On January 8, 2024 there is a post by Rosemary Ravinal at her The Master Communicator Blog titled 10 timeless quotes to motivate your public speaking. But five are partly or completely incorrect. For a well-researched and real quotation, we can definitively describe (as shown above) Who said it, What he said, When he said it, and Where he said it.
Quote #1, attributed to John F. Kennedy, is that:
“The only reason to give a speech is to change the world.”
It was featured in a post by John Zimmer at his Manner of Speaking blog on May 21, 2013 titled Quotes for Public Speakers (No. 164) – John Kennedy. He said it was often attributed to Kennedy. Nick Morgan said in a comment that he could not give a definitive reference. (Nick authored a 2005 book titled Give Your Speech, Change the World: How to Move Your Audience to Action).
Quote #2, attributed to Dale Carnegie, is:
“Talk to someone about themselves, and they’ll listen for hours.”
Both the Who and What are wrong. A Google Books search finds the correct quote, from the 2022 edition of How to Win Friends and Influence People [originally published back in 1936] instead is:
“ ’Talk to people about themselves,’ said Disraeli, one of the shrewdest men who ever ruled the British Empire. ‘Talk to people about themselves and they will listen for hours.’ “
Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881) died before Dale Carnegie (1888- 1955) was born.
Quote #3, attributed to Steve Jobs, is:
“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”
This one is correct. An article by Carlos Silva at Medium on July 27, 2021 titled The Most Powerful Person in the World – (According to Steve Jobs) says he stated it about Pixar in the summer of 1994 at NeXT. A longer version is:
“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come. Disney has a monopoly on the storyteller business. And you know what? I am tired of that bullshit, I am going to be the next storyteller!”
Quote #4, attributed to Leonardo DiCaprio, is:
“Don’t wait around for someone else to tell your story. Do it yourself by any means necessary.”
The Who is definitely wrong. When I did a Google search, I couldn’t any reference to that actor. Instead, it appeared in an article by Erica Lies at Vulture on March 11, 2014 titled Highlights from Lena Dunham’s Keynote Address at SXSW.
Quote #5, attributed to Chris Anderson, is:
“Your number one task as a speaker is to transfer into your listeners’ minds an extraordinary gift – a strange and beautiful object that we call an idea.”
This one is correct. Those exact words appear a minute into his eight-minute video titled TED’s secret to great public speaking.
Quote #6, attributed to Maya Angelou, is:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
She did not say that first, as was discussed by Garson O’Toole at Quote Investigator on April 6, 2014 in an article titled They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.
Quote #7, attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, is:
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
It was discussed by Garson O’Toole at Quote Investigator abbreviated as QI, on April 30, 2012 in another article titled No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. He stated:
“In conclusion, QI believes that Eleanor Roosevelt can be credited with expressing the core idea of this saying by 1935. Within five years the graceful modern version of the maxim was synthesized [ on page 84 in the September 1940 Reader’s Digest]. QI does not know if Roosevelt or someone else was responsible for this. But QI does believe Roosevelt’s words were the most likely inspiration.”
Quote #8, attributed to Jerry Seinfeld, is:
“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’d be better off in the casket than doing the eulogy”
That’s not quite what Jerry said. He didn’t say “Does that sound right?” I blogged about that quote on April 8, 2018 in a post titled Misquoting Jerry Seinfeld and inflating fear five times. What he really said in his show on May 20, 1993 instead (and also appears at IMDB) was:
“According to most studies, people’s number-one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. ‘Death’ is number two! Now, this means to the average person, if you have to go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”
There is another later version on YouTube from the 1998 DVD Jerry Seinfeld [Live on Broadway] I’m telling you for the last time which instead says:
“I saw a thing, actually a study that said speaking in front of a crowd is considered the number one fear of the average person. I found that amazing. Number two was death. Death is number two? This means to the average person, if you have to be at a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.“
Quote #9, attributed to Mark Twain, is:
“There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars.”
Mark Twain didn’t say that. Yet another article by Garson O’Toole at Quote Investigator on March 5, 2020 titled There are two types of speakers: Those who are nervous and those who are liars discussed how the quote first appeared in 1998, although Twain had died back in 1910. I discussed it in a May 12, 2020 blog post titled Did Mark Twain really say there were just nervous speakers or liars? I found another reference from 1984.
Quote #10, attributed to Oprah Winfrey, is:
“What’s the most important message you want to leave your audience with – and why should they care? Every listener instinctively wants to know one thing: What’s in this for me?”
That is a correct quote, which appeared at the Oprah web site in an article titled How to Talk to a crowd that Rosemary linked to.
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