“One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.”
― James Earl Jones

“Imagine a young Isaac Newton time-travelling from 1670s England to teach Harvard undergrads in 2017. After the time-jump, Newton still has an obsessive, paranoid personality, with Asperger’s syndrome, a bad stutter, unstable moods, and episodes of psychotic mania and depression. But now he’s subject to Harvard’s speech codes that prohibit any “disrespect for the dignity of others”; any violations will get him in trouble with Harvard’s Inquisition (the ‘Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion’). Newton also wants to publish Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, to explain the laws of motion governing the universe. But his literary agent explains that he can’t get a decent book deal until Newton builds his ‘author platform’ to include at least 20k Twitter followers – without provoking any backlash for airing his eccentric views on ancient Greek alchemy, Biblical cryptography, fiat currency, Jewish mysticism, or how to predict the exact date of the Apocalypse.

Newton wouldn’t last long as a ‘public intellectual’ in modern American culture. Sooner or later, he would say ‘offensive’ things that get reported to Harvard and that get picked up by mainstream media as moral-outrage clickbait. His eccentric, ornery awkwardness would lead to swift expulsion from academia, social media, and publishing. Result? On the upside, he’d drive some traffic through Huffpost, Buzzfeed, and Jezebel, and people would have a fresh controversy to virtue-signal about on Facebook. On the downside, we wouldn’t have Newton’s Laws of Motion.”
― Geoffrey Miller

“He was proud and stubborn, and all the ton looked up to him. Men curried his favor, women flirted like mad. And all the while he'd been terrified every time he'd opened his mouth.”
― Julia Quinn, The Duke and I

“Fear the soldier who stammers, for he is very fast at pulling the triger.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“Before i could utter a word, my listeners had left me long ago.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“Why would someone for whom talking was torture want to talk all the time before thousands of Athenians? Because otherwise he’d have drown himself at high tide. My sister- so shy, so sincere- once wanted to be an actress. The best jazz drummer I’ve ever heard had only one arm. We all choose a calling that’s the most radical contradiction of ourselves.”
― David Shields, Dead Languages

“I may be deprived of eloquence, but my mind can never be a dumb.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“Words cannot only be made... But made to have a meaning, free the tongue and continue your speech.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“Even a brain that memorizes books after one reading doesn’t make it fair if you stutter before the High-Grades, if you can’t speak in a world that run with voice, if you can’t master words when they say: the universe began with words.”
― Misba, The High Auction

“When you see a stranger, your mouth start dancing like convulsion.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“While racial minorities across every civilized country in the world are still waiting for their break, our kind (stutterers) became emperors (i.e., Claudius) and kings (i.e., George VI) for thousands of years. Imagine how well we’re doing for ourselves now.”
― Anas Hamshari, Businessman With An Affliction

“His stutter didn't like the idea of wooing and silenced any attempts to broach the subject.”
― Peadar Ó Guilín, The Inferior

“I haven't got a clue on how to love you like a lover should, how to make you happy or even how to make you stay. I hardly grasp the essence of desire and true affection scares me more than it should, but know that every stutter, every shy glance, every hesitant touch, come from someone who believes in you and I.”
― inkness//IG poet

“People who stutter are less diffident or more confident in winter.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Finishing off someone’s sentence is annoying, even if you have guessed correctly. Add to that rude, if they stutter.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Some excuses are like blaming one’s stutter on winter.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Being a stutterer feels like being a writer without a pen!”
― paul sachudhanandam

“A first recorded instance of “presentation anxiety” occurred around 1300BC when God commissioned Moses to urge Pharaoh to free the Hebrew slaves. “Please send someone else!” pleaded Moses to God. “I'm a nobody. I'm not eloquent. I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” Perhaps he stuttered.

Poor Moses. As well as having to argue with God and Pharaoh – and convince the Hebrews they should follow him to the Promised Land – he had to overcome his insecurity as a speaker.

Moses’ story reveals an important truth – the more we speak in public, the less our fears intrude and the more we grow in confidence. If Moses, the self-confessed “nobody”, could surmount his fears, so too can we.”
― Ruth Bonetti, Speak Out - Don't Freak Out

“It is easy to speak, but not very easy when you can't speak easily.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Stamerenophobia

“There is more to stuttering than the mere repetition of words and phrases. And more to anxiety than just being nervous.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Stamerenophobia

“Stuttering is more of a thing of the mind, than that of the tongue”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Stamerenophobia

“Everybody stuttered, but the fellow who stuttered too much was called a stutterer.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Stamerenophobia

“Stuttering was such a huge blow to the psyche, such that you felt like you had won a trophy if you spoke and did not stutter.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Stamerenophobia

“The enigma of stuttering is profound. For in a moment, you would sound very fluent, and at other times, you would struggle to utter even a word.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Stamerenophobia

“The more conscious you are of your stutter, the more likely you are to stutter.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Stamerenophobia

“When your stutter is chronic, you wonder what magic fluent people use that makes them sound so fluent.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Stamerenophobia

“A stutter knows exactly when to hide, and when to emerge. It knows pretty well how to ruin a perfect conversation.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Stamerenophobia

“Conversations went smoothly only when they occurred in your head.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Stamerenophobia