As we celebrate Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of his death
Look at Shakespeare: what are the great moments of his work? The sword fights?
No, the speeches,
when someone steps downstage and
says, let me tell you what it is, let me tell you what it could be, lend me
your ears.
The speeches, and the balcony scene. Those are the parts we remember.
Done right, a good speech can change the world. (…)
Here’s a secret a speechwriter can
never forget: people don’t care that much about strategy, or sales goals or
market share. They may say they do, but that’s not it.
They want to be inspired. They
want to be part of something meaningful and big. And our job is to show them
what that feels like.
Every speech is a hero’s journey.
But the hero isn’t the speaker up on the stage.
No, no, no.
In our theater, the hero is the
man or woman out there in the audience looking for something that will (…)
finally let them become the person they long be.
Dain Dunston, The Downside
of Up: The Outrageous Fortune of Being a Speechwriter, 2016 Cicero
Speechwriting Grand Award, delivered at the 2015
World Conference of the Professional Speechwriters Association
Want more speeches ? Read this monthly selection and the best of the 2016 Cicero Speechwriting Awards.
Want more inspiration ? Join the 2016 World Conference of the Professional Speechwriters Association. PSA offers a special 15% discount to Logos, Pathos, Ethos readers with the code LPE15.
Enjoy this selection,
Isabelle
Perhaps
you need an outsider, somebody who is not European, to remind you of the
magnitude of what you have achieved.
President Obama, Address
to the People of Europe, Hannover, Germany, 25 April 2016
(English below)
Die
Einheit Europas war ein Traum von wenigen. Sie wurde eine Hoffnung für viele.
Sie ist heute eine Notwendigkeit für uns alle.
Konrad Adenauer, German
Bundestag, 15 December 1954 (Auf Deutsch)
European
unity was a dream of a few. It became a hope for [the] many. Today
it is a necessity for all of us.
Konrad Adenauer, German Bundestag, 15 December 1954
(in English)
Quoted by
President Obama, Address
to the People of Europe, Hannover, Germany, 25 April 2016
(English below)
Le fait d'être à Sienne, de se remémorer l'histoire de cette ville et de sa
république, et de contempler les fresques magistrales de Lorenzetti au Palazzo
Pubblico nous offre un cours accéléré en politique. Lorenzetti (…) se servait
du langage universel de la peinture pour expliquer les effets du bon et du
mauvais gouvernement. Le message en guise de rappel était certes destiné au
gouvernement local mais il n'a rien perdu de sa force au fil des siècles (…)
Prenez garde
à ceux qui vous dépeignent l'avenir idyllique du tout-puissant État-nation
autarcique. Lorenzetti aurait peint ces démagogues du mauvais côté de la
fresque.
President Schulz, Le dialogue nous sauvera, Docteur honoris causa, Sienne 22 April 2016
Being in
Siena, looking back at its history and its Republic and Lorenzetti’s masterly
frescos in Palazzo Pubblico, also provides a crash course in politics.
Lorenzetti (…) used the universal language of painting to explain the effects
of good and bad government. The message stood as a reminder to the local
government, but it remains equally powerful over the centuries (…)
Beware of
those who sell you an autarchic idyllic future of the all-powerful nation
state. For Lorenzetti these demagogues would have ended up on the wrong side of
the fresco.
President Schulz, Dialogue
will save us, Doctor Honoris Causa, Siena, 22 April 2016
If anyone remains that
doesn't share the Paris Spirit - or who still wants to continue arguing instead
of acting –let me quote the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw: "People
who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it".
Commissioner Arias Cañete,
UN Signature Ceremony for the Paris Agreement, New York, 22 April 2016
Europe faces its greatest
refugee crisis since the Second World War. This crisis is testing our values,
and it is testing our will. And it is reminding us that solidarity is not only
a moral virtue but an essential part of our European Union.
Great speechwriting?
It should be poetic.
It should be mellifluous.
It should be the music of words.
It should be aimed at your head and your heart and your gut.
Good speechwriting?
(…)
A speech says more with less.
A speech has a heartbeat.
A speech tells a story.
Rodger Evans, Rhetoric : Indulging the Hope that Nature Will Finally Yield to Observation and Perseverance the Keys to the Heart, 2016 Cicero Speechwriting Awards.
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