# What is *the* most famous speech in history?



## WaylanderToo (Jan 12, 2016)

A thought occurred upon reading another forum where it was posited that M L King's "I have a dream" speech is the most famous in history. I have to say that I am not sure that it is, I think it may well be one of the most socially significant speeches - but the *most* famous?

Surely these are more famous 

Adolf H "ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer" (or is it because that is only a snippet of a speech that it doesn't count)?
Winnie C "We will fight them on the beaches... we will _never_ surrender"
H the V "Cry 'God for Harry, England, and St George!" (ok not a real speech as such but still...)

any thoughts?


----------



## svalbard (Jan 12, 2016)




----------



## svalbard (Jan 12, 2016)

...or Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.


----------



## SilentRoamer (Jan 12, 2016)

I immediately though of Churchill, followed by Hitler, followed by MLK before clicking and reading your post.

I think being from the UK and over a certain age means you are going to get more exposure to WC and AH because they were taught (World War History) as part of the extended curriculum.


----------



## WaylanderToo (Jan 12, 2016)

To boldly go? <grin>


----------



## The Ace (Jan 12, 2016)

Churchill's speech during the Battle of Britain, with the immortal line, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed, by so many, to so few." It superbly captured the moment when victory seemed possible - his, "Finest Hour," speech is also right up there.


----------



## thaddeus6th (Jan 12, 2016)

The Saint Crispin's Day speech (once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more), or Churchill's would be the first things that spring to mind.

It's interesting that all the (admittedly few) suggestions so far are very recent, except the Henry V one [written by Shakespeare, but still four centuries old].


----------



## Vertigo (Jan 12, 2016)

An SF forum and no one's mentioned JFK's " not because they are easy, but because they are hard..."?!


----------



## Dennis E. Taylor (Jan 12, 2016)

Can't we all just get along?


----------



## Extollager (Jan 12, 2016)

Moses giving the Ten Commandments.


----------



## Tulius Hostilius (Jan 12, 2016)

The first one that came to my mind was the one by Churchill in “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”, followed by the one by JFK when he said “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”.


----------



## WaylanderToo (Jan 12, 2016)

you could argue that the MOST well known would be something in the bible 

"oh Father, why hast thou forsaken me?" being an obvious one or various other sermons by Jesus


----------



## TheDustyZebra (Jan 12, 2016)

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...."

"To be, or not to be, that is the question...."

How many of the most famous speeches in history were written by Shakespeare?


----------



## Ray Pullar (Jan 13, 2016)

The Apology of Socrates (as recounted by Plato and Xenophon). Also: the funeral oration of Pericles.


----------



## WaylanderToo (Jan 13, 2016)

Ray Pullar said:


> The Apology of Socrates (as recounted by Plato and Xenophon).




for a while I thought of Anabasis when you mentioned Xenophon


----------



## Droflet (Jan 13, 2016)

'What we need to learn to do, we learn by doing." Some old Greek dude called Aristotle.


----------



## aThenian (Jan 13, 2016)

I immediately thought of Pericles's funeral speech too - as recounted by Thucydides.  Defining democracy and all that.  Possible contender for most famous throughout history, but it won't be the most famous now for sure, and there are so many more people living now it loses out, I guess.

I don't understand re Henry V.  Hamlet's To Be Or Not To Be is more famous, and both speeches are fictional.


----------



## aThenian (Jan 13, 2016)

Actually thinking this over some more - The Sermon on the Mount?


----------



## galanx (Jan 13, 2016)

I think I would say a speech has to be a public address- which- in fiction- rules out both Hamlet, Macbeth and Prospero's soliloquies; leaving Mark Antony's "Lend me your ears" and Henry V's "Band of Brothers".

(And more than a snippet- so boldly go ). And of course while Classical/Biblical allusions are Western-world wide, each language undoubtedly has its own.

I'd say:
The Sermon on the Mount
Pericles, Funeral Speech
(Socrates Apologia- was it enough of a public occasion to be a speech?)
Churchill , surely the most close-packed, all in early summer of 1940: "blood toil, tears, and sweat"May 13;  "Fight on the beaches" June 4; "this was their finest hour" June 18

Gettysburg Address
MLK I had a dream

Speaking of Germans, how about Luther at the Diet of Worms;

"Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen."

Alas,



> It is legend that Luther said the words "Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me, Amen!" These words were probably only added to make the story more interesting; to make it a 'press sensation'.


----------



## Parson (Jan 13, 2016)

Hm, most famous speech? It seems to me that we are only dealing with snippets of speeches. If we would go with knowing the whole speech, I think the only real contenders would be the Gettysburg Address (memorized by generations of American elementary students [no longer in favor]) or the Sermon on the Mount. 

Also wouldn't there have to be at least enough age on a speech that no living person could remember having heard it live before it could begin to qualify? Otherwise you have current events contending with historical remembrance, which is a very unfair fight indeed.


----------



## Ray Pullar (Jan 13, 2016)

The apology of Socrates took place before an Athenian jury of around 700 citizens (who condemned him to death or exile).

