A man may lack everything but tact and conviction and still be a forcible speaker; but without these nothing will avail.... Fluenc...y, grace, logical order, and the like, are merely the decorative surface of oratory.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The worst feature in the history of those years, is, that no man spake for the Indian. When the Dutch, or the French, or the Engli...sh royalist disagreed with the Colony, there was always found a Dutch or French, or tory party,--an earnest minority,--to keep things from extremity. But the Indian seemed to inspire such a feeling as the wild beast inspires in the people near his den. It is the misfortune of Concord to have permitted a disgraceful outrage upon the friendly Indians settled within its limits, in February, 1676, which ended in their forcible expulsion from town.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We infer the spirit of the nation in great measure from the language, which is a sort of monument, to which each forcible individu...al in a course of many hundred years has contributed a stone.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
They had their fortunes to make, everything to gain and nothing to lose. They were schooled in and anxious for debates; forcible i...n argument; reckless and brilliant. For them it was but a short and natural step from swaying juries in courtroom battles over the ownership of land to swaying constituents in contests for office. For the lawyer, oratory was the escalator that could lift a political candidate to higher ground.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object, than what the imagination alone is eve...r able to attain.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The Mind in Infancy is, methinks, like the Body in Embrio, and receives Impressions so forcible, that they are as hard to be remov...ed by Reason, as any Mark with which a Child is born is to be taken away by any future Application.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »