This is some fantastic content. I thank you for pulling this together as I plan to refer to this post frequently to seek inspiration and learn from these great speaches.
You can find most of the more modern speeches here. There may even be readings of older speeches on there too.
Meiji_man
· 1 year ago
WELL DONE
Hit everyone of my favorites and introduced me to a few new ones.
Now we need to Go to the Forums and start a "Best Fictional Speech Thread"
Hayden Tompkins
· 1 year ago
I am surprised that you did not include Obama's speech on race in America. I had actually given up on having a modern day speaker with the abilities as those who have come before. (Most people in your list, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, are almost 60 plus years ago.) Regardless of how one feels about Obama's politics, I think that the race in America speech is both seminal and oratorically badass.
Kevin (ReturnToManliness)
· 1 year ago
I agree with Hayden. The only counter is that it is too new. I hate that argument but some people will make it.
That speech was one for the ages and when looked at 10 years from now, we will remember it fondly...
Kate
· 1 year ago
@Hayden-
I'm afraid I'll have to make the argument that Kevin detests. You cannot truly measure the greatness of a speech until quite awhile after it is given in my opinion. This is true of all history. I teach US History and I end the class in the 1970's as it takes several decades to really evaluate the significance of what happened previously. Will people be re-reading and re-listening to Obama's speech 50 years from now? Will the speech have had any impact on race relations in this country? Only time will tell.
aashish
· 1 year ago
Where are the speeches of Malcolm X? I believe his words are as motivating , maybe even more than, the speeches I see above.
Marshall
· 1 year ago
The list is great, but more importantly for me, thank you for pointing me to the American Rhetoric site. That's amazing. I never thought to look for a site like that, though I enjoy live oratory. The link was the best part of your post for me.
Marshall
Michael
· 1 year ago
A great list indeed, but incomplete by one: General George S. Patton, Jr.
"I don't want to get any messages saying, "I am holding my position." We are not holding a god-damned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!"
İlkin Balkanay
· 1 year ago
This is very good collection of greatest speech in history but you are missing a very important leader, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
The Speech (Nutuk), which relates events in the Turkish War of Independence, the foundation of the Turkish Republic and the carrying out of revolutionary reforms, is a work that the founder of the Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk himself wrote and left to history.
Meiji_man
· 1 year ago
Very Good Point İlkin Balkanay !
Peter
· 1 year ago
A welcome addition to the resource list. American Rhetoric does a great job of compiling speeches, but a poor job of summarizing why it excels or even basic background of the speaker. Thank you for once again taking something one step further and breaking it down for general consumption!
Another dude in Boise
· 1 year ago
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address: "...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. With malice toward none, with charity for all..."
His Gettysburg Address weren't half bad, either.
Chief Seattle's famous speech is probably a myth, but it's one of the best, too.
And what about the speech President Bush gave on Sept. 11... No, I mean George H.W. Bush's "Toward a New World Order" speech given on Sept. 11, 1990. The first use of the term "new world order". One of the greatest? Naw, but it makes you wonder.
Oh, and I loved DeGaulle's "vive la Quebec LIBRE" speech, the day before he was to address the Canada Parliment, when Canada was on the brink of civil war. He flew back to France without addressing Parliment. Leaving no doubt how he stood on the issue... hehe.
Marlon
· 1 year ago
This is a fantastic compilation. I plan on listening/reading all of these.
Great post,
Marlon
Joseph
· 1 year ago
Balkanay, you should be glad that almost one third of the speeches (if we include Chief Joseph as a non-American) are by foreigners. That's really very good for a US website. Almost open-minded.
Father V.
· 1 year ago
One speech missing, in my humble opinion, is Theodore Roosevelt's speech delivered at the Sorbonne in 1910.
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat. "
Patryk
· 1 year ago
Great collection,
From my perspective I recommend Speach of Józef Beck, polish foreign affairs minister, during II World War. There is, for me most inspirative passus.
Great job!
Rich
· 1 year ago
this is ibdeed an excellent collection of speeches. However, to call it the 35 greatest of all time, may be a bit ambitious and a considerably ethnocentric since it clearly has an anglo bias. i find insulting and difficult to believe that you could not include a speech given by a hipanic figure, etc. Spain and the Americas have a long tradition of great orators.
Brett
· 1 year ago
@Father V-
The title of the speech you reference by TR is "Citizenship in a Republic," and we did indeed include it in the list. Check page 3.
@Rich-
If you believe a Hispanic speech is worthy of the greatest 35 orations of all time, please share some specific suggestions.
Lunar Farside
· 1 year ago
i doubt that more than half of the greatest speeches in history were made by American presidents.
JonathanR.
· 1 year ago
Great set of speeches, though I must concur with those who say that the title is a bit of an exaggeration. There is a certain bias...it's not really anglo bias...more of an American / Whig tradition bias really, to account for the presence of Greek and Roman orators. As others have pointed out, there are no examples of Eastern speakers, save for (technically) Jesus Christ. There are no examples from medieval Christendom even, so its not even a Western bias.
Still, a great collection of speeches. I'd link to it if I had a website.
