Landmark American Speeches

by Harrison, Maureen; Gilbert, Steve

• ISBN13: 9781880780183
• ISBN10: 1880780186
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: Excellent Books

Table of Contents

Women And world Peace	1	(4)
Jane Addams
I should like to see the women of civilization rebel against the senseless wholesale human sacrifice of warfare. I am convinced that many thousands of women throughout the world would gladly rise to this challenge
The Nonviolent Struggle For Justice	5	(2)
Cesar Chavez
I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!
The Oklahoma City Bombing	7	(5)
Bill Clinton
Let us teach our children that the God of comfort is also the God of righteousness. Those who trouble their own house will inherit the wind. Justice will prevail
In Defense of John T. Scopes	12	(3)
Clarence Darrow
We are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth century when bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind
The Gospel of Socialism	15	(7)
Eugene Debs
Credo	22	(3)
W.E.B. DuBois
I believe in the Negro Race, in the beauty of its genius, the sweetness of its soul, and its strength in that meekness which shall yet inherit this turbulent earth
The War Is Won But The Peace Is Not	25	(3)
Albert Einstein
The Military-Industrial Complex	28	(9)
Dwight D. Eisenhower
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist
The Power of Our Sisterhood	37	(6)
Betty Friedan
We faced the enemy and the enemy was us, was our own lack of self confidence, was woman's self-denigration
The Luckiest Man On The Face of The Earth	43	(2)
Lou Gehrig
Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth
Extremism In Defense of Liberty Is No Vice	45	(12)
Barry Goldwater
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!
The Tonkin Gulf	57	(3)
Lyndon Johnson
Aggression by terror against the peaceful villagers of South Vietnam has now been joined by open aggression on the high seas against the United States of America
The Wail of the Children	60	(3)
Mother Jones
We want [the President] to hear the wail of the children, who never have a chance to go to school, but work from ten to eleven hours a day in the textile mills
Watergate	63	(7)
Barbara Jordan
My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution
The Social Causes of Blindness	70	(3)
Helen Keller
I do not believe that there is any one in this city of kind hearts who would willingly receive dividends if he knew that they were paid in part with blinded eyes and broken backs
Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You	73	(6)
John F. Kennedy
And so, my fellow Americans - ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world - ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man
The Day of Affirmation	79	(13)
Robert F. Kennedy
The essential humanity of man can be protected and preserved only where the government must answer - not just to the wealthy - not just to those of a particular religion - not just to those of a particular race - but to all of the people
I Have a Dream	92	(7)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have a dream 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!
Old Soldiers Never Die	99	(7)
Douglas MacArthur
And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-bye
The Marshall Plan	106	(6)
George Marshall
Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos
The Witch Hunt	112	(6)
Joseph McCarthy
I have in my hand fifty-seven cases of individuals who would appear to be either card-carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party
Thou Shalt Not Drink	118	(6)
Carry Nation
It is said that drink kills a man a minute. Suppose that we had a war that killed a man every five minutes. Would there not be howling for an end of bloodshed? This is more than ten times worse, for the soul is more valuable than the body
Checkers	124	(6)
Richard Nixon
The best and only answer to a smear or to an honest misunderstanding of the facts is to tell the truth. And that's why I'm here tonight. I want to tell you my side of the case
Sharing The American Dream	130	(5)
Colin Powell
Despite more than two centuries of moral and material progress, despite all our efforts to achieve a more perfect union, there are still Americans who are not sharing in the American Dream
The Reagan Revolution	135	(10)
Ronald Reagan
With all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope
Human Rights	145	(13)
Eleanor Roosevelt
The field of human rights is not one in which compromise on fundamental principles is possible
First Inaugural Address	158	(8)
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself
They Day That Will Live In Infamy	166	(3)
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan
Sentenced To Death	169	(4)
Nicola Sacco
Bartolomeo Vanzetti
I never know, never heard, even read in history anything so cruel as this court
Nicola Sacco
I am so convinced to be right that if you would excute me two times, and if I could be reborn two other times, I would live again to do what I have done already
Bartolomeo Vanzetti
The Morality of Birth Control	173	(11)
Margaret Sanger
Birth control is an ethical necessity. It gives us control over one of the primordial forces of nature, to which in the past the majority of man-kind have been enslaved, and by which it has been cheapened and debased
A Call To Resist Illegitimate Authority	184	(5)
Benjamin Spock
We believe that every free man has a legal right and a moral duty to exert every effort to end this war
Hiroshima	189	(6)
Harry Truman
The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East
Segregation Now! Segregation Tomorrow! Segregation Forever!	195	(4)
George Wallace
I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say, Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!
I Have AIDS	199	(5)
Ryan White
AIDS can destroy a family if you let it, but luckily for my sister and me, Mom taught us to keep going. Don't give up, be proud of who you are, and never feel sorry for yourself
The League of Nations	204	(7)
Woodrow Wilson
The fortunes of mankind are now in the hands of the plain people of the whole world
The Ballot Or The Bullet	211
Malcolm X
If I die in the morning, I'll die saying one thing - the ballot or the bullet