Tone Color

Famous quotes containing the words tone and/or color:

    If the oarsmen of a fast-moving ship suddenly cease to row, the suspension of the driving force of the oars doesn’t prevent the vessel from continuing to move on its course. And with a speech it is much the same. After he has finished reciting the document, the speaker will still be able to maintain the same tone without a break, borrowing its momentum and impulse from the passage he has just read out.
    Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C)

    ‘Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
    Taught my benighted soul to understand
    That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:
    Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
    Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
    “Their color is a diabolic die.”
    Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
    May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.
    Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753–1784)