Dear speech-fans and -friends,
‘It's a little late, perhaps, for new year’s resolutions.
But I'd like to suggest that we all make one anyway: To do our bit to
help Europeans get involved in building a bright future for Europe.’
This quote is from EU Commissioner Margrethe
Vestager, in her Competition and the future of Europe speech, delivered on 17
January 2018.
We the speech-fans and -friends do our bit through writing and promoting great speeches. You'll find this speech and many more good quotes and speeches on logospathosethos.eu
Enjoy the latest selection - and keep the resolution.
Best wishes,
Great speeches,
Isabelle
Ethos
The world is changing. But that doesn't mean the right
way to respond is by changing our Union. By creating new institutions, drafting
new treaties, producing new legislation by the barrowload.
All those things might seem to carry the stamp of action.
But they won't necessarily make people's lives better or help us play a more
forceful global role. And the measure of our success in facing up to the future
shouldn't be how much we change our institutions, but how much we change
people’s lives, and improve everyone’s opportunities.
Read the full
speech here: Margrethe Vestager, Competition and the future of Europe, 17
January 2018
Ethos and pathos combined
Calling to memory past matters (also known as
anamnesis)
Who, if
not you – the descendants of Spartacus, the inheritors of the oldest
European statehood, you, who never ever lost a flag in any battle – would be
better placed to rise to this important and exceptionally difficult task, that
is to renew the European perspective for the whole of the region?
Proving a statement by referring to common knowledge (also known as apodixis)
What makes our European
economies strong is the Single Market. The British know this well, since it was
the main reason why they joined the EEC in 1972.
Read the full speech here: Michel Barnier, Trends Manager of the
year 2017, 9 January 2018
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« Il n'y a pas suffisamment de solidarité en Europe. Le grand absent européen, c'est la solidarité. A qui le dis-je ? En Italie, et je l'ai dit dans cette ville même, en faisant campagne en 2014 avec le résultat que vous connaissez. L'Italie, dès le premier jour de la crise migratoire, fait tout ce qu'elle peut faire. L'Italie en fait, faute de... »Jean-Claude Juncker
Dear speech-fans and -friends,
Happy New Year!
Best wishes to you, speech-fans and –friends
from Australia to Arizona, with most of you reading this newsletter in Europe.
This January 2018 selection has a special flavour: the best quotes and speeches delivered last month come from men and women receiving a prize or distinction, from the European Parliament Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought to the Nobel Prize. These speeches are typically the perfect occasion to focus on common values, combine logos, pathos and ethos, and call for action. You will find them below.
You will also find the Bibliography section updated : Philip Collins’s When they go low, we go high – speeches that shape the world and why we need them deserves a special mention : find out why in the bibliography section.
Best wishes,
Great speeches,
Isabelle
Make it simple – make it tangible
A European will easily identify what is common for a Portuguese and a
Lithuanian, for a Swede and a Croat. Common in the spatial order and
architecture, music, painting and in metaphysical experience. As different and
colourful as we are – as ambiguous and complicated as we are – we all
understand the Bible, Homer, Cicero, Cervantes, Dante and Shakespeare. We find
ourselves in the music of Bach, Chopin and Liszt, in the paintings of Piero
della Francesca and Vermeer. And we all feel good in towns where we can easily
find the market square, directing ourselves towards the distant towers of the
cathedral and the town hall. If we want to protect our territory, it is
precisely because it is defined not only by borders, but also by the symbols of
our culture.
[The Sakharov
Prize] is an acknowledgment for mothers denying themselves food to save their
children, for children rummaging in the rubbish to satiate their hunger, for
old people wasting away to death because of a lack of medicines.
Read here: Julio Borges, Democratic opposition of Venezuela
receiving Sakharov Prize, 13 December 2017
Watch the full speech in Spanish, English,
French, German, Italian or Estonian here
Tangible … very tangible :
How can you translate an abstract
inflation rate of 2.000% into something very tangible for your audience :
Hunger has been
made into a political system in Venezuela: 75% of Venezuelans have lost 10
kilos weight over the last 12 months.
Read here: Julio Borges, Democratic opposition of Venezuela
receiving Sakharov Prize, 13 December 2017
Watch the full speech in Spanish, English,
French, German, Italian or Estonian here
At
dozens of locations around the world - in missile silos buried in our earth, on
submarines navigating through our oceans, and aboard planes flying high in our
sky - lie 15,000 objects of humankind's destruction.
Read the full speech
here: Beatrice Fihn, Nobel Lecture given by the Nobel Peace
Prize Laureate 2017, ICAN, 10 December 2017
Read more
There
are so many good lines and quotes in this selection that this newsletter is
longer than usual – and this introduction shorter than usual.
Congratulations
to all the speechwriters behind these speeches, many of whom read this
newsletter every month. Congratulations and thank you.
