Favorite Speeches

[Fat_Sunny]

This Is Particularly For El Mudo, Who Takes The Time To Educate People. Although People Don't Always Answer Your Posts, Because It Is Hard To Make A Zippy Comment About Serious History, It Doesn't Mean That No One's Reading. Fat's Learned A Number Of Things From Your Posts. Who Knew You Could Find Out About Zouaves On RF.Net?

F_S Has Memorized The Gettysburg Address, Because His 5th Grade Teacher Made Him, But He Has Also Memorized Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural, Because It Moves Him More Than Anything Else Ever Written.

What Are Your Favorite Speeches From The Past?

[patsopinion]

we are all jelly dough nuts!

[Midkiff]

Definitely the Kennedy "ask not" speech.

[torker]

Isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen! ~ Eric Stratton

[Hottub]

I will second Lincoln's 2nd inaugural speech. "The dogmas of a quiet past are no match for a stormy present" Still rings true today.

I've also got to put Reagan's fairwell speech up there. "All in all America, not bad. Not bad at all."

[Fat_Sunny]

This Is The Part That Gets F_S The Most. If God Ever Worked Through A Man, It Was Lincoln.

'Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether'.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bb/Lincoln_second.jpg/300px-Lincoln_second.jpg

[IamPixie]

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[BIGASS307Buddays]

my best man speech at Hippo's wedding

[Bob Impact]

I third Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural, as well as The Gettysburg address. I was a big fan of both Reagan and Clinton's farewell State of the Unions, and the "Let's Roll" speech W gave was good at the time but loses points because of the man delivering it.

[epo]

This is probably my favorite speech, but done by a flawed politician from a idealistic family. Ted Kennedy's 1980 Concession Speech is nothing short of brilliant.

Link to audio of speech (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/tedkennedy1980dnc.htm).

It truly is Uncle Ted's shining moment, which is topped with these words:

For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.

[Fezticle98]

Historically, Eisenhower's Farewell Address, warning against the undue influence of the military industrial complex is huge. So very applicable to today.

http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html

Similarly, Washington's Farewell Address was WAY ahead of its time in wariness of the party system and entangling foreign alliances. Still relevant, over 200 years later.

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/washing.htm

Churchill's speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri coined the phrase "Iron Curtain" and set the stage for the Cold War.

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/ironcurtain.htm

[Gvac]

You hit the nail on the head with Washington's Farewell, Fezticle.

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing (with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them) conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

[bigredd]

I can't ever get through Jimmy V's 93 ESPY "don't give up...don't EVER give up" speech without teering up. ESPN radio does an online auction every year that benefits the Jimmy V. foundtion. Every year they play the speech a number of times throughout the week on the radio to pump up the auction. Well, one day I thought I was having a bad day and Jimmy's speech came on the radio as I was driving around selling lumber. I thought I was having a bad day. I cried like a schoolgirl, called my wife sobbing and told her to log on to www.jimmyv.org and get me and her dad (he's a coach)...it was like The Jerk...get one for your dad and for all my buddies and for a guy I knew in 8th grade. It was ugly. She did good though and wound up getting one for me and one for her old man.

The youtube link is below but I urge you all to log on to www.jimmyv.org and donate just something. We've all been touched by cancer and if you haven't you will be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePXlkqkFH6s

[Sarge]

"its not the critic that counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better, the credit belongs to the man in the arena whos face is marred by dust, and sweat, and blood; who strives valiantly... who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends him in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at worse if he fails at least fails while dareing greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who never have known neither victory or defeat." - teddy roosevelt

[moochcassidy]

im not playing games with you (http://media.putfile.com/RANT-90)

[Landblast]

"The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.
As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

-Abraham Lincoln (annual message to Congress Dec. 1862)

[drjoek]

I can't ever get through Jimmy V's 93 ESPY "don't give up...don't EVER give up" speech without teering up.



Ive got it saved on my tivo and same here I cant get through it with out a few tears. Love the Green Bay packers speech part of it

BUT my all time favorite is the Gettysburg Address.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

[Midkiff]

im not playing games with you (http://media.putfile.com/RANT-90)

best speech ever

[drjoek]

I also enjoyed this speech it started out something about Reilly Luck being a mod for four fucking months .......................

[fohat]

best speech ever

"The program director here is the one that watches the paint dry" great fez line

[high fly]

Fave speeches?

A couple by Martin Luther King are moving, and in 1980 Ted Kennedy gave a great one at the Democratic Party National Convention, there's Churchill's speech about fighting on the beaches and in the streets but never giving up; but my all time favorite is the one that included the immortal line,

"they won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more."

which turned out to be a lie, just like so much else the bastard had to say.

[El Mudo]

Washington's farewell speech was beautiful, and certainly very important, as it pretty much established our what our foreign policy was until 1917 ("stay out of Europe's affairs")


I'm really a fan of MacArthur's West Point farewell address (http://www.nationalcenter.org/MacArthurFarewell.html)


especially this part:


The long gray line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.

This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished - tone and tints. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen then, but with thirsty ear, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll.

In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.


Just beautiful


I also love General Lee's farewell to the Army of Northern Virginia...even though it technically wasn't a speech

"After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Norther Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources.

I need not tell the brave survivors of some many hard fought battles who have remained steadfast to the last that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them.

But feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that must have attended the continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen.

By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from a consciousness of duty faithfully performed; and I earnestly pray that a Merciful God will extend to you His blessings and protection.

With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your Country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you all an affectionate farewell."


And If i ever bring my Fredericksburg book in the house, I'll put General Meagher's speech up here that he gave to the Irish Brigade in front of Marye's Heights

[El Mudo]

I forgot my favorite Washington speech....this was after some of his officers were contemplating mutiny and/or leaving the service because they weren't being paid


So Washington walks in...starts to read his speech, then stops and puts on his glasses..."I'm sorry" he says...."but i have nearly gone blind in the service of my country"....


Not a dry eye in the house...what a moment

[Dougie Brootal]

JFK's innaugural speech. im reading a book about kennedy right now.

[MadMatt]

Historically, Eisenhower's Farewell Address, warning against the undue influence of the military industrial complex is huge. So very applicable to today.

http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html



You NAILED it with Eisenhower's Farwell Address. I read it in college and was blown away - it is almost like the guy had a crystal ball.

I don't know if it counts, but one of my favorite speaches has always been the "St Crispin's Day" speach from Henry V. I know, it is fiction. But it is still really good - especially the Kenneth Branaugh version from the movie. (text found here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispin))

[mildly amusing]

President Reagan's speech at Pointe du Hoc (http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/dday_pdh.asp)on the 40th anniversary of D-Day was particularly eloquent and moving...

[Fat_Sunny]

F_S Is Surprised And Delighted How Many Speeches Were Referenced In This Thread.

He's Gonna Read Them All!

[El Mudo]

Forgot to mention General Jackson's farewell address to the Stonewall Brigade


I am not here to make a speech, but to simply say farewell. I first met you at Harper's Ferry in the commencement of this war, and I cannot take leave of you without giving expression of your conduct from that day to this-whether on the march, in bivouac, in the tented field, or on the bloody plains of Manassas, where you gained the well deserved reputation of having decided the fate of the battle. Throughout the broad extent of country over which you have marched, by your respect for the property and rights of citizens, you have shown that you were soldiers-not only to defend, but able and willing both to defend and protect. You have already gained brilliant and deservedly high reputation throughout the army of the whole Confederacy, and I trust in the future, by your deeds on the field, and by the assistance of the same kind Providence who has heretofore favored our cause, you will gain more victories and add additional luster to the reputation you now enjoy. You have already gained a proud position in the future history of this our second war of independence; I shall look with great anxiety to your future movements, and I trust whenever I shall hear of the First Brigade on the field of battle, it will be of still nobler deeds achieved and higher reputation won.

In the Army of the Shenandoah you were the First Brigade! In the Army of the Potomac you were the First Brigade! In the Second Corps of this army you are the First Brigade! You are the First Brigade in the affection of your general, and I hope by your future deeds and bearing you will be handed down as the First Brigade in this our Second War of Independence. Farewell!"

[Mike Teacher]

You NAILED it with Eisenhower's Farwell Address. I read it in college and was blown away - it is almost like the guy had a crystal ball.

=

I mentioned this is the 'Documentary' thread; The Movie about DDE and the speech 'Why We Fight' it's just surreal that a president; let alone a sitting prez, let alone prez that had been Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces; would talk about the military, and the impending arms race, and the inpending military-industrial-congressional complex... the man was a visionary.

=

I collect famous speeches. Or famous speech. Early historical audio and all that; hence me bombarding R+F with some of the stuff you hear.

Kennedy addressing Congress throwing down the gauntlet the land a man on the moon and get him back just floored everyone, NASA people included. With a grand total of 15 minutes of Space Time; Kennedy, thought; this is how to do it. And we did it.

JFK asks for the Moon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kza-iTe2100&mode=related&search=) Watch JFKs nervous hands as he throws down the gauntlet; he was a Pro, but knew he was in Brand New Territory, quite possibly asking for the biggest Failure in History. He never fidgeted like that. They said he was nervous as hell.

