I have not been accustomed to address meetings of this kind. It is not my vocation to make speeches, or to sting together brilliant sentences, or beautiful words. But my mission has been back among the people, amid the little sources of public sentiment; among the hills and the hamlets — amid the opposed, but the comparatively unsophisticated; and I have had no weapon but the gospel of truth in its simplicity.

It is this simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences — makes them, as the poets tell us, 'charm the crowd's ears more finely.' Educated men lay down broad general principles; uneducated men argue from common knowledge and draw obvious conclusions.

Wise men speak when they have something to say, fools speak because they have to say something

It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools speak because they have to say something

Do not wonder, if the common people speak more truly than those of high rank; for they speak with more safety.

How fain I'd speak to those who know mythought,
And silence keep to those who yet know nought.

To speak less learnedly, and more intelligibly,

Think with the Few and speak with the Many.

Who was it who said that a wise man speaks when he has something to say, but a fool speaks because he must?

I shall speak as well as I can for usefulness, but not for fame.

como por ver que es más el número de los simples que de los prudentes; y que, puesto que es mejor ser loado de los pocos sabios que burlado de los muchos necios, no quiero sujetarme al confuso juicio del desvanecido vulgo, a quien por la mayor parte toca leer semejantes libros.

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they would like to say something. As empty vessels make the loudest sounds, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.

from all I have read of the history of Greece and Rome, England and France, and all I have observed at home and abroad, eloquence in public assemblies is not the surest road to fame or preferment, at least, unless it be used with caution, very rarely, and with great reserve. The examples of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson, are enough to show that silence and reserve in public, are more efficacious than argumentation or oratory. A public speaker who inserts himself, or is urged by others, into the conduct of affairs, by daily exertions to justify his measures, and answer the objections of opponents, makes himself too familiar with the public, and unavoidably makes himself enemies. Few persons can bear to be outdone in reasoning or declamation or wit or sarcasm or repartee or satire, and all these things are very apt to grow out of public debate. In this way, in a course of years, a nation becomes full of a man’s enemies, or at least, of such as have been galled in some controversy, and take a secret pleasure in assisting to humble and mortify him.