April 8, 2008

"No matter what the vehemence of tone or expression, whenever a public speaker indulges himself in violent and unqualified statements and in sweeping denunciations, he not only makes it apparent that he is deficient in a sound and fair judgement, but what is far worse, he creates in his hearers a secret distrust of his real earnestness, - a vague feeling that after all he is thinking more of his speech than of the end for which he professes to make it. When men are profoundly in earnest, they are not apt to be extravagant."
- Ephraim Peabody, Christian Examiner (July 1849)