PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: oratory
prime minister of United Kingdom
Winston Churchill was a British statesman, orator, and author who as prime minister (1940–45, 1951–55) rallied the British people during World War II and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory....
Roman statesman, scholar, and writer
Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer who vainly tried to uphold republican principles in the final civil wars that destroyed the Roman Republic. His writings include books of rhetoric,...
Roman historian
Tacitus was a Roman orator and public official, probably the greatest historian and one of the greatest prose stylists who wrote in the Latin language. Among his works are the Germania, describing the...
Greek statesman and orator
Demosthenes was an Athenian statesman, recognized as the greatest of ancient Greek orators, who roused Athens to oppose Philip of Macedon and, later, his son Alexander the Great. His speeches provide valuable...
French politician and orator
Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau was a French politician and orator, one of the greatest figures in the National Assembly that governed France during the early phases of the French Revolution....
American politician
Daniel Webster was an American orator and politician who practiced prominently as a lawyer before the U.S. Supreme Court and served as a U.S. congressman (1813–17, 1823–27), a U.S. senator (1827–41, 1845–50),...
Greek orator and rhetorician
Isocrates was an ancient Athenian orator, rhetorician, and teacher whose writings are an important historical source on the intellectual and political life of the Athens of his day. The school he founded...
Shawnee chief
Tecumseh was a Shawnee Indian chief, orator, military leader, and advocate of intertribal Indian alliance who directed Indian resistance to white rule in the Ohio River valley. In the War of 1812 he joined...
British politician
John Bright was a British reform politician and orator active in the early Victorian campaigns for free trade and lower grain prices. He was a co-founder of the Anti-Corn Law League, as well as campaigns...
American statesman
Patrick Henry was a brilliant orator and a major figure of the American Revolution, perhaps best known for his words “Give me liberty or give me death!” which he delivered in 1775. He was independent Virginia’s...
American politician
William Jennings Bryan was a Democratic and Populist leader and a magnetic orator who ran unsuccessfully three times for the U.S. presidency (1896, 1900, and 1908). His enemies regarded him as an ambitious...
Roman statesman [234-149 BCE]
Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman statesman, orator, and the first Latin prose writer of importance. He was noted for his conservative and anti-Hellenic policies, in opposition to the phil-Hellenic ideals...
Russian-Ukrainian theologian and writer
Feofan Prokopovich was a Russian Orthodox theologian and archbishop of Pskov, who by his administration, oratory, and writings collaborated with Tsar Peter I the Great (1672–1725) in westernizing Russian...
French politician
Antoine Barnave was a prominent political figure of the early French Revolutionary period whose oratorical skill and political incisiveness made him one of the most highly respected members of the National...
American lecturer
Anna Elizabeth Dickinson was an American lecturer on abolitionism, women’s rights, and other reform topics, remembered for the articulate but emotionally blistering rhetoric that characterized her speaking...
Roman statesman [circa 345–402]
Quintus Aurelius Memmius Eusebius Symmachus was a Roman statesman, a brilliant orator and writer who was a leading opponent of Christianity. Symmachus was the son of a consular family of great distinction...
British statesman
Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st earl of Birkenhead was a British statesman, lawyer, and noted orator. As lord chancellor (1919–22), he sponsored major legal reforms and helped negotiate the Anglo-Irish Treaty...
Greek politician
Hyperides was an Athenian politician who opposed the Macedonian hegemony over Greece and was ranked as one of the greatest of the “canonical” 10 Attic orators. A member of a wealthy family, Hyperides is...
Roman historian and orator
Gaius Asinius Pollio was a Roman orator, poet, and historian who wrote a contemporary history that, although lost, provided much of the material for Appian and Plutarch. Pollio moved in the literary circle...
Portuguese writer
João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, viscount de Almeida Garrett was a writer, orator, and statesman who was one of Portugal’s finest prose writers, an important playwright, and chief of the...
Zionist leader
Vladimir Jabotinsky was a Zionist leader, journalist, orator, and man of letters who founded the militant Zionist Revisionist movement that played an important role in the establishment of the State of...
British orator
James Crichton was an orator, linguist, debater, man of letters, and scholar commonly called the “Admirable” Crichton. Although many considered him to be a model of the cultured Scottish gentleman, others...
Spanish political leader
Dolores Ibárruri was a Spanish Communist leader, who earned a legendary reputation as an impassioned orator during the Spanish Civil War, coining the Republican battle cry, “No pasarán! ” (“They shall...
Greek orator
Aeschines was an Athenian orator who advocated peace with Philip II of Macedonia and who was a bitter political opponent of the statesman Demosthenes. Aeschines was brought up in humble circumstances,...