Sam Scott
· 1 year ago
Lunar Farside is right. and many great speeches have been missed. For example Adolf Hitler is not on this list. He was one of the greatest speakers of the 20th century.
Solaiman
· 1 year ago
Good article and interesting read but misleading title. The speeches are all western and mostly American speeches and I think that should be added to the title, 35 greatest speeches from the western world.
I know American's don't get out much, but there is a whole world out there, with thinkers and orators that will leave you mesmerised. And frankly not even acknowledging this point is arrogance in the extreme.
Brett McKay
· 1 year ago
@Lunar and others-
I understand that the knee-jerk reaction to any list that includes many great white dead men is to cry Western civilization bias, but the fact is that oratory was an art developed and prized in well, the Western civilization. If you are right, Solaiman, that we are "extremely arrogant" in our choices, then I challenge you to make specific recommendations of great speeches that we omitted. Otherwise, making blanket statements of our bias rings rather hollow indeed.
@Sam-
If you read the criteria for truly great oratory as outlined in the introduction, you will see that Hitler does not fit the requirements. Oratory is defined as more than electrifying or well-crafted speech, it must also appeal to humanity's greatest values and ideals. Here, Hitler, I think we will agree, falls far, far short.
Nicholas V. Findler
· 1 year ago
I have enjoyed the citations. However, the criteria of evaluating the speeches are missing. If the speeches are listed without such, some people may wish to add to the speakers Hitler and Stalin, possibly Lenin. In fact, even Napoleon's speeches, e.g. those given during the "100 days" after his return from the island of Elba, would belong there.
Brett
· 1 year ago
@Nicholas-
The criteria are clearly posted in the intro under "How did we compile this list."
Meiji_man
· 1 year ago
@Brett- I think you did a great job singling out the greatest Speeches available to you, I sure if you had been exposed to Speeches written in Polish by an obscure minister 70 some years ago you would have included it. I'm not going to damn you for expressing your opinion.
Brett
· 1 year ago
Thanks for not damning me Meiji man. I think people have to realize that while their favorite speech from an obscure Polish minister may have been great, we had to pick the 35 greatest from the millions of speeches that have ever been given in world history. Lots of speeches are great, but are they top 35 great....that is the question....
Moses Adrien
· 1 year ago
What about the great caribbean leaders like Marcus Garvey, Norman Manley or even Fidel Castro? But Great mentions otherwise.
Rich
· 1 year ago
Again, I commend the effort, but fault the title. These are 35 nice sppeches, but it is just not possible to know whether they are the greatest of all time. Not only is the list not sufficiently representative of the majority of the worlds' great civiizations, one person representing one single and unavoidably biased point of view point of view cannot possibly serve as an impartial judge. There is no point in even arguing the point, the title should be corrected to read, "My 35 Favorite Speeches"
JonathanR.
· 1 year ago
"I understand that the knee-jerk reaction to any list that includes many great white dead men is to cry Western civilization bias, but the fact is that oratory was an art developed and prized in well, the Western civilization"
Even in admitting a certain fondness in the list for Western Civilization, a great chunk of speeches cherished by that civilization is missing. No mention of great medieval speakers like Pope Urban II or Bernard of Clairveaux, or Renaissance / Reformation speakers like Bartolome de las Casas (pair that guy with Wilberforce...), John Calvin, Robert Bellarmine and Ignatius of Loyola. Or, post-Enlightenment, Napoleon Bonaparte.
Even the body of work produced by the West seems difficult to compile into a list of 35. Those who bemoan the absence of work from the Eastern civilizations should probably compile their own lists...doing the West is tough enough.
Moshe
· 1 year ago
One of the glaring moral issues of the day was slavery, and after reading up on the subject and meeting with anti-slavery activists, Wilberforce became convinced that God was calling him to be an abolitionist. Wilberforce decided to concentrate on ending the slave trade rather than slavery itself, reasoning that the abolition of one would logically lead to the demise of the other. On May 12, 1789, Wilberforce made his first speech on the abolition of the slave trade before the House of Commons. He passionately made his case for why the trade was reprehensible and needed to cease.
Solaiman
· 1 year ago
@Brett McKay
#but the fact is that oratory was an art developed and prized in well, the Western civilization.#
You see, this is what i mean by arrogance?
Brett
· 1 year ago
@Rich-I'll make that title change when movie critics start writing lists called "My favorite movies of 2008," instead of "the best movies of 2008," and restaurant and travel guides start saying "my favorite restaurants in New York," and "my favorite things to do in Spain." I wonder if Time magazine will stop running their "Person of the Year" and change it to "Our Favorite Person of the Year," After all how can a single editorial board make that call???
@Jonathan R.-I understand your point, but I would return to my point that 35 is a very select group. While Loyola and others made interesting speeches that might make the top 200, when push comes to shove, others speeches will beat them for the top.
@Solaiman- Sorry, nope, don't see it. It is a historical fact that oratory developed and flourished in ancient Greece and Rome, was resurrected in Europe, and exported to America. Scholarship on the subject argues that true oratory really only flourishes under democratic regimes. If any arrogance is present it it is with arguing a case not based on scholarship but on some bit of wistful multiculturalism devoid of facts.
