If all our agents would abridge their speeches one half, I am satisfied the effect produced would be much greater. The 'art of leaving off' at the right time, and in the right place, is one of the most difficult things to learn.
Interpretation
Effective communication often requires brevity, and knowing when to stop speaking can enhance the impact of our message.
In this quote, William Lloyd Garrison highlights the importance of conciseness in communication. He suggests that if speakers were to reduce their speeches by half, the resulting clarity and focus could significantly amplify the message's effectiveness. Learning to 'leave off' at the right time is presented as a challenging but crucial skill that enhances the overall communication experience, allowing the audience to absorb and reflect on the essence of what is being conveyed.
In practice
During a public speaking workshop to emphasize the importance of concise messaging.
Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind. We love the land of our nativity, only as we love all other lands. The interests, rights, and liberties of American citizens are no more dear to us than are those of the whole human race. Hence we can allow no appeal to patriotism, to revenge any national insult or injury.
Surely, nothing can be more dangerous than the doctrine that the moral obligations of men change with the latitude and longitude of a place.
I do not believe that God has created us under this dire necessity to toil, like beasts, to sustain life. I believe it is his will that we should hold absolute mastery over time, so as to devote it mainly to intellectual and moral improvement, domestic enjoyment, and social intercourse.
If the State cannot survive the anti-slavery agitation, then let the State perish. If the Church must be cast down by the strugglings of Humanity to be free, then let the Church fall and its fragments be scattered to the four winds of Heaven, never more to curse the earth.
Has not the experience of two centuries shown that gradualism in theory is perpetuity in practice? Is there an instance, in the history of the world, where slaves have been educated for freedom by their task-masters?
The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead.
And which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that he has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.
In the final analysis there is no other solution to man's progress but the day's honest work, the day's honest decision, the day's generous utterances, and the day's good deed.
It must be wonderful to be seventeen, and to know everything.
No man is so poor as to have nothing worth giving.
Every man should lose a battle in his youth, so he does not lose a war when he is old.
It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.
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