A. High School Impromptu Event Prompts
Round 1 - 8:00 AM
Speaker 1
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
However great your dedication, you never win anything on your own --Rafael Nadal
Let us consider that we are all insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles --Mark Twain
Speaker 2
You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak. --George Clooney
Most activism is brought about by us ordinary people. --Patricia Hill Collins
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." --— Hamlet
Speaker 3
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. --Thomas A. Edison
Friendship is essentially a partnership. --Aristotle
“The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly." --— Robert Anton Wilson
Speaker 4
You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it. --Barbra Streisand
Time moves slowly, but passes quickly. --Alice Walker (The Color Purple)
Sometimes you gotta get through your fear to see the beauty on the other side --The Good Dinosaur
Speaker 5
Man approaches the unattainable truth through a succession of errors. --Aldous Huxley
They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. --Andy Warhol
We've let the blade of our innocence dull over time, and it's only in innocence that you find any kind of magic, any kind of courage. --Sean Penn
Speaker 6
Remember who you are --The Lion King
Yes We Can! --Barack Obama
"Once you label me you negate me.” --— Kierkegaard
Speaker 7
The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly. --Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“Exhausting someone in argument isn’t the same as convincing them.” --— Tim Kreider
"I find Los Angeles a very difficult and potentially dangerous place to work in, and I think anyone seriously contemplating a career in screenwriting ought to move there as soon as humanly or financially possible.” --— William Goldman
Round 2 - 9:30 AM
Speaker 1
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. --— Ephesians 6:12
It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. --Confucius
Honest people don't hide their deeds. --Emily Bronte
Speaker 2
"Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” --—George Washington
Believe you can and you're halfway there. --Theodore Roosevelt
Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. --Yogi Berra
Speaker 3
A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. --Douglas MacArthur
The First Lady is going to be criticized no matter what she does. --Barbara Bush
To say nothing is saying something. You must denounce things you are against or one might believe that you support things you really do not. --Germany Kent
Speaker 4
Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. --Anne Frank
“Let the fools be parted from their money... if they are fools. Do not shackle them if, however, they are wise.” --— Dr. Jordan B. Peterson
“Agents of change are often obsessive, intransigent, unreasonable, and demanding.” --— Rebecca Solnit
Speaker 5
"You gotta be good. You gotta be strong. You gotta be 2,000 places at once.” --— Tim Delaughter
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
Money lost, little lost. Honour lost, much lost. Pluck lost, all lost. --EW Hornung
Speaker 6
Give light and people will find the way. --Ella Baker
Anyone who says they're not afraid at the time of a hurricane is either a fool or a liar, or a little bit of both. --Anderson Cooper
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. --Aristotle
Speaker 7
You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. --Indira Gandhi
"Every time you state what you want or believe, you're the first to hear it. It's a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don't put a ceiling on yourself.” --— Oprah Winfrey
Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful. --Mary Shelley (Frankenstein)
Round 3 - 10:45 AM
Speaker 1
Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. --Albert Einstein
Have the courage to act instead of react. --Oliver Wendell Holmes
Man is an intelligence in servitude to his organs. --Aldous Huxley
Speaker 2
Force always attracts men of low morality. --Albert Einstein
If you win, say nothing. If you lose, say less. --Paul Brown
“We cannot insure success, but we can deserve it.” --— John Adams
Speaker 3
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. --Benjamin Franklin
"The words of the world are the life of the world. It is the speech of truth in its true solitude: a nature that is created in what it says.” --— Wallace Stevens
The man of science is a poor philosopher. --Albert Einstein
Speaker 4
“Virtue is not always amiable.” --— John Adams
Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken. --Abigail Adams
“To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.” --— Albert Camus
Speaker 5
If you're going hard enough left, you'll find yourself turning right --Cars
Any truth is better than indefinite doubt. --Arthur Conan Doyle
Protesting is about making history, creating art and protecting future generations. --Steven Magee
Speaker 6
"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.” --— Martin Luther King, jr.
The connections we make in the course of a life--maybe that's what heaven is. --Fred Rogers
So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. --Peter Drucker
Speaker 7
The failures and successes are necessary for learning. --Wynonna Judd
Honesty has a power that very few people can handle. --Steven Aitchison
When life gets you down you know what you've gotta do? Just keep swimming --Finding Nemo
Finals 12:15
Speaker 1
“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.” --— Halon’s Razor
Fools multiply when wise men are silent. --Nelson Mandela
“At its heart, wokeness is divisive, exclusionary, and hateful. It basically gives mean people a shield to be mean and cruel, armored in false virtue." --— Elon Musk
Speaker 2
“It’s funny—we all grow up on a diet of stories about the lone voice of reason trying to warn everyone about some imminent calamity. And yet whenever such a person appears in real life, our reflex is to join in with the mobs of scoffers and call them alarmists, hysterics, conspiracy freaks, and doomsayers.” --— Tim Kreider
Honesty is the fastest way to prevent a mistake from turning into a failure. --James Altucher
So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable. --Aldous Huxley
Speaker 3
“I’ve had the kind of romantic life that would give a biographer a lot to work with.” --— Tim Kreider
"Great, we've made a great discovery!” --— Jonas Salk's response whenever he was told in the laboratory that something hadn't worked.
There's a world of difference between insisting on someone's doing something and establishing an atmosphere in which that person can grow into wanting to do it. --Fred Rogers
Speaker 4
No matter what anyone says, you’ll always be a prince to me --Aladdin
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. --Sun Tzu
“The elite should be supreme by virtue of persuasion, not by the assistance of firing squads.” --— Ludwig von Mises
Speaker 5
Feminism is the ability to choose what you want to do. --Nancy Reagan
"Shallow men believe in luck or circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect. --— Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I firmly believe that you live and learn, and if you don't learn from past mistakes, then you need to be drug out and shot.” --— R. Lee Ermey
Speaker 6
A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore. --Yogi Berra
The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. --Benjamin Franklin
To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. --Bruce Lee
Speaker 7
“Our country’s founders cherished liberty, not democracy.” --— Ron Paul
The courage of the poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness. --Christopher Morley
Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste. --Benjamin Franklin