Peggy Noonan Speech Quotations

The most moving thing in a speech is always the logic. It is never flowery and flourishes. It is not sentimental exhortation, it is never the faux poetry we're all subjected to these days.

We don't need to 'control' free speech, we need to control ourselves.

Speeches are more important in politics than talking points, as a rule, and are better remembered.

I should say here, because some in Washington like to dream up ways to control the Internet, that we don't need to 'control' free speech, we need to control ourselves.

Speeches are not magic and there is no great speech without great policy.

Ted Sorrenson, JFK's presidential speech writer, when asked how it came about that he wrote the "ask not what you can do..." speech, he would answer 'ask not.'

A great speech is literature.