Razzbar
· 1 year ago
I was about to give three aspects of a great speech, but at the last minute got a hunch to look at the criteria for this list. Mine are essentially the same: Delivery, Content and Consequence.
Hitler was all delivery. His content was a banal mix of whine, blame them, praise us. No need to comment on the consequences.
DeGaulle, was a master of plainspoken French. I've been told that if you want to learn French, listen to him. His regular speeches from England motivated the French people to continue resisting the German occupiers, with considerable effect.
I'd be very interested in knowing about Mustafa Kemal, Attaturk as a speaker. As a visionary and national savior, he's among the most important leaders of the 20th century. Consider that Attaturk came along when Turkey was in the exact same circumstance as Germany at the end of WWI. While Germany was taken to the cleaners with reparations, setting the stage for Hitler's rise to power, Attaturk apparently kept the allies from raping Turkey's economy, and with radical vision, brought the country from an Ottoman country ruled by corrupt clerics and sultans, into the modern western sphere.
And finally, I'm amazed that nobody has mentioned Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. In terms of delivery, content and consequence, King delivered many noteable speeches, with that one simply being the best known.
What a great topic! I've always loved the disappearing art of oration.
One final speech: Four years ago, one afternoon, I turned on the radio to the local NPR station which was giving live coverage of the Democratic national convention. A speech was in progress, and I became more and more impressed with what was being said, by this speaker who was delivering a positive, conciliatory message. When the speech was over, it was the first time I heard the name "Barak Obama". Words have power.
Aaron
· 1 year ago
Another notable mention: Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty of Give Me Death" speech.
Aaron
· 1 year ago
Another notable mention: Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech.
Moon
· 1 year ago
Oh, come on - THREE speeches by Reagan and FOUR by Teddy Roosevelt??
In all the speeches of all time, THREE by Reagan? Sheesh.
I'm not even religious, but I would think that Jesus would get one. Maybe Mohammed made a great speech? I mean millions of people treat these 2 guys as good, and we have records of their speeches. They must have done SOMETHING right.
Brett
· 1 year ago
@Aaron-You'll find Henry's speech on page 3.
@Moon-Jesus is on page 3 as well. Please read more carefully before being so critical.
Shehan J
· 1 year ago
Couple things-- great speeches, some I've heard some I have not. If I can recommend one to the list and then make a correction to the author.
I'll start with the correction. Teddy Roosevelt was the youngest American president. So the statement that JFK was "The youngest president in United States history," is false. He was the youngest elected president.
As per my suggestion-- I'd like to recommend Archbishop Fulton Sheen's speech, "The Cross and the Double Cross", it can be found here:
Your heading "The 35 Greatest Speeches in History" is not quite correct, it should be "The 30 Greatest Speeches in US History." This way the few odd men like Winston Churchill, Alexander the Great, Charles de Gaulle, Demosthenes and William Wilberforce can be left out of it.
Having scanned views of some others, I have seen that this observation has been made by many others too. Someone has even suggested a very apt title "My 35 Favorite Speeches."
Your claim to base the selection on style, substance, and impact is indeed correct but surely not well represented in your selection from the entire world's history.
Brett
· 1 year ago
@Ihsan-
If you did indeed read the comments, than you already know my response. If you feel there are speeches that should have been included but have not been, then please make some suggestions. Otherwise, your comment carries no weight with me.
puneet
· 1 year ago
U should add Jawahar lal Nehru's 'tryst with destiny'.Mahatama Gandhi gathered hundred and thousands to listen to what he had to say.He had the power to shake d entire colonial government with what he had to say. Dont they teach world history in your schools or is it just american history ?
michelle
· 1 year ago
Two observations re the Sermon on the Mount:
Proof of the actual existence of Jesus is lacking; the earliest books of the NT were written more than a hundred years after his "death".
The concept of "an eye for an eye" as bloody retribution/revenge has been mis-interpreted for hundreds of years. It's truer meaning comes closer to "let the punishment ft the crime". Jewish law before that allowed disproportionate sentences, as to this day, many Islamist laws do; (cutting off the hand for minor theft, etc). A google search of the phrase will yield much corroboration.
This isn't a PhD defense, it is a list on a blog. Relax, his site = his top 35.
Thanks for putting it together. Well written and I appreciate the excerpting of the speeches.
JonathanR.
· 1 year ago
'Proof of the actual existence of Jesus is lacking; the earliest books of the NT were written more than a hundred years after his “death”.'
Not quite right. There have been several historical proofs of Jesus' existence, including evidence from non-Christian sources like Josephus. And, the earliest gospels were written within 30 years of His death, by apostles or people close to them. (Mark and Matthew come to mind.)
On another note...
Its kinda shameful that I only remember this just because the great man just died, but this list missed out on Solzhenitsyn. Both his Templeton Address and his Harvard Address are up there with any US President’s speech any day.
"More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.
Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.
What is more, the events of the Russian Revolution can only be understood now, at the end of the century, against the background of what has since occurred in the rest of the world. What emerges here is a process of universal significance. And if I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, here too, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: Men have forgotten God."
