Quotes and speeches of the month

Dear speech-fans and -friends,

A wind of bracing openings, unexpected quotes, and refreshing tropes has been blowing on this past month’s speeches. 

They are more than welcome; they are necessary to renew the debate on the future of Europe, ahead of the European elections next year.

You’ll find these and more examples of what good rhetoric is on: www.logospathosethos.eu

Have a relaxing and inspiring summer. This newsletter will be back for the September issue.

Best wishes,

Great speeches,

Isabelle

Make it easy to grasp

It means that by the time I’ve finished this short speech, somewhere in the world another five women will have lost their lives through complications in pregnancy or childbirth. And twenty more will suffer lifelong pain or disability.

Contrast

It’s not “just a woman’s problem” – it’s an insult to all humanity.

Rhetorical question

As the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation estimated, every dollar spent can save up to six dollars which can then be used for housing, sanitation and other services. So how can we afford not to?

When the speech comes full circle

It’s essential for helping us to achieve our global goals of healthy, happy and prosperous societies and economies. This is why I was determined to make women and girls the focus of this year’s European Development Days.

And why I am very happy to join you here today. Thank you very much.

Read the full speech here: Neven Mimica, No health without rights – women and girls decide, 5 June 2018

Unexpected simile

Beyen wrote: ‘Europe is like a giraffe: an animal difficult to define but easy to recognise.’ And fifty years on, that’s still a good description.

Tricolons, repetitions, quotes, crescendo, varied rhythm and much more :

Read the full speech here: Mark Rutte, The future of the European Union, 13 June 2018

Dear speech-fans and -friends,

Data has been all over the news this past month. Little surprise it ranks high in this selection of the best speeches and quotes to highlight its importance (Andrus Ansip), denounce abuse (Guy Verhofstadt), or restore hope in the future (Carlos Moedas). 

You’ll find these and more examples of what good rhetoric is on: www.logospathosethos.eu

If you read French, une nouvelle lecture vous attend dans la section Bibliographie. 

NB : Speaking of data, your data to receive this newsletter: the only data collected is your e-mail address, and a first name and surname in most cases (sometimes a nickname). You receive this monthly newsletter because you have expressed the wish to receive it, in most cases by registering on the website, or by sending an e-mail. Your data is stored in Belgium. You can ask it to be corrected or deleted at any time. You can unsuscribe at any time. Your data is not forwarded to anyone.

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Best wishes,

Great speeches,

Isabelle

One word to remember

Today, we are here to discuss technologies that will change our world. For this, there is just one word to remember: data.

(with 21 occurrences in a 10-minute speech)

Read the full speech here, Andrus Ansip, Technologies that will change our world, 15 May 2018

The power of a question

You have to ask yourself how you will be remembered : as one of the three big internet giants, together with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who have enriched our world and our societies ? Or on the other hand, in fact as a genius who created a digital monster that is destroying our democracies and societies ? 

Watch the full speech here, Guy Verhofstadt, Conference of Presidents with Mark Zuckerberg, 22 May 2018 (starting at 11’.10’’)

Surprises, anecdotes, quotes, stories, 

and tricolons 

I look at the media, or I talk to people and so often all I hear is Doubt. Fear. Disbelief (…)

I think we are not "afraid" of new technologies so much as we are afraid of the loss that we think they will bring. Our lives. Our control. Our jobs.

Read the full speech here, Carlos Moedas, Horasis global meeting, 6 May 2018

Dear speech-fans and -friends, 

This newsletter is reaching your mailbox as Europe celebrates the end of the Second World War (8 May) and the audacity of the European integration project — mind you, launching this invitation the first day after only the fifth anniversary of such an unspeakable horror.

This peace project remains a leading theme in major speeches on the European stage, several decades later, as this selection  of the best speeches delivered in April shows. It still inspires leaders when they speak about the present or reflect about the future. And it matches the views of the Europeans, who still put peace at the top of the most positive results of Europe, together with free movement, well before other achievements like the exchange programme Erasmus or the Euro.

You’ll find these and a whole series of examples of what good rhetoric is on: www.logospathosethos.eu

Best wishes,

Great speeches,

Isabelle

Europe, first and foremost, a peace project

J'appartiens à une génération qui n'a pas connu la guerre et j'appartiens à une génération qui est en train de s'offrir le luxe d'oublier ce que les prédécesseurs ont vécu(...) Mais je viens aussi d'une terre et d'une famille qui a connu toutes les saignées de notre histoire passée. Alors les choix sont simples, moi je ne veux pas appartenir à une génération de somnambules. Je ne veux pas appartenir à une génération qui aura oublié son propre passé ou qui refusera de voir les tourments de son propre présent.

Watch the full speech here (delivered in French with live interpretation into 23 languages): Emmanuel Macron, Discours au Parlement européen, 17 avril 2018.

Read the full speech here.

I could sum it up in just one sentence: don't let the sleepwalkers lead more people to disaster.

Read the full speech here: Donald Tusk, Acceptance speech for the 2018 Polonicus prize, 28 April 2018

The European ideal took shape in the second part of the twentieth century. Although, at the time, the world was riven by animosity and fear, some were imaginative enough to envisage a future in which we were joined together by mutual interest, trust and affection. European values are the values that we advance in Ireland, within our European family, and in our relations with the wider world. Europe is one of the most successful political projects of the last century. So much has been achieved that once seemed the stuff of dreams.

Read the full speech here: Leo Varadkar, Martens Lecture on the future of Europe, 26 April 2018