieth another. There is neither speech nor language: but their voices are heard among them. Their sound isgone out into all lands: and their words into the ends of the world.

-Book of Common Prayer
Psalm19:1^4.

These are the gardens of the Desert, these The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful, For which the speech of England has no nameö The Prairies.

-Bryant,William Cullen
  Poems,'The Prairies'.

Underall speech there lies a silencethat isbetter. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow asTime.

-Carlyle,Thomas
  Critical and Miscellaneous Essays,'Sir Walter Scott'.

C'est l'actuel qui compte. Invoquer sa poste¤  rite¤  , c'est faire un discours aux asticots. It isthepresentthatcounts.To invoke one'sposterity isto make a speech to maggots.

-Destouches
  Voyage au bout de la nuit ( Journey to the End of Night, translated by John H P Marks,1960).