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Templeton Prize acceptance address, 1983
Jay Pyatt
· 1 year ago
I know that it is a fictional speech, but Henry the Fifth's St. Crispen's Day Speech written by Shakespeare is one of my favorites. I would include Patton's speech, although there are several problems with the vernacular that he uses.
NickP
· 1 year ago
Good list, probably is a bit centered in us Americans but that same bias would be present in any country. Hard to avoid so no one should complain too much about it.
Jonathan R. whether or not Jesus actually existed is open for debate. There are a few references to a person named Jesus outside of the Bible but that is a far cry from proving the Jesus of the Bible actually existed.
That speech by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn isn't all that convincing. Using their three variables; I cannot comment on delivery since I did not see it but content and consequence I can. As for content all he does is blame the lack of faith for the decline of the USSR. That is simply a grossly wrong statement. There were a ton of things wrong with Communist Russia but lack of god is not one of them. Consequences...well I don't think there were any. As you said yourself you only remembered it because he died.
Rangervic
· 1 year ago
Oh it is tough to whittle down the greats to a small number! I do think that there is a little overkill on Teddy R. and Ronald Regan. And three other worthwhile contenders deserve to be mentioned. I guess that should be two orators and three speaches.
First the no contest greatest oration ever --by the Boy orator of the Platte,--the great William Jennings Bryan, the Cross of Gold speech. Which rings even more true now in the era of neocons than it did in the era of robber barons. Second the two Memorial day speeches of Oliver Wendell Holmes. Really moving memorials to those who gave their lives by a man who saw the horrors of combat on a scale that God willing American soldiers will never have to experience again.
Also thanks for your blog it is a breath of fresh air in a stifiling atmosphere of "modern" political correctness. Keep up the good work .
Long live the Menassaince!
Viet Doan
· 1 year ago
A good read. Most are American, but US was the most influential nation of last century so I think that's justified.
Mr. Sweet
· 1 year ago
@Brett
Kudos. A very ambitious and worthy undertaking this is. I will indeed be working my way through these speeches as the days pass.
kaisersoze
· 1 year ago
In reading the above arguments and cacophony of "offended" dissension, my meager two-cents worth is that when someone runs a website, it's their prerogative to voice their opinion. I disagree with several entries (It's often a Teddy Roosevelt love fest here) but I feel that the ART of one's Manliness is to gather the comments and not post angry retorts but concise examples as rebuttal. So that we can all look, as I have, at the suggestions and learn from each of us. I don't mind clever arguments, but the whole "my orator is better than your orator" should be left to the debate club geeks. This forum should reinforce manliness/gentlemanliness and have proper point/counterpoint. Missing in my opinion: Jesus/Confucius (same thing), MLK, Henry V, maybe Knute Rockne.
Brett
· 1 year ago
@Kaiseroze-
I appreciate your comments. As you said, what is lacking in many of the angry comments above are concrete examples of what we missed. I don't mind dissension, but it needs to be backed up.
And I appreciate your suggestions, but please note that Jesus and MLK can both be found on page 3.
kaisersoze
· 1 year ago
BTW, @ those who ridicule American education: Correct me if I'm wrong but, when it comes to our "government" education, don't be surprised when all of us miss out on something that wasn't in the "curriculum". Government Education is opportunistic in relation to it's cause. That goes for Social Europeans as well. Granted, our system isn't spectacular, but overall this country allows us to find answers and confront the incorrect ones freely and openly, maybe a little more than others. Don't knock it too much.
Rich
· 1 year ago
Sure, you put the list together, so you can call it anything you want. As long as you and I and the rest of the readers know the truth. While it is a nice littlle exercise to collect these speeches, it is frankly naive to give them the title of the greatest ever. You must have known that when you put the list together ad if you did not, I would then question your credentials and knowledge on the topic.
Brian Doherty
· 1 year ago
Correction:
Kennedy's speech exhorting America to go to the moon was not delivered in Washington, D.C. It was delivered in Rice Stadium at Rice University, Houston, TX. You can clearly see this behind Kennedy in the picture.
Vreemdst
· 1 year ago
That list is pure and brilliant.
Martin Luther King Jr and Winston Churchill I've always known, but these others are good to add. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is ironic, I think, in that it really is more remembered than the battle...
miragana
· 1 year ago
Good day! It is very informative and has a very good quality in it. I like it...
"All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black nor a black has any superiority over a white - except by piety and good action."
Joe Ardent
· 1 year ago
One speech that I'm surprised is not here is David Lange's speech as the Prime Minister of New Zealand, announcing that New Zealand was breaking a long-standing defense treaty with the United States over the issue of nuclear weapons. Entitled, "Nuclear Weapons are Morally Indefensible", he laid out the arguments of the title, and why therefore New Zealand must no longer be party to their relationship with the US and other powers. Here's a powerful excerpt:
"The great strength of the West, in fact, lies not in the force of arms - although some would seek under the cover of a benign democracy to argue that it is in fact the force of arms - but it lies in its free and democratic systems of government.
That is why, in spite of all the difficulties and disagreements which we have amongst friends and allies, I am not disheartened. I came to Great Britain by way of the United States, where I put my case to the American people through the news media without any kind of hindrance from the United States Administration.
