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.
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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 ?
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
Read more
Pay attention to the first two words of the title: “how to”: they imply that there is a way, that you can learn. And indeed, the idea that we – women, but “they don’t have the monopoly of insecurity”, so actually everybody, really – can learn “how to be powerful in (our) speaking is at the heart of this book.
Viv Groskop invites u[...]
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« I would like to thank the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy for inviting me to this important conference. I am honoured to be here with you today. For many reasons. First, because the focus of this conference is more timely than ever. Second, because it is a topic that deserves to be openly discussed at parliamentary level. Third, becaus... »Christos Stylianides
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.
I could sum it up in just one sentence: don't let the sleepwalkers lead more people to disaster.
Read the full speech here: Leo Varadkar, Martens Lecture on the future of Europe, 26 April 2018
Dear speech-fans and -friends,
The debate on the future of Europe is in
full swing with one Member State leaving the European Union in just one year,
European elections coming up shortly after, in May 2019, and the next
multi-annual financial framework (Which priorities? How much money?) currently discussed.
Different views, different speakers, all
mobilising rhetorical tools to serve their vision and rally support.
See this month’s selection of best quotes and speeches below and click on ‘read more’ to get the whole selection.
Best wishes,
Great speeches,
Isabelle
Strong opening
You had a choice today.
You could have listened to a speech in the UK about a future without Europe. Or
a speech in Berlin by someone who believes in Europe and wants to talk about
the best way to move forward with Europe. I’m glad you’re here.
Make it concrete, visual
The European Union is
not, in my view, an unstoppable train speeding towards federalism (…).
To use a painful
metaphor: the fact that the Dutch national football team won’t be competing at
the next World Cup is not a reason to send a European team in 2022. The
Netherlands is going to get there on its own.
Repetition
A deal is a deal. (six occurrences of this guiding principle).
Read Mark Rutte, Underpromise and
overdeliver: fulfilling the promise of Europe, 2 March 2018
Egalement disponible en français
Auch auf Deutsch
Building your credibility
Perhaps because Portugal
returned to Europe after a lengthy 48 years of dictatorship, 13 years of an
anachronistic colonial war in Africa, and because we suffered the tensions of
the revolutionary founding period of our democracy, Portugal fully understands
that being European is not just a happenstance of geography or history. More
than a single currency, more than a single market, Europe is a community first
and foremost of values.
Watch Antonio Costa, Future of Europe, 14
March 2018, available in 7 languages
Dear speech-fans and -friends,
From the dozens of speeches delivered this
month, what stands out in terms of speeches and speechwriting ?
A few good lines that use classical rhetorical
devices to make their point.
And two female voices taking the stage: rage
after yet another mass shooting in a US school in the voice of a young student
packing her 10-minute speech with an impressive collection of rhetorical
devices; and the new hostess to the Munich Security Conference.
I wonder what you, speech-fans and –friends,
think of these two especially. Let me know.
And, to celebrate the Treaty of Rome anniversary next month, a new book dedicated to great Europeans’ speeches in the bibliography section.
Best wishes,
Great speeches,
Isabelle
Two female voices taking the stage
We are going to be the kids you read about
in textbooks. Not because we're going to be another statistic about mass
shooting in America, but because (…)
we are going to be the last mass
shooting.
- For this and many other rhetorical devices (in addition to a lot of pathos, contrats, repetitions, litanies, quotes, striking figures, call for action, inspiring precedents, getting the audience involved etc.), read or watch here Florida student Emma Gonzalez, 18 February 2018
- Sophia opens a conference, makes eye-contact and even winks at the audience, but can Sophia tell a personal and compelling story ?
Watch Robot Sophia opening the Munich Security Conference, 15 February 2018.
Read more
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
Read more
Excellent speech from Angela Merkel (consec interpretation included :-). Emotional, courageous and ambitious. C[...]
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