Best speeches of all-time

[eviljeff]

Mario Savio during Berkeley's Free Speech Movement

"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies on the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"

[samjjones]

I enjoy breaking into this speech and reciting it from memory at parties when I am drunk. People seem to enjoy it.

[drewjustdrew]

"We're going to have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny [censored] Kay".

Wav file

[A_C_Slater]

"I have existed from the morning of the world, and I shall exist until the last star falls from the heavens. Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men, as I am no Man--and, so, I am a God." --Bill Clinton 1993

[Robbe]

The Quotable Winston Churchill

[imported_The Vibesman]

Roy Batty, "Blade Runner":

I have seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time -
like tears in rain.

Time to die.

[TheBlueMonster]

from Robert Kennedy's speech while in South Africa:

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped…

it's actually carved on his memorial at Arlington Cemetery.

[JTrout]

On Saturday, September 25, ... the Europeans had a seemingly insurmountable lead of ten to six. Texas Governor George W. Bush was barely into a steak dinner in Charlestown when Crenshaw summoned him to the U.S. team headquarters on the sixth floor of the Four Seasons Hotel.

Bush launched into a stirring reading of Travis's letter from the Alamo:

"I have sustained a continual bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man," Travis wrote. "The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion . . . I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls--I shall never surrender or retreat. . . . Victory or death. William Barret Travis."



Bush added his own postscript. "America is pulling for you," he told the U.S. team as he turned to leave the room. "You can win tomorrow--and you're gonna win tomorrow."



The rest is now well-documented history. On Sunday, Septem ber 26, the Americans rallied to defeat the Europeans 14 1/2 to 13 1/2 as University of Texas graduate Justin Leonard clinched the decisive half point with a forty-five-foot putt on the seventeenth hole of his match against defending Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain. Even the controversy caused by the U.S. team's spontaneous celebration before Olazabal could putt out could not diminish the thrill of such an improbable win. Former president Bush, who watched course-side with his wife and sons, called it "the greatest event I've ever seen in any sport."

[Dominic]

[ QUOTE ]
What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

thread over. You really want to get shivers, watch Kenneth Branagh deliver it in his movie version....

[Dominic]

[ QUOTE ]
it's the obvious answer. the only good work bill pullman ever did. i think i cried when i saw this.

[/ QUOTE ]

god you guys are idiots. That speech is a steal from about 5 more famous ones.

Bill Pullman is great, though.