The Art of Public Speaking - Carnegie, Dale Breckenridge  ## Metadata - Author: **Carnegie, Dale Breckenridge** - Full Title: The Art of Public Speaking - Category: #articles - URL: https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/111532082 ## Highlights - Change of Tempo Produces Emphasis Any big change of tempo is emphatic and will catch the at- tention ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hh8djvmspz9apwep1ek172qp)) - The true business of the literary artist is to plait or weave his meaning, involving it around itself; so that each sentence, by successive phrases, shall first come in- to a kind of knot, and then, after a moment of suspended meaning, solve and clear itself. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmzffejfx0pb3e88hmh8zee7)) - Essays. … pause … has a distinctive value, expressed in silence; in other words, while the voice is waiting, the music of the movement is going on … To manage it, with its delic- acies and compensations, requires that same fineness of ear on which we must depend for all faultless prose rhythm. When there is no compensation, when the pause is inadvertent … there is a sense of jolting and lack, as if some pin or fastening had fallen out ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmzfgv2b5hbzw60pfp2043fe)) - On the other hand, one of the most important means of de- veloping power in public speaking is to pause either before or after, or both before and after, an important word or phrase ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hh8911zsc1kqrhtve2f0sg0t)) - Training in public speaking is not a matter of externals—primarily; it is not a matter of imitation—fundamentally; it is not a matter of conformity to standards—at all. Public speaking is public utterance, public issuance, of the man himself; therefore the first thing both in time and in importance is that the man should be and think and feel things that are worthy of being given forth. Unless there be something of value within, no tricks of training can ever make of the talker anything more than a machine—albeit a highly perfected machine—for the delivery of other men's goods. So self-development is fundamental in our plan. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hfx9tva9qejr0qfys4ewhaww)) - But how shall he be able to criticise himself? Simply by finding out three things: What are the qualities which by common consent go to make up an effective speaker; by what means at least some of these qualities may be acquired; and what wrong habits of speech in himself work against his acquiring and using the qualities which he finds to be good. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hfxa32wv3wc9mtz70zcvf2y3)) - If you believe you will fail, there is no hope for you. You will. Rid yourself of this I-am-a-poor-worm-in-the-dust idea. You are a god, with infinite capabilities. "All things are ready if the mind be so." The eagle looks the cloudless sun in the face. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hg00gx6x475sr92rbht9e8xr)) - Do not apologize. It ought not to be necessary; and if it is, it will not help. Go straight ahead. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hg1fhm6nk0nvp6pkg0b825gq)) - Take a deep breath, relax, and begin in a quiet conversation- al tone as though you were speaking to one large friend. You will not find it half so bad as you imagined; really, it is like tak- ing a cold plunge: after you are in, the water is fine. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hg1fjgmzj2yjcscwqpme9w31)) - Success or failure in business is caused more by mental attitude even than by mental capacity. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hg01bs7t04ve5f2z008zp0wn)) - Success or failure in business is caused more by mental attitude even than by mental capacity." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hg1fwggjp5vbjhts8ajydk0j)) - 5. How does moderate excitement affect you? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hg1fx3c3dgby2hvy575jpbht)) - 5. How does moderate excitement affect you? 6. What are the two fundamental requisites for the acquiring of self-confidence? Which is the more important? 7. What effect does confidence on the part of the speaker have on the audience? 8. Write out a two-minute speech on "Confidence and Cowardice." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hg01r2yynbz6zqfvkeb897cs)) - 6. What are the two fundamental requisites for the acquiring of self-confidence? Which is the more important? 7. What effect does confidence on the part of the speaker have on the audience? 8. Write out a two-minute speech on "Confidence and Cowardice." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hg1fwwtt18h25kdcvk2030x6)) - 9. What effect do habits of thought have on confidence? In this connection read the chapter on "Right Thinking and Personality." 10. Write out very briefly any experience you may have had involving the teachings of this chapter. 11. Give a three-minute talk on "Stage-Fright," including a (kindly) imitation of two or more victims. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hg1fwrxpjjn4jy560zjqdbec)) - This is a highly important statement. Variety in pitch maintains the hearer's interest, but one of the surest ways to compel attention—to secure unusual emphasis—is to change the pitch of your voice suddenly and in a marked degree. A great contrast always arouses attention. White shows whiter against black; ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hg50pdtparzsshdb6hbczqrq)) - On the other hand, one of the most important means of developing power in public speaking is to pause either before or after, or both before and after, an important word or phrase. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hh88z0cfv2yb7ghjv7bxyc10))