Members of Her Majesty's Government have made it plain to me that they do not hold with the views I am committed to. I in fact have heard those before. The other night I heard them from Washington. They were compelling. They were a restatement of the United Kingdom position, and they were said with such candour and frankness that they seemed to persist even after the volume had been turned off. They were done with a strength and a purpose and a vigour.
I want to say that notwithstanding that difference, I have felt welcome here. I have been freely able to express my views. I can say freely whatever I please. Just as any member of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom would be welcome in New Zealand to expound any line of argument in any forum she cared to use. That is the true strength of the West.
And that is a strength which is threatened, not defended, by nuclear weapons. The appalling character of those weapons has robbed us of our right to determine our destiny and subordinates our humanity to their manic logic. They have subordinated reason to irrationality and placed our very will to live in hostage. Rejecting the logic of nuclear weapons does not mean surrendering to evil; evil must still be guarded against. Rejecting nuclear weapons is to assert what is human over the evil nature of the weapon; it is to restore to humanity the power of the decision; it is to allow a moral force to reign supreme. It stops the macho lurch into mutual madness.
And for me, the position of my country is a genuine long-term affirmation of this proposition: that nuclear weapons are morally indefensible. And I support that proposition."
Speech given by Colonel Tim Collins of the First Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment, on the eve of battle before they entered Kuwait in March 2003. If it interests any one, check out his book Rules of Engagament, Life in Conflict.
Steve Anthony
· 1 year ago
Fantastic list, and while some were unknown to me, given the bona fides, I can't argue with the selections.
As you've pointed out, simply arguing that the list is biased is intellectually lazy. If you think other orations are worthy, list them (as some have).
I'd have to include Patton's speech. Also, I don't put nearly as much stock in speeches which were written by others and merely delivered by the speaker. While I'm a Reagan supporter, I'd have to put him largely in that category. Speakers such as Churchill and Roosevelt penned their own words.
michael cabigas
· 1 year ago
oration;science clubbing optimized;igniting and innovating
Kevin
· 1 year ago
What? No Lincoln? The second inaugural address was amazing..
Dave
· 1 year ago
What? Hitler isn't on here? I mean he was an awful man and all, but some of his speeches should at least be considered.
Dave
· 1 year ago
Mostly English speakers, and no African Americans--Where's MLK, Malcom X, Obama...?
Paul
· 1 year ago
Please add Barack Obama's victory speech and MLK's "I Have A Dream". Come on, if you're going to list speeches, you should definitely have "I Have A Dream"
Nanlee
· 1 year ago
aaron you point is good Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty of Give Me Death" speech. This is one of the greatest speeches the world can boost of.
Julian
· 1 year ago
Personally, I thought it was a fantastic list. Of course there are speeches missing that maybe are obscure to English speakers or lost to time. However, this is a very good list. I wish people would actually look at all of them before they said certain ones were missing. As much as I love my favorite two presidents, a little too heavy on TR and the Gipper.
king
· 12 months ago
the selection is good.but without the LAST SERMON SPEECH OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD the list is indeed incomplete
Yarl
· 11 months ago
Frankly this list is very amerocentric. Feels like half the speeches on the list are American presidential speeches. And what is up with including Jesus? You can't seriously consider the bible to have a correct transcript of a speech held 2000 years ago. Even if you are Christian you should still know the bible is written poetically, right?
Rich Pletcher
· 11 months ago
I'm surprised that only two people made mention of the most beautiful speech ever made, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
Conrad
· 11 months ago
Wait which one is America? Is that the loud one? Or the one with a chip on its shoulder?
jimmy
· 10 months ago
Great compilation! Obama's 2004 speech, I thought, had a chance. But keep up the job man!
Georgia
· 9 months ago
Very intresting collection, but allow me to add one more. The speech of the Greek Prime Minister, Xenophon Zolotas , 2nd October 1959 in Washington . It has remain in history as a proof of the uniqueness of the Greek Language.
Kyrie,
It is Zeus' anathema on our epoch and the heresy of our economic method and policies that we should agonize the Skylla of nomismatic plethora and the Charybdis of economic anaemia.
It is not my idiosyncracy to be ironic or sarcastic but my diagnosis would be that politicians are rather cryptoplethorists. Although they emphatically stigmatize nomismatic plethora, they energize it through their tactics and practices. Our policies should be based more on economic and less on political criteria. Our gnomon has to be a metron between economic strategic and philanthropic scopes.
In an epoch characterized by monopolies, oligopolies, monopolistic antagonism and polymorphous inelasticities, our policies have to be more orthological, but this should not be metamorphosed into plethorophobia, which is endemic among academic economists.
Nomismatic symmetry should not antagonize economic acme. A greater harmonization between the practices of the economic and nomismatic archons is basic.
Parallel to this we have to synchronize and harmonize more and more our economic and nomismatic policies panethnically. These scopes are more practicable now, when the prognostics of the political end economic barometer are halcyonic.
The history of our didimus organization on this sphere has been didactic and their gnostic practices will always be a tonic to the polyonymous and idiomorphous ethnical economies. The genesis of the programmed organization will dynamize these policies.
Therefore, I sympathize, although not without criticism one or two themes with the apostles and the hierarchy of our organs in their zeal to program orthodox economic and nomismatic policies.
