what is your favorite speech and by who?

Question

a speech that is not political (no presidents/congressman.. etc)

Answer 1

"I do not choose to be common
It is my right to be uncommon - if I can.
I seek opportunity - not security.
I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole.
I prefer the challenge of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the state of calm utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout.
I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success that to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions and only lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new."

One of my favorite speeches of all time. (I like Martin Luther King's 'I have a Dream' too but you specifically said no political speeches) You'll never guess who said the above speech - Machiavelli.

I think he's been unfairly treated by history and defamed by those who don't understand him and don't understand the context in which he expressed his ideas. The word 'Machiavellian' doesn't apply to this particular line of reasoning.

Answer 2

Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for maintenance, and for the propagation of his race. But the price of a commodity, and therefore also of labour, is equal to its cost of production. In proportion, therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. Nay more, in proportion as the use of machinery and division of labour increases, in the same proportion the burden of toil also increases, whether by prolongation of the working hours, by the increase of the work exacted in a given time or by increased speed of machinery, etc.

Modern Industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are organised like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and the more embittering it is.

The less the skill and exertion of strength implied in manual labour, in other words, the more modern industry becomes developed, the more is the labour of men superseded by that of women. Differences of age and sex have no longer any distinctive social validity for the working class. All are instruments of labour, more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex.

No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the manufacturer, so far, at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc.

The lower strata of the middle class — the small tradespeople, shopkeepers, and retired tradesmen generally, the handicraftsmen and peasants — all these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale on which Modern Industry is carried on, and is swamped in the competition with the large capitalists, partly because their specialised skill is rendered worthless by new methods of production. Thus the proletariat is recruited from all classes of the population.

-Karl Marx

Answer 3

Pretty much anything by Captain Picard(Patrick Stewart). Anyone who thinks that sounds cheesey just doesn't understand. If you're going to throw out political speaches there really aren't any others to consider that aren't either fictional, or at a stupid award show or something. Patrick Stewart gave some really cool monologues on Star Trek the Next Generation.

Answer 4

Does Martin Luther King's speech " I have a dream " count here ? He was not a president or congressman . . .

Answer 5

Eulogy of the dog
By
George G Vest

September 23 1870

Gentlemen of the jury. The best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter whom he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-conceived action. The people who are prone to fall to their knees to do us honour when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The on absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is the dog.

Gentlemen of the jury, a man’s dog stands by hi in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground when the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he can be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.

When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey though the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth an outcast into the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their own way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws and his eyes sad but open, in alert watchfulness, Faithful and true, even unto death.

This speech was given by a lawyer in a lawsuit over the shooting of a neighbours dog in farmland of the US sate of Missouri. This version is from the Library of Congress archives.

And as for why I like it, I have a question, Why wouldn’t you like it?

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

I don't regard Martin Luther King Jr. as a political figure, so I would acknowledge his "I have a dream speech" as my favorite.

This is also Frank Luntz's favorite speech, ever.

Answer 7

Actually it's written in the form of a poem. Ulysses by Tennyson. I love "Come, my friends.
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die."

Pax - C

Answer 8

it fairly is preeminently the time to talk the fact, the completed fact, frankly and boldly. Nor desire we shrink from incredibly dealing with circumstances in our u . s . at present. This super u . s . will bear because it has persevered, will revive and could prosper. So, in the beginning, permit me assert my enterprise theory that the only ingredient we could concern is concern itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes mandatory efforts to transform retreat into develop.-- from FDR's first inaugural speech This ceremony is held interior the intensity of wintry climate. yet, via the words we talk and the faces we instruct the international, we stress the spring. A spring reborn interior the international's oldest democracy, that brings forth the imaginative and prescient and braveness to reinvent united statesa.. whilst our founders boldly declared united statesa.'s independence to the international and our purposes to the Almighty, they knew that united statesa., to bear, could could substitute. no longer substitute for substitute's sake, yet substitute to maintain American's ideals -- existence, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. regardless of the incontrovertible fact that we march to the song of our time, our undertaking is undying. each and every era of human beings could define what it means to be an American. at present, a era raised interior the shadows of the chilly conflict assumes new wide-unfold jobs in a international warmed via the gentle of freedom yet threatened via nevertheless historical hatreds and new plagues. regardless of the incontrovertible fact that our stressful circumstances are fearsome, so are our strengths. And human beings have ever been a under pressure, questing, hopeful human beings. We could carry to our activity at present the imaginative and prescient and the will of people who got here until now us.an theory born in Revolution and renewed by 2 centuries of undertaking. an theory. an theory tempered via the certainty that, yet for destiny, we -- the fortunate and the unforunate -- would have been one yet another. an theory enobled via the religion that our u . s . can summon from that is myriad variety the non-public degree of degree of cohesion. an theory infused with the conviction that united statesa.'s long heroic adventure could bypass continually upward.--from bill Clinton's 1st inaugural speech

Answer 9

Patton
Patton always knew exactly what he wanted to say to his soldiers and he never needed notes. He always spoke to his troops extemporaneously. As a general rule of thumb, it is safe to say that Patton usually told his men some of his basic thoughts and concepts regarding his ideas of war and tactics. Instead of the empty, generalized rhetoric of no substance often used by Eisenhower, Patton spoke to his men in simple, down to earth language that they understood. He told them truthful lessons he had learned that would keep them alive.

Answer 10

Well, I'm going to say The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln despite your answer description. It is wonderfully written for its brevity and very inspiring.