Harmony as a Rhetorical Category

As in every art form, oratory possesses its own concept of aesthetics — of beauty of composition. A speech can have harmony. But what, precisely, constitutes beauty in rhetoric?

The beauty of an oration resides above all in a clearly defined logical structure. Classically, the introduction must establish, without ambiguity, who is speaking, on what subject, and with what intent. What follows is a logically ordered sequence of thoughts, ideas, or arguments. The conclusion must be concise and aesthetically satisfying — a wish, a call to action, or an expression of gratitude.

A beautiful speech may contain a metaphor or a quotation. The operative word here, however, is may — not must. The ideal is when a quotation harmoniously illuminates the central idea and resounds at the very close. Consider Queen Elizabeth II's address at the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia (2011), which she brought to an end with an Aboriginal saying: "We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love... and then we return home."

Metaphor and quotation enrich a speech and lend it artistic depth. But a living address cannot be a purely literary work — it must contain arguments and values that are immediate, personal, and professionally grounded. Metaphor and quotation serve only as occasional ornaments, or as a final flourish.

A Case Study in Western Rhetorical Aesthetics: Steve Jobs

A particularly illuminating example of an aesthetically crafted speech is Steve Jobs's motivational address to the graduating class of Stanford University in 2005. Jobs structured his speech according to the logic that underlies any human life:

• The formation of a self — "Connecting the Dots"
• The search for one's calling and commitment to it — "Love and Loss"
• The identification of life's true values — "Death"

The closing exhortation — "Stay hungry. Stay foolish" — became iconic. It is a perfect example of how a metaphorical quotation, borrowed from the countercultural publication The Whole Earth Catalog, brought to its organic conclusion a deeply personal account of life's lessons.

Jobs does not overload his address with rhetorical figures. He tells three stories — simply, sincerely, and logically. The aesthetics here are born of structural clarity and emotional authenticity.

A Case Study in Non-Western Rhetorical Aesthetics: Xi Jinping

A different order of aesthetics is on display in the address delivered by the President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping — "Jointly Forging a Sustainable and Brighter Future" — at the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Gyeongju, Republic of Korea, on 1 November 2025.

The speech is constructed according to the classical Confucian schema: courtesy at the opening and close, with substantive and constructive exposition in the body. The structure unfolds across three propositions:

• Unlocking the potential of digital and intelligent development
• Pursuing green and low-carbon development
• Building an inclusive and universally beneficial future

Each point is framed through the lens of shared interests — a quality that is, perhaps surprisingly, characteristic of democratic rhetoric. Democratic rhetoric presupposes attentiveness to the interests and perspectives of others, and respect for their values. It is precisely this logic that Xi Jinping employs as the foundation of his address.

The speech closes with a quotation from a nineteenth-century Chinese thinker: "Alone, one falters under the weight; Together, we stride on the road". The metaphor of collectivism is not imposed but offered — as the wisdom of tradition.

The Paradox of Aesthetics

Both speeches — the Western (Jobs) and the non-Western (Xi Jinping) — achieve beauty through fundamentally different aesthetic systems. Jobs appeals to individual experience, personal freedom of choice, and nonconformism. Xi Jinping appeals to collective wisdom, the common good, and harmony among diverse parties.

Yet both speeches share one essential quality: logical clarity of structure and the organic nature of the closing cadence. The aesthetics here are not decorative — they are functional. Beauty serves persuasion.

And here a question arises: is a universal aesthetic of oratory possible? Or is beauty always culturally conditioned? Perhaps it is precisely this plurality of aesthetics that constitutes the true beauty of rhetoric — the capacity to speak in many languages while preserving a single purpose: to persuade, to inspire, to unite.

The Criteria of an Aesthetic Speech

By way of summary, one may identify several universal hallmarks of a beautiful speech:

1. Logical architecture — a clear structure: introduction, development, conclusion.

2. Concision — the absence of the superfluous; economy of expression.

3. The organic integration of metaphors and quotations — they complement, rather than supplant, the content.

4. Emotional sincerity — the audience feels the authenticity of the speaker.

5. Relevance — the speech resonates with the values and aspirations of the audience.

A speech without aesthetics is dry information. A speech with an excess of aesthetics is empty decoration. The orator's mastery lies in finding the balance between logic and beauty, between content and form.

APPENDIX

Speech 1

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

Steve Jobs, Stanford University Commencement Address, 2005

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The First Story: Connecting the Dots

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

This was the start of my life.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.

Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

The Second Story: Love and Loss

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired.

How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down — that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley.

