Speeches That Changed the World

by Montefiore, Simon Sebag

• ISBN13: 9781905204168
• ISBN10: 1905204167
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2006-08-01
• Publisher: Book Sales

Summary

This book contains over 50 momentous and thought-provoking speeches from a wide range of historical eras and nations that will inspire readers and give them a greater understanding of events of the time. Each speech is accompanied by a comprehensive introduction that explains its historical background, why it was significant and what happened as a result.

Table of Contents

Introduction	3	(3)
Moses `Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' The Ten Commandments, Exodus 20, 1--17	6	(3)
Jesus of Nazareth `Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' The Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5--7	9	(8)
Mohammed `Turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque. `Koran 2, 144--145, 147--50	17	(3)
St Francis of Assisi `My little sisters, the birds, much bounden are ye unto God.' Sermon to the birds, c. 1220	20	(3)
Queen Elizabeth I `I have the heart and stomach of a king.' Speech to the English troops at Tilbury, 1588	23	(3)
King Charles I `I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown.' Speech on the scaffold, 30 January 1649	26	(4)
Oliver Cromwell `In the name of God, go!' Dismisses the Rump Parliament, 20 April 1653	30	(3)
George Washington `A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.' Farewell address, 7 September 1796	33	(6)
Thomas Jefferson `We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.' Inaugural address, 4 March 1801	39	(6)
Napoleon Bonaparte `Soldiers of my Old Guard: I bid you farewell.' Farewell to the Old Guard, 20 April 1814	45	(3)
Abraham Lincoln `Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation...' The Gettysburg Address, 19 November 1863	48	(3)
Emmeline Pankhurst `I am here as a soldier who has temporarily left the field of battle.' Speech on women's suffrage, 13 November 1913	51	(3)
Marie Curie `The scientific history of radium is beautiful.' On the discovery of radium, 14 May 1921	54	(4)
Mohandas Gandhi `There is no salvation for India.' 4 February 1916	58	(4)
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin `Power to the Soviets.' September 1917	62	(5)
Woodrow Wilson `The world must be made safe for democracy.' Speech to Congress, 2 April 1917	67	(4)
Clarence Darrow `I believe in the law of love.' Closing speech in defence of Henry Sweet, April 1926	71	(4)
Neville Chamberlain `Peace for our time.' London, 30 September 1938	75	(3)
Adolf Hitler `My patience is now at an end.' Speech at the Sportpalast, Berlin, 26 September 1938	78	(7)
`I am from now on just first soldier of the German Reich.' Speech at the Reichstag, Berlin, 1 September 1939	82	(3)
Joseph Stalin `It is essential that the war continue for as long as possible.' Speech to the Politburo, 19 August 1939	85	(5)
Winston Churchill `I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.' House of Commons, London, 13 May 1940	90	(6)
`This was their finest hour.' House of Commons, London, 18 June 1940	94	(1)
`Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.' House of Commons, London, 20 August 1940	95	(1)
Vyacheslav Molotov `Perfidy unparalleled in the history of civilized nations.' On the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, 22 June 1941	96	(4)
Franklin D. Roosevelt `The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.' Inaugural address, 4 March 1933	100	(7)
`A date which will live in infamy.' Speech to Congress, 8 December 1941	105	(2)
Charles de Gaulle `The flame of French resistance must not and shall not die.' Appeal of 18 June 1940	107	(3)
General George S. Patton, Jr `I am personally going to shoot that paper-hanging sonofabitch Hitler.' Speech on the eve of D-Day, 5 June 1944	110	(4)
Emperor Hirohito `The enemy has begun to deplay a new and most cruel bomb.' The surrender of Japan, August 1945	114	(4)
Jawaharlal Nehru `At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.' Speech on the granting of independence, 4 August 1947	118	(4)
J. Robert Oppenheimer `The reason that we did this job is because it was an organic necessity.' Los Alamos, Mexico, 2 November 1945	122	(4)
General Douglas MacArthur `I have just left your fighting sons in Korea.... They are splendid in every way.' Farewell speech to Congress, 19 April 1951	126	(4)
Nelson Mandela `I am the First Accused.' 20 April 1964	130	(6)
`Free at last.' 2 May 1994	134	(2)
Eamon de Valera `These were all good men.'	136	(4)
The fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising, 10 April 1966	136	(4)
John F. Kennedy `Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.' Inaugural address, 20 January 1961	140	(8)
`Ich bin ein Berliner.' At the Berlin Wall, 26 June 1963	146	(2)
Martin Luther King Jr `I have a dream.' Lincoln Memorial, Washington, 28 August 1963	148	(8)
`I've seen the promised land.' Memphis, Tennessee, 3 April 1968	154	(2)
Malcolm X `You can't hate the roots of a tree, and not hate the tree.' 14 February 1965	156	(4)
Shirley Chisholm `I have been far oftener discriminated against because I am a woman than because I am black.' Speech to Congress, 21 May 1969	160	(4)
Pierre Trudeau `Who are the kidnap victims?' National broadcast, 16 October 1970	164	(6)
Golda Meir `Stop the killing.' Address to the Knesset, 26 May 1970	170	(4)
Richard M. Nixon `There can be no whitewash at the White House.' Address to the nation, 30 April 1973	174	(6)
Indira Gandhi `Women's education is almost more important than the education of boys and men.' 23 November 1974	180	(4)
Chaim Herzog `Hate, ignorance and evil.' Address to UN General Assembly, 10 November 1975	184	(4)
Mother Teresa `Love begins at home.' Speech on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, 11 December 1979	188	(4)
Pope John Paul II `Our Polish freedom costs so much.' Speech at Jasna Gora monastery, Poland, 18 June 1983	192	(4)
Ronald Reagan `Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' Speech at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, 12 June 1987	196	(6)
Mikhail Gorbachev `Freedom of choice is a universal principle to which there should be no exceptions.' Address to UN General Assembly, 7 December 1988	202	(4)
F. W. de Klerk `The time for negotiation has arrived.' Speech at the opening of Parliament, 2 February 1990	206	(4)
Vaclav Havel `We live in a contaminated moral environment.' Broadcast to the people of Czechoslovakia, 1 January 1990	210	(4)
Elie Wiesel `The perils of indifference.' Seventh White House Millennium Evening, 12 April 1999	214	(6)
George W. Bush `A great people has been moved to defend a great nation.' Address to the nation, 11 September 2001	220	(4)
Index	224