Great Speeches

Great speeches

"In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, I send to every household of my peoples, both at home and overseas, this message, spoken with the same depth of feeling for each one of you as if I were able to cross your threshold and speak to you myself. For the second time in the lives of most of us we are at war."

The United Kingdom declared War to Germany.

September 3rd, 1939 Buckingham Palace London

King George VI

"Human life for us is sacred, but we say if any life is to be sacrificed it shall be ours; we won't do it ourselves, but we will put the enemy in the position where they will have to choose between giving us freedom or giving us death."

Made on a fundraising tour of the US, the goal was to agitate for women’s rights.

November 13th, 1913 Hartford, Connecticut USA

Emmeline Pankhurst

"Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked."

The USA started the space race against Russia and sent the first man on the Moon.

September 12th, 1962 in Houston, USA

John F. Kennedy

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.

The North fought against the South during the American Civil War for the abolition of slavery

November 19th 1863 Gettysburg USA

Abraham Lincoln

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society […]. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

Delivered on a trial between the white South African government and the ANC. The speech is considered one of the founding moments of South African democracy.

April 20th, 1964 - Pretoria, South Africa

Nelson Mandela

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification – one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

The Civil Right Movement fought for equality between Blacks and Whites.

August 28th 1963 Washington DC, USA

Martin Luther King

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills...

The Allied forces sent boats and men to help France in its battle against Germany

June 4th, 1940 - London, England

Winston Churchill

Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man when I could get it and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Delivered at the Women's Rights Convention, a defence of both the anti-slavery and the women’s rights movements

1851 - Ohio, USA

Sojourner Truth