Throughout history, public figures such as leaders, activists, and politicians have made speeches so inspiring they changed the course of history, and are still quoted to this day. Who can forget Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, or Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address? The following speeches are famous and infamous because they perfectly represent the time in which they were made, and appeal to the best in human nature. Here are 8 timeless speeches that will make you rethink everything.
RELATED: 7 Best U.S. Road Trips for history Buffs.
1. “We Choose To Go to the Moon” – John F. Kennedy
Wikimedia Commons
John F. Kennedy gave this historical speech on September 12, 1962 at Rice University. “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, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
2. “I Have a Dream” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Wikimedia Commons
Martin Luther King Jr. gave this searing speech on Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”
3. “Luckiest Man” – Lou Gehrig
Wikimedia Commons
Lou Gehrig gave his moving farewell speech on July 4, 1939. “Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.”
4. Tilbury Speech – Queen Elizabeth I
Wikimedia Commons
Queen Elizabeth I gave a speech that echoes through the ages on August 9, 1588. “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm: to which rather than any dishonor shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.”
5. “Their Finest Hour” – Winston Churchill
Wikimedia Commons
Winston Churchill gave this moving wartime speech on June 18, 1940 at the House of Commons. “But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”
6. The Gettysburg Address – Abraham Lincoln
Wikimedia Commons
Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech on November 19, 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
7. Freedom or Death – Emmeline Pankhurst
Wikimedia Commons
Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst gave her rousing speech on November 13, 1913 in Hartford, Connecticut. “Women are very slow to rouse, but once they are aroused, once they are determined, nothing on earth and nothing in heaven will make women give way; it is impossible. And so this ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ which is being used against women today has failed. There are women lying at death's door, recovering enough strength to undergo operations who have not given in and won't give in, and who will be prepared, as soon as they get up from their sick beds, to go on as before.”
8. First Inaugural Speech – Franklin D Roosevelt
Wikimedia Commons
Franklin D Rooseveltgave his first inaugural speech on March 4, 1933. “This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.”
