Avoid exaggeration in discourse. [ Mrs. Sigourney ]
A beast that wants discourse of reason. [ William Shakespeare, Hamlet ]
Discourse, the sweeter banquet of the mind. [ Homer ]
Sweet discourse makes short days and nights. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
Change of weather is the discourse of fools. [ Proverb ]
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused. [ William Shakespeare, Hamlet ]
Good discourse sinks differences and seeks agreements. [ A. Bronson Alcott ]
Good writing and brilliant discourse are perpetual allegories. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
A brave man is clear in his discourse, and keeps close to truth. [ Aristotle ]
Discourse ought to be as a field, without coming home to any man. [ Bacon ]
Uncommon expressions are a disfigurement rather than an embellishment of discourse. [ Hume ]
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. [ Bacon ]
Ethical maxims are bandied about as a sort of current coin of discourse, and, being never melted down for use, those that are of base metal are never detected. [ Bishop Whately ]
Explain it as we may, a martial strain will urge a man into the front rank of battle sooner than an argument, and a fine anthem excite his devotion more certainly than a logical discourse. [ Tuckerman ]
A cold-blooded learned man might, for anything I know, compose in his closet an eloquent book; but in public discourse, arising out of sudden occasions, he could by no possibility be eloquent. [ Erskine ]
A companion that feasts the company with wit and mirth, and leaves out the sin which is usually mixed with them, he is the man; and let me tell you, good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue. [ Izaak Walton ]
Bashfulness is a great hindrance to a man, both in uttering his sentiments and in understanding what is proposed to him; it is therefore good to press forward with discretion, both in discourse and company of the better sort. [ Bacon ]
To write a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as anyone would speak in common conversation, who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes. [ Hazlitt ]
Method, we are aware, is an essential ingredient in every discourse designed for the instruction of mankind; but it ought never to force itself on the attention as an object - never appear to be an end instead of an instrument; or beget a suspicion of the sentiments being introduced for the sake of the method, not the method for the sentiments. [ Robert Hall ]