Greek writer
Lysias was a Greek professional speech writer, whose unpretentious simplicity became the model for a plain style of Attic Greek. Lysias was the son of Cephalus, a wealthy native of Syracuse who settled...
prime minister of Great Britain
Edward Stanley, 14th earl of Derby was an English statesman, important as leader of the Conservative Party during the long period 1846–68, thrice prime minister, and one of England’s greatest parliamentary...
American abolitionist
Wendell Phillips was an abolitionist crusader whose oratorical eloquence helped fire the antislavery cause during the period leading up to the American Civil War. After opening a law office in Boston,...
British politician
Aneurin Bevan was a controversial figure in post-World War II British politics and one of the finest orators of the time. To achieve mastery as a speaker, he had first to overcome a speech impediment....
Greek philosopher
Dio Chrysostom was a Greek rhetorician and philosopher who won fame in Rome and throughout the empire for his writings and speeches. Dio was banished in 82 ce for political reasons from both Bithynia and...
Sauk leader
Keokuk was a Sauk (Sac) Indian orator and politician who became chief by ceding Native American lands to win white support and by rallying opposition to his own tribe’s resistance leaders. Born of the...
Seneca chief
Red Jacket was a Seneca chief whose magnificent oratory masked his schemes to maintain his position despite double-dealing against his people’s interests. His first Indian name was Otetiani, and he assumed...
Roman orator
Publius Sulpicius Rufus was a Roman orator and politician whose attempts, as tribune of the plebs, to enact reforms against the wishes of the Senate led to his downfall and the restriction of the powers...
United States military officer
Thomas Francis Meagher was an Irish revolutionary leader and orator who served as a Union officer during the American Civil War (1861–65). Meagher became a member of the Young Ireland Party in 1845 and...
Greek orator and author
Herodes Atticus was the most celebrated of the orators and writers of the Second Sophistic, a movement that revitalized the teaching and practice of rhetoric in Greece in the 2nd century ce. Herodes was...
American abolitionist
Samuel Ringgold Ward was a black American abolitionist known for his oratorical power. Born a slave, Ward escaped with his parents in 1820 and grew up in New York state. He was educated there and later...
Irish-Canadian writer
Thomas D’Arcy McGee was an Irish-Canadian writer and chief political orator of the Canadian confederation movement. An Irish patriot, McGee was associated with The Nation (1846–48), the literary organ...
American author and lecturer
Dale Carnegie was an American lecturer, author, and pioneer in the field of public speaking and the psychology of the successful personality. Carnegie was born into poverty on a farm in Missouri. In high...
Athenian statesman
Lycurgus was an Athenian statesman and orator noted for his efficient financial administration and vigorous prosecutions of officials charged with corruption. Lycurgus supported Demosthenes’ opposition...
Roman orator
Marcus Cornelius Fronto was a prominent Roman orator, rhetorician, and grammarian whose high reputation—equal in ancient times to those of Cato, Cicero, and Quintilian—was based chiefly on his orations,...
French philosopher
Guillaume du Vair was a highly influential French thinker and writer of the troubled period at the end of the 16th century. A lawyer by training, du Vair occupied high offices of state under Henry IV,...
Greek speech writer
Dinarchus was a professional speech writer at Athens whose work is generally thought to reflect the incipient decline of Attic oratory. As a metic, or resident alien, he could not participate directly...
American comedian
George Jessel was an American comedian, actor, writer, composer, and producer, whose skill as a dinner speaker earned him the honorary title of Toastmaster General of the United States. Jessel began his...
Greek rhetorician
Libanius was a Greek Sophist and rhetorician whose orations and letters are a major source of information on the political, social, and economic life of Antioch and of the eastern part of the Roman Empire...
American politician
Edward Everett was an American statesman and orator who is mainly remembered for delivering the speech immediately preceding President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (Nov. 19, 1863) at the ceremony...
American politician
Robert G. Ingersoll was an American politician and orator known as “the great agnostic” who popularized the higher criticism of the Bible, as well as a humanistic philosophy and a scientific rationalism....
Roman orator
Quintus Hortensius Hortalus was a Roman orator and politician, Cicero’s opponent in the Verres trial. Delivering his first speech at age 19, Hortensius became a distinguished advocate. He was leader of...
Athenian statesman
Demades was an Athenian orator and diplomat who rose from humble origins to a leading place in politics through his vigorous speeches and shrewd ability to fathom popular opinion. Demades opposed Demosthenes’...
United States senator and historian
Albert J. Beveridge was an orator, U.S. senator, and historian. Beveridge was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1887 and began the practice of law in Indianapolis. He first attracted national attention by...
Catalan writer
Ángel Guimerá was a Catalan playwright, poet, orator, and fervent supporter of the Catalan literary revival known as the Renaixensa movement. Guimerá’s parents took him to Catalonia when he was seven,...
Greek orator and politician
Andocides was an Athenian orator and politician. Born into one of the most prominent Athenian families, Andocides was imprisoned on suspicion of having taken part in the mutilation of the sacred busts...
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