A few modern American moments that should qualify:

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 'day of infamy' speech, Dec. 8, 1941, following the Pearl Harbor attack.
President Harry Truman's announcement of the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima.
Truman's later speech declaring the beginning of the cold war, addressed to Congress, March 12, 1947.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur's 'old soldiers never die' speech, a farewell address to Congress, 19 April, 1951.
Vice-President Richard M. Nixon's 1952 'Checkers' speech (about his daughters' pet dog) and his later Presidential resignation speech.
President Jimmy Carter's 'crisis of confidence' speech, July 15, 1979.
President Ronald Reagan's Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall speech.

And a few British ones:

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's 'peace in our time' speech after returning by plane from visiting Herr Hitler.
Right honourable M.P. Enoch Powell's 'river Tiber foaming with blood' speech on immigration to the U.K. and its consequences.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's 'the lady's not for turning' speech to the Conservative Party conference.
Mrs. Thatcher's Bruge speech announcing her new opposition to the increasing federal central power of the European Union.


----------



## galanx (Jan 14, 2016)

Ray Pullar said:


> The apology of Socrates took place before an Athenian jury of around 700 citizens (who condemned him to death or exile).



Absolutely right- I was confusing it with the scene of his death.


----------



## farntfar (Jan 14, 2016)

A very short one.

Eureka!


----------



## Gramm838 (Jan 28, 2016)

Given today's state of the world, i would have thought Pope Urban II's call to Crusade in the 1190's has had the longest lasting effect since it was made?


----------



## mosaix (Jan 28, 2016)

Gramm838 said:


> Given today's state of the world, i would have thought Pope Urban II's call to Crusade in the 1190's has had the longest lasting effect since it was made?



Maybe the most 'effective', Gramm, but probably not the most famous.

Strangely, Churchill's wartime speeches are famous but he got voted out of office straight after the war ended. So perhaps the passage of time has given them a quality that people didn't see immediately.

The speech, given in my lifetime, that I remember most vividly is Kennedy's 'Ask not what...' speech.


----------



## Kylara (Jan 28, 2016)

Can I pipe in with Elizabeth I speech at Tilbury (?), I'd say that is pretty famous - or maybe just to me...

I agree probably a bible one would be up there too - the mount one. (sleep deprivation is not my friend)


----------



## willwallace (Jan 28, 2016)

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Charlie Chaplin's final speech in The Great Dictator.


----------



## Caledfwlch (Jan 29, 2016)

mosaix said:


> Maybe the most 'effective', Gramm, but probably not the most famous.
> 
> Strangely, Churchill's wartime speeches are famous but he got voted out of office straight after the war ended. So perhaps the passage of time has given them a quality that people didn't see immediately.
> 
> The speech, given in my lifetime, that I remember most vividly is Kennedy's 'Ask not what...' speech.



I would disagree, his Speeches helped rally the Nation in it's greatest time of need, they were very famous in Britain, it's just that the people knew exactly who and what Churchill was - We were fighting Bastards and we needed a ******* of our own to Prosecute the War, so Churchill was perfect, but let him run the country in Peacetime? No way!!! People weren't stupid! They were very grateful for him helping to win the war, but they didn't want him wrecking the peace. Not to mention the "understandings" that if the working class peoples made the ultimate sacrifices required, if they fought for King and Country, things would get better, things would change, they fought and so many died not just for our freedom, but to give us the NHS, a Welfare system, secure and cheap homes and so on , and Churchill was absolutely not the person to do that. Had Tax Collection in Birmingham been really low due to people lying or not paying, He would have probably ordered the RAF to drop mustard gas on the place.

His War Speeches have wonderful fantasy elements, painting the picture of an England, a Britain that never existed, a green and golden land, where peasants happily tugged their forelucks, and went home to a decent meal, not the vicious and unpleasant hell working class life was until the 40's. It's like Grandad's Quote from Only Fools and Horses about World War 1 "They promised us Homes for Heroes, and they gave us Heroes for Homes" people werent going to settle for being screwed again.


----------



## thaddeus6th (Jan 29, 2016)

Mosaix, not my period but my understanding is Churchill did very little campaigning and essentially expected a grateful nation to just vote for him. There's actually footage (saw it on TV some years ago) of him being booed, in the UK, in 1945.


----------



## michaelhall2007 (Mar 25, 2016)

JFK
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard...


----------



## michaelhall2007 (Mar 25, 2016)

Vertigo said:


> An SF forum and no one's mentioned JFK's " not because they are easy, but because they are hard..."?!


Oops I just did without reading yours but it instantly jump to my mind when I read the question.


----------



## Cathbad (Mar 25, 2016)

"I Have a Dream!"


----------



## Cathbad (Mar 25, 2016)

WaylanderToo said:


> A thought occurred upon reading another forum where it was posited that M L King's "I have a dream" speech is the most famous in history. I have to say that I am not sure that it is, I think it may well be one of the most socially significant speeches - but the *most* famous?



Oh... already mentioned.  ~crawls back under my rock~


----------

