# What is your all-time favourite speech? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 17, 2022, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974 "2022-04-17T23:53:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/21 "2022-04-18T13:11:08Z")
Hate speech. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/22 "2022-04-18T14:14:42Z")
Steve Martin’s “What I Believe” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/aBFrYGCU460/hqdefault.jpg "Steve Martin What I Believe") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBFrYGCU460) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/23 "2022-04-18T14:42:53Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > …Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?.. “The Germans?!?” “Forget it, he’s on a roll.” ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/24 "2022-04-18T14:48:07Z")
I have two. Man in the Arena, Teddy Roosevelt. _“It is not the critic who 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 who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”_ Pale Blue Dot, Carl Sagan [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/wupToqz1e2g/hqdefault.jpg "Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g) _Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam._ _The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds._ _Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves._ _The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand._ _It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known._ _— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot , 1994_ ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/25 "2022-04-18T15:02:50Z")
Not the greatest speech, but one of the more memorable I’ve heard - Sen. Abe Ribicoff, ditching his prepared text in order to castigate Chicago authorities over their handling of street violence during the 1968 Democratic convention. Mayor Daley was not happy. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/A3v0rctksFU/hqdefault.jpg "Democratic Convention Gestapo Tactics 1968 ElectionWallDotOrg.flv") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3v0rctksFU) ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/26 "2022-04-18T15:15:49Z")
Emma Gonzalez delivered some good ones. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ZxD3o-9H1lY/maxresdefault.jpg "Florida student to NRA and Trump: 'We call BS'") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxD3o-9H1lY) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/u46HzTGVQhg/maxresdefault.jpg "Emma Gonzalez's powerful March for Our Lives speech in full") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u46HzTGVQhg) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/27 "2022-04-18T18:16:51Z")
That Sagan quite is incredible. I hadn’t seen it. Thanks for that. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/28 "2022-04-18T18:32:34Z")
St. Crispin’s day from Henry V > [@William Shakespeare](#): > > We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; > For he to-day that sheds his blood with me > Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, > This day shall gentle his condition; > And gentlemen in England now a-bed > Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here, > And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks > That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day. I see this was mentioned above already. I do think this provided inspirations for Churchill’s Finest Hour and We Shall Fight on the Beaches. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/29 "2022-04-18T18:49:39Z")
I am fond of Robert Heinlein’s “The Pragmatics of Patriotism”. Text [here](https://www.zeugmaweb.net/articles/patriotism.html) Abridged version, in an easier-to-read format, [here](https://www.stolinsky.com/2015/09/07/heinlein-on-patriotism/). ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/30 "2022-04-18T18:56:13Z")
Andrew Shepherd’s speech from _The American President_ gets played in my Govt. classes every year. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-__djIQgBJc/hqdefault.jpg "The American President - The Final Speech") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-__djIQgBJc) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/31 "2022-04-18T19:43:46Z")
_As God is My Witness, I thought Turkeys could fly_ ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Igor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/32 "2022-04-18T22:47:47Z")
Stella Young. I keep coming back to this every so often to remind myself to treat others as human beings, not people with labels. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8K9Gg164Bsw/maxresdefault.jpg "I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much | Stella Young") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K9Gg164Bsw) ---
**Author:** ![txtumbleweed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@txtumbleweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txtumbleweed)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/33 "2022-04-19T01:15:07Z")
Branagh is good with those. Here he is recreating Col Tim Collins’s pre-battle speech given to 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish prior to the invasion of Iraq. An entirely different tone and feel to to the speech as Collins projects confidence in the men, while acknowledging the dignity of the Iraqis and recognizing it will be a deadly undertaking. “If there are casualties of war, remember, that when they got up this morning and got dressed, they did not plan to die this day. So leave them dignity in death, bury them with due reverence, and properly mark their graves.” “Our business now is north. Good luck.” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/UpdeNcH1H8A/hqdefault.jpg "Col Tim Collins' inspirational speech - Kenneth Branagh") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpdeNcH1H8A) ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/34 "2022-04-19T01:47:39Z")
_“Very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet…”_ ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/35 "2022-04-19T01:52:59Z")
I recognized the quote but couldn’t remember where it was from. Dr. Evil from Austin Power. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/36 "2022-04-19T02:36:39Z")
Fictional but my favorite. The Great Dictator: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/w8HdOHrc3OQ/maxresdefault.jpg "[Best Version] The Great Dictator Speech - Charlie Chaplin + Time - Hans Zimmer (INCEPTION Theme)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HdOHrc3OQ) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/37 "2022-04-19T02:47:55Z")
Huh. I’m a bit surprised that “I Have a Dream” hasn’t shown up in this list yet. Did I miss it? Anyway, [here it is](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP4iY1TtS3s), deserving every bit of its reputation. I suspect but can’t prove that it’s the most famous speech in English, that more folks on Earth would recognize it from its title or from its most famous segments than any other speech in English. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/38 "2022-04-19T03:23:54Z")
**Caratacus** is an interesting orator. In _I, Claudius_ he’s praised for his British phlegm, spitting defiance in the Senate’s eye: _I’ll tell you this: If the sword is all that you’re prepared to show us Britons, then be prepared to carry it forever in your hand, and sleep with it forever at your side at night — for you will need it!_ But, according to Tacitus, he kissed Claudius’ ass with amazing acumen with a speech crafted to save his skin: _“If I were now being handed over as one who had surrendered immediately, neither my fortune nor your glory would have achieved brilliance. It is also true that in my case any reprisal will be followed by oblivion. On the other hand, if you preserve me safe and sound, I shall be an eternal example of your clemency.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/39 "2022-04-19T03:39:06Z")
In a way I’m glad to see that I am not the first with this one. After thinking about speeches that have impressed me I narrowed it down to that one. I am glad to see I am not the only one. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974/40 "2022-04-19T05:14:03Z")
John Rambo’s “What do I want” speech at the end of “Rambo First Bood 2”. Forward to 1:20 to hear it. I has to be the longest dialogue Stallone has ever uttered and gives me chills every time, [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/HIU2aJS9cuM/maxresdefault.jpg "Rambo First Blood 2 (1985) - Ending Scene (1080p) FULL HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIU2aJS9cuM) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-all-time-favourite-speech/962974.md?page=3)