i recently read a book, a compendium of famous speeches given throughout history. JFK, Jesus, Mohammed, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Saint Isis, Mother Theresa and many more were included. It was an excellent text. Anyhow, in this thread, if people find a speech they enjoy, taken from youtube or copy/pasted from a website is fine. In part or whole speech, is also fine. I will start with a speech given by Elie Wiesel in 1999 titled "The Perils of Indifference", it is a small section toward the middle, that I find excellent.



We are on the threshold of a new century, a new millennium. What
will the legacy of this vanishing century be? How will it be remembered
in the new millennium? Surely it will be judged, and judged severely, in
both moral and metaphysical terms. These failures have cast a dark shadow
over humanity: two World Wars, countless civil wars, the senseless chain
of assassinations -- Gandhi, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Sadat, Rabin
-- bloodbaths in Cambodia and Nigeria, India and Pakistan, Ireland and
Rwanda, Eritrea and Ethiopia, Sarajevo and Kosovo; the inhumanity in the
gulag and the tragedy of Hiroshima. And, on a different level, of course,
Auschwitz and Treblinka. So much violence, so much indifference.

What is indifference? Etymologically, the word means "no difference."
A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and
darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion,
good and evil.

What are its courses and inescapable consequences? Is it a philosophy?
Is there a philosophy of indifference conceivable? Can one possibly view
indifference as a virtue? Is it necessary at times to practice it simply
to keep one's sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine,
as the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals?

Of course, indifference can be tempting -- more than that, seductive.
It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to
avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is,
after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain
and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor
are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their
hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces
the other to an abstraction.

Winston Churchill

"I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.
At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty's Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation.
The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.
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;
we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

One of my favorite speeches and also one of my favorite comic actors:

If only that was so

hmm...sounds like the speech I gave when I left EWZ

only 2% of you will die in a major battle...

No long speeches, but great words: