In general those who nothing have to say
  Contrive to spend the longest time in doing it.
An Oriental Apologue.  J.R.  LOWELL.

  There’s nothing in this world can make me joy. 
  Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
  Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.
King John, Act iii.  Sc. 4.  SHAKESPEARE.

  Think all you speak; but speak not all you think: 
  Thoughts are your own; your words are so no more.
Epigram.  H. DELAUNE.

  Words learned by rote a parrot may rehearse,
  But talking is not always to converse,
  Not more distinct from harmony divine
  The constant creaking of a country sign.
Conversation.  W. COWPER.

  Just at the age ’twixt boy and youth,
  When thought is speech, and speech is truth.
Marmion, Canto II.  SIR W. SCOTT.

  They never taste who always drink;
  They always talk who never think.
Upon a Passage in the Scaligerana.  M. PRIOR.

      And, when you stick on conversation’s burrs,
  Don’t strew your pathway with those dreadful urs.
Urania.  O.W.  HOLMES.

    KING RICHARD.  Be eloquent in my behalf to her. 
    QUEEN ELIZABETH.  An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told.
King Richard III., Act iv.  Sc. 4.  SHAKESPEARE.

  O, many a shaft, at random sent,
  Finds mark the archer little meant! 
  And many a word, at random spoken,
  May soothe, or wound, a heart that’s broken!
Lord of the Isles, Canto V.  SIR W. SCOTT.

  A man in all the world’s new fashion planted,
  That hath a mint of phrases in his brain.
Love’s Labor’s Lost, Act i.  Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

                              In his brain—­
  Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit
  After a voyage—­he hath strange places crammed
  With observation, the which he vents
  In mangled forms.
As You Like it, Act ii.  Sc. 7.  SHAKESPEARE.

  Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
  And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
  I will be brief.
Hamlet, Act ii.  Sc. 2.  SHAKESPEARE.

  And I oft have heard defended,
  Little said is soonest mended.
The Shepherd’s Hunting.  G. WITHER.

Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear. Venus and Adonis.  SHAKESPEARE.

  Delivers in such apt and gracious words,
  That aged ears play truant at his tales,
  And younger hearings are quite ravished,
  So sweet and voluble is his discourse.
Love’s Labor’s Lost, Act ii.  Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

COQUETRY.

  Or light or dark, or short or tall,
  She sets a springe to snare them all: 
  All’s one to her—­above her fan
  She’d make sweet eyes at Caliban.
Quatrains.  Coquette.  T.B.  ALDRICH.