I apologize for having tyranized you with my Hellenic phraseology. In my epilogue I emphasize my eulogy to the philoxenous aytochtons of this cosmopolitan metropolis and my encomium to you Kyrie, the stenographers.
Louie
· 9 months ago
I have always wanted something like this, it is true there isn't anything worthy on the internet on history's great orators and speeches. I will definetely continue to read this, I can only ask to expand it and add more memorable speeches. I know people have argued that Obama as a great orator is to early to say, but it is undeniable that the man has it, his 2004 speech truly makes you appreciate the art of oration.
A.
· 9 months ago
Greatest speeches? More like Greatest pseudo-patriotic demagoguery, amirite?
All Comments
You can find most of the more modern speeches here. There may even be readings of older speeches on there too.
Hit everyone of my favorites and introduced me to a few new ones.
Now we need to Go to the Forums and start a "Best Fictional Speech Thread"
That speech was one for the ages and when looked at 10 years from now, we will remember it fondly...
I'm afraid I'll have to make the argument that Kevin detests. You cannot truly measure the greatness of a speech until quite awhile after it is given in my opinion. This is true of all history. I teach US History and I end the class in the 1970's as it takes several decades to really evaluate the significance of what happened previously. Will people be re-reading and re-listening to Obama's speech 50 years from now? Will the speech have had any impact on race relations in this country? Only time will tell.
Marshall
"I don't want to get any messages saying, "I am holding my position." We are not holding a god-damned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!"
The Speech (Nutuk), which relates events in the Turkish War of Independence, the foundation of the Turkish Republic and the carrying out of revolutionary reforms, is a work that the founder of the Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk himself wrote and left to history.
"...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. With malice toward none, with charity for all..."
His Gettysburg Address weren't half bad, either.
Chief Seattle's famous speech is probably a myth, but it's one of the best, too.
And what about the speech President Bush gave on Sept. 11... No, I mean George H.W. Bush's "Toward a New World Order" speech given on Sept. 11, 1990. The first use of the term "new world order". One of the greatest? Naw, but it makes you wonder.
Oh, and I loved DeGaulle's "vive la Quebec LIBRE" speech, the day before he was to address the Canada Parliment, when Canada was on the brink of civil war. He flew back to France without addressing Parliment. Leaving no doubt how he stood on the issue... hehe.
Great post,
Marlon
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat. "
From my perspective I recommend Speach of Józef Beck, polish foreign affairs minister, during II World War.
There is, for me most inspirative passus.
Great job!
The title of the speech you reference by TR is "Citizenship in a Republic," and we did indeed include it in the list. Check page 3.
@Rich-
If you believe a Hispanic speech is worthy of the greatest 35 orations of all time, please share some specific suggestions.
Still, a great collection of speeches. I'd link to it if I had a website.
I know American's don't get out much, but there is a whole world out there, with thinkers and orators that will leave you mesmerised. And frankly not even acknowledging this point is arrogance in the extreme.
I understand that the knee-jerk reaction to any list that includes many great white dead men is to cry Western civilization bias, but the fact is that oratory was an art developed and prized in well, the Western civilization. If you are right, Solaiman, that we are "extremely arrogant" in our choices, then I challenge you to make specific recommendations of great speeches that we omitted. Otherwise, making blanket statements of our bias rings rather hollow indeed.
@Sam-
If you read the criteria for truly great oratory as outlined in the introduction, you will see that Hitler does not fit the requirements. Oratory is defined as more than electrifying or well-crafted speech, it must also appeal to humanity's greatest values and ideals. Here, Hitler, I think we will agree, falls far, far short.
The criteria are clearly posted in the intro under "How did we compile this list."
I think you did a great job singling out the greatest Speeches available to you, I sure if you had been exposed to Speeches written in Polish by an obscure minister 70 some years ago you would have included it. I'm not going to damn you for expressing your opinion.
But Great mentions otherwise.
Even in admitting a certain fondness in the list for Western Civilization, a great chunk of speeches cherished by that civilization is missing. No mention of great medieval speakers like Pope Urban II or Bernard of Clairveaux, or Renaissance / Reformation speakers like Bartolome de las Casas (pair that guy with Wilberforce...), John Calvin, Robert Bellarmine and Ignatius of Loyola. Or, post-Enlightenment, Napoleon Bonaparte.
Even the body of work produced by the West seems difficult to compile into a list of 35. Those who bemoan the absence of work from the Eastern civilizations should probably compile their own lists...doing the West is tough enough.
#but the fact is that oratory was an art developed and prized in well, the Western civilization.#
You see, this is what i mean by arrogance?
@Jonathan R.-I understand your point, but I would return to my point that 35 is a very select group. While Loyola and others made interesting speeches that might make the top 200, when push comes to shove, others speeches will beat them for the top.
@Solaiman- Sorry, nope, don't see it. It is a historical fact that oratory developed and flourished in ancient Greece and Rome, was resurrected in Europe, and exported to America. Scholarship on the subject argues that true oratory really only flourishes under democratic regimes. If any arrogance is present it it is with arguing a case not based on scholarship but on some bit of wistful multiculturalism devoid of facts.
