Dear speech-fans and friends,
The art of speeches is an old enough discipline to
keep us from believing the challenges we face are totally new to mankind.
Looking back to history, we can find in leaders
confronted to dangers and difficulties some wisdom, vision, and inspiration.
And good stories. And good quotes.
This month’s harvest provides a few examples.
Isabelle
If you
read only one speech this month, read this one
by Umberto
Eco,
delivered
in 2012 when he received the Treaties of Nijmegen Medal.
To
decide and recognize what, in a tolerant vision, would remain intolerable for
us, is the kind or borderline that Europeans are called to trace every day,
with a sense of equity and with the constant exercise of that virtue that,
since Aristotle, philosopher called Prudence.
In
this philosophical sense, prudence does not mean reluctance to take risks, and
does not coincide with cowardice. In the classical sense of phronesis, prudence
is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason.
Umberto Eco, receiving the Treaties of Nijmegen Medal,
7 May 2012
As we learn from the myth of
Cadmus, Europe is only to be found in the process of creating it. The true way
to define Europe is to build Europe.
Denis de
Rougemont, quoted by European Council President D Tusk, Address to the
Committee of the Regions, 10 fevrier 2016
If you didn't migrate then
your father did, and if your father didn't need to move from place to place,
then it was only because your grandfather before him had no choice but to go,
[to] put his old life behind him in search of the bread that his own land
denied him...
José
Saramago, quoted by
Commission Carlos Moedas, Understanding migration: the
role of research for policy and society, 4 February 2016
Benjamin
Franklin wrote that “even if the Mufti of
Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach to us, he would find a pulpit
at his service.”
So
this is not a new thing.
US
President B Obama, Remarks at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, 3 February 2016
Nos conclusions seront
scrutées de près alors que beaucoup d'observateurs abondent chaque jour en
commentaires qui se sous-catégorisent grosso modo entre ceux qui clament que de
psychodrames en psychodrames l'Europe se disloque peu à peu, et ceux qui attendent
des dirigeants européens un sursaut d'énergie, de clairvoyance, de vision sur
le long terme.
Il nous appartiendra de
donner tort aux premiers, et de donner de l'espérance aux seconds, en
commençant par notre gestion de la crise des réfugiés, à propos de laquelle
tout a déjà été dit, mais où beaucoup reste encore à faire.
Help you
audience understand what it means
In
2050 neither Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom nor any other EU Member
States will any longer be a member of the G7; they will be second-tier
countries! (…)
These
figures must give us pause for thought. The world is changing. The 21st century
will be the century of world regions.
European Parliament President M Schulz, Turbulent
Times, London School of Economics, 5 February 2016
Relate the
idea to something the audience has in their pockets
We
all know that the digital world moves very fast, but we sometimes lose track just
of how fast digital change is happening. I want to give you a quick example. In
the 1990s IBM 's Deep Blue became famous for beating Gary Kasparov at chess. It
was one of the world's supercomputers, costing millions of dollars to develop.
Today, after only 20 years, many of you present today have more computing power
in your laptops or smartphones, although, to be fair, your devices are probably
not as good as playing chess as Deep Blue was.
Commissioner G Oettinger, Competition challenges in
the consumer internet industry, 24 February 2016
Relate
your numbers to something your audience can easily grasp
Elephants
and rhinos are being similarly depleted. Some 30,000 elephants are still being
killed illegally every year.
At
this rate, children born today will see the last of the wild elephants and
rhinos die before their 25th birthday.
Commissioner K Vella, The EU Action plan against
wildlife trafficking, 26 February 2016
Epistrophe
I
understand that people are concerned.
That's
why I'm here in Austria for the second time since I took this job.
President
Juncker also knows it.
The
Members of the European Parliament know
that.
The
political leaders not just of Austria but of the other 27 Member States of the
European Union know it too.
Commissioner C Malmström, Listening, learning, and
changing, 22 February 2012
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