But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

The Third Story: Death

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. It was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Speech 2

“Jointly Forging a Sustainable and Brighter Future”

Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China. Delivered at Session II of the 32nd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, Gyeongju, Republic of Korea, November 1, 2025

Your Excellency President Lee Jae-Myung,

Colleagues,

At present, the new wave of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is deepening. In particular, the rapid advance of frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence is opening new horizons for humanity. On the other hand, the world faces lackluster economic growth and a widening gap in global development. Challenges such as climate change, food security and energy security are intensifying. Asia Pacific economies must enhance mutually beneficial cooperation, make good use of new opportunities, stand up to new challenges, and forge a sustainable and brighter future together. To this end, I would like to make three propositions.

First

We should further unleash the potential of digital and smart development to give the Asia Pacific region a fresh edge in innovation-driven development. We should fully harness new technologies to empower and propel us forward, seize the opportunities of digital, smart and green development, and move faster to nurture and promote new quality productive forces. We should spark data into life as a basic resource and an engine for innovation, promote safe and orderly flow of data, and accelerate high-quality development of the digital economy. We should deepen cooperation on open source technologies and build an open, competitive ecosystem for innovation.

AI is very important for shaping the future, and should contribute to the well-being of people of all countries and regions. We should bear in mind the well-being of the entire humanity, and promote the sound and orderly development of AI while ensuring that it is beneficial, safe and fair. China has proposed the establishment of a World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, which we hope will provide the international community with public goods on AI through cooperation on development strategies, governance rules and technological standards. China is ready to work with all APEC members to enhance AI literacy and bridge the digital and AI divide in the Asia Pacific region.

Second

We should stay committed to green and low-carbon development to build a new paradigm for sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region. Clear waters and green mountains are just as valuable as gold and silver. We should keep in mind our responsibility to our future generations, enhance synergy between green development strategies of all economies, promote free flows of quality green technologies and products, accelerate the green and low-carbon transition, and vigorously tackle climate change. We should ensure the true fulfillment of common but differentiated responsibilities, and urge developed economies to continuously provide necessary support for developing economies in financing, technology, capacity building and other areas.

Since announcing our carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals five years ago, China has established the world’s largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system. Industries such as new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaics are thriving. China has submitted its 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions on climate response, and will implement the system of dual control over the volume and intensity of carbon emissions across the board. China has funded the establishment of the APEC Support Fund — Sub-fund on Promoting Digitalization for Green Transitions, and will continue to implement relevant initiatives on clean energy and green transition.

Third

We should build an inclusive and universally beneficial future to foster a new dynamism in the inclusive growth of the Asia Pacific. We should always put the people first, and strengthen policy communication, experience sharing and results-oriented cooperation to fully implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, eliminate poverty together, and promote shared prosperity for all the people in the Asia Pacific. We should fully leverage APEC’s traditional strength in economic and technical cooperation, encourage Asia Pacific economies to take the lead in piloting the WTO’s Agreement on Electronic Commerce, and deepen cooperation in such areas as SMEs, human resources, food security, energy transition, and health to facilitate balanced growth in developing economies.

This year, the Republic of Korea has proposed the Collaborative Framework for Demographic Change, which will contribute to inclusive development in the Asia Pacific. In China, we will move faster to improve the system that provides full life-cycle population services to all the Chinese people. We will vigorously develop the silver economy and push forward high-quality development of the population. We will promote the implementation of the initiatives that seek to deploy AI in health care and enhance digital literacy and skills for women, so that all Asia Pacific can benefit from APEC cooperation.

“Alone, one falters under the weight; Together, we stride on the road.”

As a 19th-century Chinese thinker counseled, China is ready to work with all parties to embrace the philosophy of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, and build together an Asia Pacific community.

Thank you.

1. Queen Elizabeth II. Speech at the Opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Perth, Australia, 28 October 2011. The Royal Family official website: https://www.royal.uk/speech-opening-commonwealth-heads-government-meeting-28-october-2011
2. The Commonwealth. The Queen at the CHOGM Opening Ceremony. Available at: https://thecommonwealth.org/news/queen-chogm-opening-ceremony
3. Jobs, Steve. “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” Commencement address, Stanford University, June 12, 2005. Full transcript: https://www.scribd.com/document/202750158/Stay-Hungry-Stay-Foolish-Steve-Jobs-Speech
4. Xi Jinping. “Jointly Forging a Sustainable and Brighter Future.” Remarks at Session II of the 32nd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, Gyeongju, Republic of Korea, November 1, 2025. Full transcript: https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202511/01/content_WS69058e46c6d00ca5f9a073bf.html