It is amazing how soon one becomes accustomed to the sound of ones voice, when forced to repeat a speech five or six times a day. As election day approaches, the size of the crowds grows; they are more responsive and more interested; and one derives a certain exhilaration from that which, only a few weeks before, was intensely painful. This is one possible explanation of unlimited debate in the Senate.
Interpretation
Familiarity with the sound of one's own voice can help one adjust to public speaking over time.
This quote reflects on the experience of adapting to public speaking and the growing confidence that comes with repetition. J. William Fulbright suggests that as one engages more with audiences, the initial anxiety is replaced by exhilaration, illustrating how practice can transform discomfort into a rewarding experience, particularly in the context of political discourse and debate.
In practice
During a commencement speech to encourage students to embrace their fears.
International educational exchange is the most significant current project designed to continue the process of humanizing mankind to the point, we would hope, that men can learn to live in peace-eventually even to cooperate in constructive activities rather than compete in a mindless contest of mutual destruction....We must try to expand the boundaries of human wisdom, empathy and perception, and there is no way of doing that except through education.
The price of empire is America's soul, and that price is too high.
Maturity requires a final accommodation between our aspirations and our limitations.
Finally, the Program aims, through these means, to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs and thereby to increase the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship.
In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.
We have the power to do any damn fool thing we want to do, and we seem to do it about every ten minutes.
I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters - and the church does not speak for me.
All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.
In the year 2025, the best men don't run for president, they run for their lives. . . .
There are war-torn countries, people full of poverty, who still voted, 60, 70 percent. If here in the United States of America, we voted at 60 percent, 70 percent, it would transform our politics.
I never would have agreed to the formulation of the Central Intelligence Agency back in forty-seven, if I had known it would become the American Gestapo.
The Voting Rights Act was, and still is, vitally important to the future of democracy in the United States.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.