#great speeches

[billyengland]

If MLK gave a speech in 2026.

[nickthebookworm]

{31.03.21}

Currently reading:

Oh boy was it good to be able to read outside again!

The Hill We Climb came today, so I had to get stuck into it immediately! I read it three or four times before picking up Frederick Douglas (which I got the other week).

I'll flit between Douglas and Trans Britain tomorrow as soon as I get done studying! I hope to finish both by the weekend.

[yzy-sunagakure]

Headcanon that Gaara's speech to the Shinobi Alliance becomes one of the most well known and oft-quoted speeches of the Naruto world, kinda like the real-world Gettysburg Address or I Have A Dream speeches.  Kids in school have to memorize it and analyze it and give mock recitations.

"In the name of gain and profit for one's nation and village, shinobi have hated and hurt each other for many years, from the First to the Third Great Ninja War and the conflicts in between. "All of that hatred cried out for power... Thus I was born. In the past I was hatred, and power...and a Jinchuuriki! "I hated this world and all it's people and thought about destroying both. That's exactly what the Akatsuki is trying to do now... 

"But then, a single shinobi from the Hidden Leaf stopped me! "He cried for me, I was his enemy yet still he cried for me, and he called me his friend even though we had battled. He saved me. We were on different sides, but we were both Jinchuuriki. "Between those who have experienced the same pain, there can be no hate! "There are no enemies here now, because each one of us bears the pain of having been hurt by the Akatsuki! 

"The Sand...the Stone...the Leaf...the Mist..and the Cloud are no more. "Now there is only...shinobi! "And if you're still unable to forgive the Sand, then you can come back and face me after this war is over!  "The friend I spoke of, the one who saved me, is the target of our enemy. If he falls into their hands our world's finished. I want to protect my friend, and I want to protect this entire world! "I am too young and inexperienced to do that, so I ask you, all of you...please lend me your strength for this fight! "All those who feel as I do, FOLLOW ME!"

Solid proof that talk-no-jutsu works.

[revellingmidnightstreets]

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt

[depressed-stressed-and-blessed]

one of me speech judges literally said that having a four part analysis in great speeches doesn’t work because it “isn’t the speech standard”. lady, what the fuck, you can choose any rhetorical analysis and some have four parts so like fuck off???

[theamericanparlor]

Frederick Douglass And The 4th Of July 

The abolitionist Frederick Douglass pointed out in detail the unfinished business that the Declaration espoused. In a speech given in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, Douglass rose to the occasion with searing hot rhetoric:

“The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. But, besides general considerations, there were peculiar circumstances which make the advent of this republic an event of special attractiveness. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. ...

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.”

This was the heady language by Douglass, eschewing no pretenses and taking dead seriously the promises of democracy.

The words of Douglass’ speech were read this year on Monday, July 3rd in Boston Common, as well as other locations, as remembrance of this great democratically inspired literature, but also as reminder of the original solemnity of the day.

[thetrusouldj]

[invincible-selfxmade-punk]

Convention Speeches in History: Rep. Barbara Jordan at the 1976 DNC

Take 2 minutes out of your morning to be inspired. I played this for my fourth graders yesterday and I realized there are so few speakers that sound like this now.