Post: #1

Oratory has long been considered one of the highest skills a man can have, and the greatest orators in history are also the pillars of their time and the most well-remembered.

The speeches they gave have a ton of insight, wisdom and useful knowledge. I've been looking through some today, and I plan on making it a habit this coming month to read at least one inspiring speech a day, in the hopes that one day I might be able to give deep and inspiring remarks myself.

You owe it to yourself to take a look through some of the greatest, especially ones by Teddy Roosevelt, Pericles, Winston Churchill and JFK, among many others.

Here are some repositories of great speeches that I've found:
The 100 Best Speeches In American History, ranked by scholars and orators: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html

The 35 Greatest Speeches in History, which unlike the above includes all eras and nations:
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2008/08/01...n-history/

Post: #2

The best speech in a movie the last 20 years .. Hands down

Post: #3

Lincoln's Lyceum Address

Quote:The question then, is, can that gratification be found in supporting and maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others? Most certainly it cannot. Many great and good men sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found, whose ambition would inspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon?--Never! Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.--It sees no distinction in adding story to story, upon the monuments of fame, erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable then to expect, that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time, spring up among us? And when such a one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs.

Post: #4

delete

Post: #5

I still think Martin Luther King Jr.s "I Have a Dream" is one of the most prolific of our time.

Post: #6

Patton's speech to the Third Army

Quote:Men, all this stuff you hear about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of bullshit. Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, the big-league ball players and the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. That's why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war. The very thought of losing is hateful to Americans. Battle is the most significant competition in which a man can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base.
...
I don't want any messages saying 'I'm holding my position.' We're not holding a goddamned thing. We're advancing constantly and we're not interested in holding anything except the enemy's balls. We're going to hold him by his balls and we're going to kick him in the ass; twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all the time. Our plan of operation is to advance and keep on advancing. We're going to go through the enemy like shit through a tinhorn.

Then there's one thing you men will be able to say when this war is over and you get back home. Thirty years from now when you're sitting by your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks, 'What did you do in the great World War Two?' You won't have to cough and say, 'Well, your granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.' No sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say 'Son, your granddaddy rode with the great Third Army and a son-of-a-goddamned-bitch named George Patton!'

Post: #7

I forget where he said it, but I've always loved this quote by Patton:

"I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making that other poor, dumb bastard die for his country!"

Post: #8

Malcolm X- "Ballot or Bullet"