His speeches left the impression of an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea. – Author Unknown

I sometimes marvel at the extraordinary docility with which Americans submit to speeches. – Adlai E. Stevenson

Few speeches which have produced an electrical effect on an audience can bear the colourless photography of a printed record. – Archibald Philip Primrose

Commencement oratory must eschew anything that smacks of partisan politics, political preference, sex, religion or unduly firm opinion. Nonetheless, there must be a speech: Speeches in our culture are the vacuum that fills a vacuum. – John Kenneth Galbraith