Word: speech
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Believed in Direct Speech...
Here I first came upon that directness which some people called brutality but which was merely the courageous kindness of sincerity. Direct speech, at any cost, was an article of his faith. He was as ready to receive it as to give it. At a meeting of graduate students, while I was talking with the professor who had made the address of the evening, President Eliot came up to disagree with him face to face. The attack, though not personally hostile, was energetic. 'I said to myself', he declared, 'the trumpet gives an uncertain sound.' The lecturer, in the nervous...
...times, especially in his earlier years, his directness of speech caused needless irritation and may well have cost him friends. A rich gentleman whose estate bordered the property of the College complained to him of a high pile of wood or lumber close to the line that divided the estates. 'I told him,' said the President, many years later, 'that if he objected to the College's woodpile, the College' would gladly buy his land. That,' the President added, 'was a bad break...
...visit the earth, and ask us what we considered the highest form of human expression, we would answer, 'Poetry'. If he were to ask then what were the highest human ideals, we would reply, 'Truth and virtue'. If he were to be informed that our highest form of human speech was not designed for expression of our best ideals he would probably return to the moon with a strange idea of our earth, where we kept our best speech for our second best thoughts...
...began by telling his audience that he did not intend to make a formal speech. "I want to make you thoughtful about the care of your health. Begin inquiring as to what way leads to old age: you'll have to fight to reach...