I don't know why this thought came to me, but I want to know what you guys think the best speeches are from any time period. What makes them so great? Please share!
I look forward to listening to these! My family and I just stopped in Memphis for the night, but thank you for all of the suggestions! Keep em coming!
I have two - Charlie Chaplin's 1940 speech from the film "The Great Dictator" :
And Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" :
Chaplin mentions Luke 17 which reminded me of The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy. It's the culmination of a lifetime of rumination on Christian philosophy. It helped inspire Gandhi's nonviolent resistance. I got interrupted last time I tried reading it. I think I'll give it another go. I'm susceptible to the mildest suggestions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kingdom_of_God_Is_Within_You
Oppenheimer's speech after the Manhattan project was amazing.
Holy shit that was amazing. When people talk about Reagan being amazing that's what they should show to back it up. Teddy Roosevelt said it 75 years prior as well here: Of course, in one sense, the first essential for a man’s being a good citizen is his possession of the home virtues of which we think when we call a man by the emphatic adjective of manly. No man can be a good citizen who is not a good husband and a good father, who is not honest in his dealings with other men and women, faithful to his friends and fearless in the presence of his foes, who has not got a sound heart, a sound mind, and a sound body; exactly as no amount of attention to civil duties will save a nation if the domestic life is undermined, or there is lack of the rude military virtues which alone can assure a country’s position in the world. In a free republic the ideal citizen must be one willing and able to take arms for the defense of the flag, exactly as the ideal citizen must be the father of many healthy children. A race must be strong and vigorous; it must be a race of good fighters and good breeders, else its wisdom will come to naught and its virtue be ineffective; and no sweetness and delicacy, no love for and appreciation of beauty in art or literature, no capacity for building up material prosperity can possibly atone for the lack of the great virile virtues.
I don't think it's the greatest speech in history, but this is certainly a great speech. This is Bill Clinton at the DNC 2012 as referenced in the below post I made: