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.
Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.
That's what the Senate is about. It's the last bastion of minority rights, where a minority can be heard, where a minority can stand on its feet, one individual if necessary, and speak until he falls into the dust
Now you have people in Washington who have no interest in the country at all. They're interested in their companies, their corporations grabbing Caspian oil.
I will defend Europe; it is our civilisation which is at stake... I will work to rebuild ties between Europe and its citizens.
The money in politics is a cash cow for the media.
I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.
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