Hitler was all delivery. His content was a banal mix of whine, blame them, praise us. No need to comment on the consequences.
DeGaulle, was a master of plainspoken French. I've been told that if you want to learn French, listen to him. His regular speeches from England motivated the French people to continue resisting the German occupiers, with considerable effect.
I'd be very interested in knowing about Mustafa Kemal, Attaturk as a speaker. As a visionary and national savior, he's among the most important leaders of the 20th century. Consider that Attaturk came along when Turkey was in the exact same circumstance as Germany at the end of WWI. While Germany was taken to the cleaners with reparations, setting the stage for Hitler's rise to power, Attaturk apparently kept the allies from raping Turkey's economy, and with radical vision, brought the country from an Ottoman country ruled by corrupt clerics and sultans, into the modern western sphere.
And finally, I'm amazed that nobody has mentioned Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. In terms of delivery, content and consequence, King delivered many noteable speeches, with that one simply being the best known.
What a great topic! I've always loved the disappearing art of oration.
One final speech: Four years ago, one afternoon, I turned on the radio to the local NPR station which was giving live coverage of the Democratic national convention. A speech was in progress, and I became more and more impressed with what was being said, by this speaker who was delivering a positive, conciliatory message. When the speech was over, it was the first time I heard the name "Barak Obama". Words have power.
In all the speeches of all time, THREE by Reagan? Sheesh.
I'm not even religious, but I would think that Jesus would get one. Maybe Mohammed made a great speech? I mean millions of people treat these 2 guys as good, and we have records of their speeches. They must have done SOMETHING right.
@Moon-Jesus is on page 3 as well. Please read more carefully before being so critical.
I'll start with the correction. Teddy Roosevelt was the youngest American president. So the statement that JFK was "The youngest president in United States history," is false. He was the youngest elected president.
As per my suggestion-- I'd like to recommend Archbishop Fulton Sheen's speech, "The Cross and the Double Cross", it can be found here:
http://www.catholicmil.org/html/fultonsheen.php...
Having scanned views of some others, I have seen that this observation has been made by many others too. Someone has even suggested a very apt title "My 35 Favorite Speeches."
Your claim to base the selection on style, substance, and impact is indeed correct but surely not well represented in your selection from the entire world's history.
If you did indeed read the comments, than you already know my response. If you feel there are speeches that should have been included but have not been, then please make some suggestions. Otherwise, your comment carries no weight with me.
Proof of the actual existence of Jesus is lacking; the earliest books of the NT were written more than a hundred years after his "death".
The concept of "an eye for an eye" as bloody retribution/revenge has been mis-interpreted for hundreds of years. It's truer meaning comes closer to "let the punishment ft the crime". Jewish law before that allowed disproportionate sentences, as to this day, many Islamist laws do; (cutting off the hand for minor theft, etc). A google search of the phrase will yield much corroboration.
Thanks for putting it together. Well written and I appreciate the excerpting of the speeches.
Not quite right. There have been several historical proofs of Jesus' existence, including evidence from non-Christian sources like Josephus. And, the earliest gospels were written within 30 years of His death, by apostles or people close to them. (Mark and Matthew come to mind.)
On another note...
Its kinda shameful that I only remember this just because the great man just died, but this list missed out on Solzhenitsyn. Both his Templeton Address and his Harvard Address are up there with any US President’s speech any day.
"More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.
Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.
What is more, the events of the Russian Revolution can only be understood now, at the end of the century, against the background of what has since occurred in the rest of the world. What emerges here is a process of universal significance. And if I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, here too, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: Men have forgotten God."
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Templeton Prize acceptance address, 1983
Jonathan R. whether or not Jesus actually existed is open for debate. There are a few references to a person named Jesus outside of the Bible but that is a far cry from proving the Jesus of the Bible actually existed.
That speech by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn isn't all that convincing. Using their three variables; I cannot comment on delivery since I did not see it but content and consequence I can. As for content all he does is blame the lack of faith for the decline of the USSR. That is simply a grossly wrong statement. There were a ton of things wrong with Communist Russia but lack of god is not one of them. Consequences...well I don't think there were any. As you said yourself you only remembered it because he died.
First the no contest greatest oration ever --by the Boy orator of the Platte,--the great William Jennings Bryan, the Cross of Gold speech. Which rings even more true now in the era of neocons than it did in the era of robber barons.
Second the two Memorial day speeches of Oliver Wendell Holmes. Really moving memorials to those who gave their lives by a man who saw the horrors of combat on a scale that God willing American soldiers will never have to experience again.
Also thanks for your blog it is a breath of fresh air in a stifiling atmosphere of "modern" political correctness. Keep up the good work .
Long live the Menassaince!
Most are American, but US was the most influential nation of last century so I think that's justified.
Kudos. A very ambitious and worthy undertaking this is. I will indeed be working my way through these speeches as the days pass.
Missing in my opinion: Jesus/Confucius (same thing), MLK, Henry V, maybe Knute Rockne.
I appreciate your comments. As you said, what is lacking in many of the angry comments above are concrete examples of what we missed. I don't mind dissension, but it needs to be backed up.