The Rice University Moon Speech is all over YouTube

like Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz9OXE91fP0&mode=related&search=)

Now, for Historic, Epic, Deep-Blue Hero Speeches, how about an estimated 1-2 billion people who tuned in on TV or radio around the globe to hear the Christmas Eve 1968 Broadcast, for the first time in the history of human, the first speech ever from another world. Apollo 11 was the first to put men on the surface, but any NASA geek will tell you the real insane, this is crazy mission was Apollo 8, the first time humans left Earth orbit [100-200 miles] and shot out into space for 230,000 miles. The Commander wife, Susan Borman, spent much of the mission prepapring for her husband's funeral; this is how risky it was.

They told no one; but they knew they should say *something*, so Borman brought pages from the Book of Genesis, and him and James Lovell [who would return to the moon on Apollo 13] and Bill Anders, took turns reading, and the sign off, well, still brings tears for me.

They pointed a very primitive camera at Earth, not much to see at all; but for the first time, ever, we looked back from the moon and saw our planet suspended alone in space.

Apollo 8 Xmas Eve Speech (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnyNXLXl8iA)

Lastly, keeping with the theme; Reagen's speech on the Challenger Disaster, using the famous poem 'High Flight' love him or hate him; was pretty friggin amazing.

Wow I have about 40 more but Mike The Windbag will stop here...

[A.J.]

Ronald Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech: 27 October 1964. (http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/digitalarchive/speeches/spe_1964_1027_reagan)

[reformed]

CYO League - 1990 Championship game speech from Coach:

"I know they are bigger than us, but I'll I tell you what. I fought in the Korean War, and those mother fuckers were four feet tall and they kicked our asses all over that country. Now get out there and play this fucking game.".

We lost by at least 40, but I never forgot that speech.

Jimmy V's is awesome.

[HBox]

MLK's "I Have A Dream" speech. Maybe it's an obvious choice but it never fails to inspire me.

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[HBox]

Oh, and Bill Clinton actually gave a very nice speech just very recently. Click here for the transcript. (http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/06.07/99-clinton.html)


After George Bush and I did the tsunami, we got so into this disaster work that Kofi Annan asked him to oversee the UN’s efforts in Pakistan after the earthquake, which you acknowledged today, and asked me to stay on as the tsunami coordinator for two years. So on my next to last trip to Aceh in Indonesia, the by far the hardest hit place, a quarter of a million people killed. I went to one of these refugee camps where in the sweltering heat, several thousand people were still living in tents. Highly uncomfortable. And my job was to go there and basically listen to them complain and figure out what to do about it, and how to get them out of there more quickly. So every one of these camps elected a camp leader and when I appeared, I was introduced to my young interpreter, a young Indonesian woman, and to the guy who was the camp leader, and his wife and his son. And they smiled, said hello, and then I looked down at this little boy, and I literally could not breathe. I think he’s the most beautiful child I ever saw. And I said to my young interpreter, I said, I believe that’s the most beautiful boy I ever saw in my life. She said, yes, he’s very beautiful and before the tsunami he had nine brothers and sisters. And now they’re all gone.


So the wife and the son excused themselves. And the father who had lost his nine children proceeded to take me on a two-hour tour of this camp. He had a smile on his face. He never talked about anything but what the people in that camp needed. He gave no hint of what had happened to him and the grief that he bore. We get to the end of the tour. It’s the health clinic in the camp. I look up and there is his wife, a mother who had lost nine of her 10 children, holding a little bitty baby less than a week old, the newest born baby in the camp. And she told me, I’m going to get in trouble for telling this. She told me that in Indonesian culture, when a woman has a baby, she gets to go to bed for 40 days and everyone waits on her hand and foot. [LAUGHTER] She doesn’t get up, nothing happens. And then on the 40th day, the mother gets up out of bed, goes back to work doing her life and they name the baby. So this child was less than a week old. So this mother who had lost her nine children is here holding this baby. And she says to me, this is our newest born baby. And we want you to name him. Little boy. So I looked at her and I said through my interpreter, I said, do you have a name for new beginning? And she explained and the woman said something back and the interpreter said yes, luckily for you, in Indonesian the word for dawn is a boy’s name. And the mother just said to me, we will call this child Dawn and he will symbolize our new beginning. You shouldn’t have to meet people that lose nine of their 10 children, cherish the one they got left, and name a newborn baby Dawn to realize that what we have in common is more important than what divides us.

[tele7]

Oh, and Bill Clinton actually gave a very nice speech just very recently. Click here for the transcript. (http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/06.07/99-clinton.html)

Very touching. Thanks for posting it. It was really great the way Bush and Clinton came together in the wake of that disaster. You can just sense they have a genuine, mutual respect for each other.