Be conversational. 
     Conciliate your opponent. 
     Rouse yourself. 
     Be logical. 
     Have your wits about you. 
     Be considerate. 
     Open your mouth. 
     Speak authoritatively. 
     Cultivate sincerity. 
     Cultivate brevity. 
     Cultivate tact. 
     End swiftly.

POINTS FOR SPEAKERS

As far as possible avoid the following hackneyed phrases: 

     I rise with diffidence
     Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking
     By a happy stroke of fate
     It becomes my painful duty
     In the last analysis
     I am encouraged to go on
     I point with pride
     On the other hand (with gesture)
     I hold
     The vox populi
     Be that as it may
     I shall not detain you
     As the hour is growing late
     Believe me
     We view with alarm
     As I was about to tell you
     The happiest day of my life
     It falls to my lot
     I can say no more
     In the fluff and bloom
     I can only hint
     I can say nothing
     I cannot find words
     The fact is
     To my mind
     I cannot sufficiently do justice
     I fear
     All I can say is
     I shall not inflict a speech on you
     Far be it from me
     Rise phoenix-like from his ashes
     But alas! 
     What more can I say? 
     At this late period of the evening
     It is hardly necessary to say
     I cannot allow the opportunity to pass
     For, mark you
     I have already taken up too much time
     I might talk to you for hours
     Looking back upon my childhood
     We can imagine the scene
     I haven’t the time nor ability
     Ah, no, dear friends
     One more word and I have done
     I will now conclude
     I really must stop
     I have done.

THE BIBLE ON SPEECH

How forcible are right words!

To every thing there is a season, a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying.

Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

Be ye holy in all manner of conversation.

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you.

Know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

THOUGHTS ON TALKING