And I appreciate your suggestions, but please note that Jesus and MLK can both be found on page 3.
@ those who ridicule American education:
Correct me if I'm wrong but, when it comes to our "government" education, don't be surprised when all of us miss out on something that wasn't in the "curriculum". Government Education is opportunistic in relation to it's cause. That goes for Social Europeans as well. Granted, our system isn't spectacular, but overall this country allows us to find answers and confront the incorrect ones freely and openly, maybe a little more than others. Don't knock it too much.
Kennedy's speech exhorting America to go to the moon was not delivered in Washington, D.C. It was delivered in Rice Stadium at Rice University, Houston, TX. You can clearly see this behind Kennedy in the picture.
Martin Luther King Jr and Winston Churchill I've always known, but these others are good to add.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is ironic, I think, in that it really is more remembered than the battle...
It is very informative and has a very good quality in it.
I like it...
www.Squidoo.com/MPI
mliragana.blogspot.com
Thank you very much for your time.
Delivered in the year 632 CE.
"All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black nor a black has any superiority over a white - except by piety and good action."
"The great strength of the West, in fact, lies not in the force of arms - although some would seek under the cover of a benign democracy to argue that it is in fact the force of arms - but it lies in its free and democratic systems of government.
That is why, in spite of all the difficulties and disagreements which we have amongst friends and allies, I am not disheartened. I came to Great Britain by way of the United States, where I put my case to the American people through the news media without any kind of hindrance from the United States Administration.
Members of Her Majesty's Government have made it plain to me that they do not hold with the views I am committed to. I in fact have heard those before. The other night I heard them from Washington. They were compelling. They were a restatement of the United Kingdom position, and they were said with such candour and frankness that they seemed to persist even after the volume had been turned off. They were done with a strength and a purpose and a vigour.
I want to say that notwithstanding that difference, I have felt welcome here. I have been freely able to express my views. I can say freely whatever I please. Just as any member of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom would be welcome in New Zealand to expound any line of argument in any forum she cared to use. That is the true strength of the West.
And that is a strength which is threatened, not defended, by nuclear weapons. The appalling character of those weapons has robbed us of our right to determine our destiny and subordinates our humanity to their manic logic. They have subordinated reason to irrationality and placed our very will to live in hostage. Rejecting the logic of nuclear weapons does not mean surrendering to evil; evil must still be guarded against. Rejecting nuclear weapons is to assert what is human over the evil nature of the weapon; it is to restore to humanity the power of the decision; it is to allow a moral force to reign supreme. It stops the macho lurch into mutual madness.
And for me, the position of my country is a genuine long-term affirmation of this proposition: that nuclear weapons are morally indefensible. And I support that proposition."
Here's a transcript, a recording, and some contextualizing notes:
http://www.publicaddress.net/default,1578.sm#post
Speech given by Colonel Tim Collins of the First Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment, on the eve of battle before they entered Kuwait in March 2003.
If it interests any one, check out his book Rules of Engagament, Life in Conflict.
As you've pointed out, simply arguing that the list is biased is intellectually lazy. If you think other orations are worthy, list them (as some have).
I'd have to include Patton's speech. Also, I don't put nearly as much stock in speeches which were written by others and merely delivered by the speaker. While I'm a Reagan supporter, I'd have to put him largely in that category. Speakers such as Churchill and Roosevelt penned their own words.
Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty of Give Me Death" speech. This is one of the greatest speeches the world can boost of.
but allow me to add one more.
The speech of the Greek Prime Minister, Xenophon Zolotas , 2nd October 1959
in Washington .
It has remain in history as a proof of the uniqueness of the Greek Language.
Kyrie,
It is Zeus' anathema on our epoch and the heresy of our economic method and policies that we should agonize the Skylla of nomismatic plethora and the Charybdis of economic anaemia.
It is not my idiosyncracy to be ironic or sarcastic but my diagnosis would be that politicians are rather cryptoplethorists. Although they emphatically stigmatize nomismatic plethora, they energize it through their tactics and practices. Our policies should be based more on economic and less on political criteria. Our gnomon has to be a metron between economic strategic and philanthropic scopes.
In an epoch characterized by monopolies, oligopolies, monopolistic antagonism and polymorphous inelasticities, our policies have to be more orthological, but this should not be metamorphosed into plethorophobia, which is endemic among academic economists.
Nomismatic symmetry should not antagonize economic acme. A greater harmonization between the practices of the economic and nomismatic archons is basic.
Parallel to this we have to synchronize and harmonize more and more our economic and nomismatic policies panethnically. These scopes are more practicable now, when the prognostics of the political end economic barometer are halcyonic.
The history of our didimus organization on this sphere has been didactic and their gnostic practices will always be a tonic to the polyonymous and idiomorphous ethnical economies. The genesis of the programmed organization will dynamize these policies.
Therefore, I sympathize, although not without criticism one or two themes with the apostles and the hierarchy of our organs in their zeal to program orthodox economic and nomismatic policies.
I apologize for having tyranized you with my Hellenic phraseology. In my epilogue I emphasize my eulogy to the philoxenous aytochtons of this cosmopolitan metropolis and my encomium to you Kyrie, the stenographers.