You
will find the full version of the newsletter – and much more – on: logospathosethos.eu
Face the facts
Europe woke up on 24 June 2016 with a
sense of disbelief. We could hardly believe that the British people had
decided, in a sovereign vote, to put an end to 44 years of common history. We
found it hard to grasp, a few months later, that Transatlantic relations might
change as a result of the election of Donald Trump. And of course, following
each terrorist attack we found it hard to believe that our countries' children
could inflict irreparable harm on our soil.
Put the
spotlight on hope – highlighted with repetition
But on each
occasion, this sense of shock led to a common response.
Very quickly,
following the British referendum, Europeans expressed their desire to continue
to move forward together.
Very quickly,
following the election of Mr Trump, the Union spoke out strongly to reaffirm
its commitment to multilateralism and the fight against climate change.
Very quickly,
following each of the attacks on our soil, in Paris, Brussels, Nice, London,
Manchester, Berlin, Stockholm and Barcelona, we saw a display of solidarity
between the peoples of Europe and a determination to fight terrorism side by
side.
Read the full speech here: Michel Barnier, "Obbligati a crescere – l'Europa dopo Brexit", 9 November 2017
Dear speech-fans and -friends,
Welcome to the new readers who have subscribed
to this monthly newsletter following the World Conference of the Professional
Speechwriters’ Association in Washington DC from 16 to 18 October.
Each conference is different from the
previous ones but the inspiration and motivation you get remain as high, from
the keynote address to conversations with peers, new tips and insights on
storytelling, voice, and ‘the nuclear bomb of rhetoric’ (ie metaphors, for
better or for worse), professional advice from the most experienced and
talented colleagues, to exchange with the laureates of the Cicero Speechwriting
Awards.
There are more and more European
speechwriters attending this gathering. That they attend this professional
conference is a good omen for the future of European speeches.
I was invited to deliver the «state of speeches
in Europe in 2017» speech. Looking back at the ones delivered over the last
twelve months, our speeches are getting more and more to the heart of the matter :
Who are we ?
What are our values ?
What do we want to build together ?
The best lines delivered last month confirm this trend to existential questions: just look at the selection on: logospathosethos.eu
Isabelle
It starts with a fair assessment:
Over the last years managing all these crises, we've been excessively pragmatic in communicating about them. Trying to convince people with PowerPoint presentations and graphics, saying: "We're doing better than you think... Yes, you might feel like that, but here are the numbers." And we've lost many people because of that.
Read the full speech here: Frans Timmermans, (Re)thinking Europe, 27 October
2017
Britain's
referendum campaign was full of false arguments and unacceptable
generalisations. But it would have been a big mistake to interpret the negative
result exclusively as a symptom of British exceptionalism and Euroscepticism,
because all over Europe, even moderate voters were asking "Is the European
Union the answer to problems of instability and insecurity, or is it now
standing in the way?"
Read the full speech here: Donald Tusk, Address to the European Committee of
the Regions, 10 October 2017
Read more
Dear speech-fans and -friends,
September means back to school, back to
work and, for world leaders, back to the United Nations General Assembly. This
annual gathering gives the floor to the largest variety of speakers, with one
common goal : describe the world and the challenges ahead in just a few
minutes to the widest possible audience and get this message across. You will
find a selection below.
In Europe, September means back to the
European Parliament for the State of the European Union. This address, together
with the Brexit negotiations and other topical issues, also calls for clear and
powerful messages.
And for speechwriters, autumn means back to
the Professional Speechwriters Association World Conference. This year, moved
from September to October. We will be there, with for sure a fruitful harvest
next month. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, you will find quotes, tips and books on: logospathosethos.eu
Isabelle
I am here in a spirit of gratitude and
humility for the trust you have placed in me to serve the world’s peoples.
“We the peoples”, and the United Nations,
face grave challenges.
Our world is in trouble. People are hurting
and angry. They see insecurity rising, inequality growing, conflict spreading
and climate changing.
The global economy is increasingly
integrated, but our sense of global community may be disintegrating.
Societies are fragmented. Political
discourse is polarized. Trust within and among countries is being driven down
by those who demonize and divide.
We are a world in pieces. We need to be a
world at peace.
And I strongly believe that, together, we
can build peace. We can restore trust and create a better world for all.
Read the full speech here: Antonio Guterres, Address to the General Assembly,
19 September 2017
The wind is back in Europe's sails.
We now have a window of opportunity but it will not stay open forever.
Let us make the most of the momentum, catch the wind in our sails.
Read the full speech (available
in the 24 official languages) here: Jean-Claude Juncker, State of the European Union
address, 13 September 2017
The future of the Union is our priority,
not Brexit.
Read the full speech here: Michel Barnier, Italian Parliament, 21 September
2017
Read more
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