The Roman world's greatest orator Cicero championed a return to the traditional republican government. Following Julius Caesar's death, launched a series of attacks on Mark Antony in a series of speeches in the ensuing power struggle. Mark Antony had him beheaded in 43 BC.
The four gospels record several of Jesus' speeches The Sermon on the Mount is the longest continuous section of Christ speaking found in the New Testament. A collection of sayings and teachings of Christ found in the Gospel of Matthew it takes place relatively early in the Ministry of Jesus after he has been baptized by John the Baptist and preached in Galilee. It contains many of the basic tenets of the Christian faith including the Lord's Prayer.
Wearing a silver breastplate over a white velvet dress, Queen Elizabeth I addressed her troops preparing to face the Spanish Armada on August 5, 1588 at Tilbury. In one of her most famous speeches she declared "I know I have the body but 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."
The great anti-slave-trade campaigner William Wilberforce failed to end his most famous anti-slavery speech – "Let us put an end to this inhuman traffic. Let us stop this effusion of human blood" – on a flourish, instead getting bogged down in a mire of statistics.
Though Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address is now seen as one of the key moments in the history of democracy, at the time he thought it was a failure. Before Lincoln arrived onstage, the audience had been obliged to stand through a dull two-hour oration from the politician Edward Everett. Prayers and music took up a further two hours. Lincoln then spoke for just two minutes, so quietly that he was barely audible. Many in the audience felt short-changed, and had no idea that they would one day be considered witnesses to history.
The most famous phrase in Lincoln's 272 word speech – "government of the people, by the people, for the people" – was in fact several centuries old, and seems to have been pinched from the Prologue to John Wycliffe's 1384 English translation of the Bible.
During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson recruited "Four Minute Men" - 75,000 volunteers who gave 4-minute public speeches nationwide to encourage patriotism and participation in the war effort. An estimated 7.5 million talks were given to over 300 million listeners in just 18 months.
The four gospels record several of Jesus' speeches The Sermon on the Mount is the longest continuous section of Christ speaking found in the New Testament. A collection of sayings and teachings of Christ found in the Gospel of Matthew it takes place relatively early in the Ministry of Jesus after he has been baptized by John the Baptist and preached in Galilee. It contains many of the basic tenets of the Christian faith including the Lord's Prayer.
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| Sermon on the Mount by Carl Bloch |
Wearing a silver breastplate over a white velvet dress, Queen Elizabeth I addressed her troops preparing to face the Spanish Armada on August 5, 1588 at Tilbury. In one of her most famous speeches she declared "I know I have the body but 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."
The great anti-slave-trade campaigner William Wilberforce failed to end his most famous anti-slavery speech – "Let us put an end to this inhuman traffic. Let us stop this effusion of human blood" – on a flourish, instead getting bogged down in a mire of statistics.
Though Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address is now seen as one of the key moments in the history of democracy, at the time he thought it was a failure. Before Lincoln arrived onstage, the audience had been obliged to stand through a dull two-hour oration from the politician Edward Everett. Prayers and music took up a further two hours. Lincoln then spoke for just two minutes, so quietly that he was barely audible. Many in the audience felt short-changed, and had no idea that they would one day be considered witnesses to history.
The most famous phrase in Lincoln's 272 word speech – "government of the people, by the people, for the people" – was in fact several centuries old, and seems to have been pinched from the Prologue to John Wycliffe's 1384 English translation of the Bible.
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| 1 of the 2 confirmed photos of Lincoln (center, facing camera) at Gettysburg |
During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson recruited "Four Minute Men" - 75,000 volunteers who gave 4-minute public speeches nationwide to encourage patriotism and participation in the war effort. An estimated 7.5 million talks were given to over 300 million listeners in just 18 months.
Winston Churchill, would spend weeks polishing up particular phrases for his speeches. He would write while on the telephone or propped up in bed, but perhaps Churchill’s favorite location for writing was the bath.
The final speech by Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird was done in one take.
Dr Martin Luther King had been preaching about dreams since 1960, when he gave a speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called "The Negro and the American Dream". He included a passage that started with "I have a dream" in his original text for a speech he was due to deliver at the march on Washington on August 28, 1963. However, one of his top aides, Wyatt Walker, strongly advised him to get rid of that particular section, which he considered overused and banal. So King cut the offending lines.
The next day, King started delivering his rather over-written text to a rather muted response. However, when the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was standing behind him cried out: "Tell ’em about the dream, Martin!," King put his notes aside, and started "preaching" improvisationally, punctuating his points with "I have a dream."
King's speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century in a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.
In 1987 President Reagan was to deliver one of his most memorable speeches, beside the Berlin Wall. Yet the most famous phrase in it – ‘Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!’ – was almost abandoned before delivery. White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker objected, saying it sounded "extreme" and "unpresidential", and Deputy US National Security Advisor Colin Powell agreed. At first, Reagan acquiesced. On the way to the Brandenburg Gate he changed his mind. "The boys at State are going to kill me," he said. "But it is the right thing to do." The speech received relatively little coverage from the media at the time and wasn't really known until 1989, after the wall came down but the phrase came to crystallize a defining moment in history.
Source When They Go Low, We Go High: Speeches That Shape The World And Why We Need Them by Philip Collins
The final speech by Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird was done in one take.
Dr Martin Luther King had been preaching about dreams since 1960, when he gave a speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called "The Negro and the American Dream". He included a passage that started with "I have a dream" in his original text for a speech he was due to deliver at the march on Washington on August 28, 1963. However, one of his top aides, Wyatt Walker, strongly advised him to get rid of that particular section, which he considered overused and banal. So King cut the offending lines.
The next day, King started delivering his rather over-written text to a rather muted response. However, when the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was standing behind him cried out: "Tell ’em about the dream, Martin!," King put his notes aside, and started "preaching" improvisationally, punctuating his points with "I have a dream."
King's speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century in a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.
In 1987 President Reagan was to deliver one of his most memorable speeches, beside the Berlin Wall. Yet the most famous phrase in it – ‘Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!’ – was almost abandoned before delivery. White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker objected, saying it sounded "extreme" and "unpresidential", and Deputy US National Security Advisor Colin Powell agreed. At first, Reagan acquiesced. On the way to the Brandenburg Gate he changed his mind. "The boys at State are going to kill me," he said. "But it is the right thing to do." The speech received relatively little coverage from the media at the time and wasn't really known until 1989, after the wall came down but the phrase came to crystallize a defining moment in history.
Source When They Go Low, We Go High: Speeches That Shape The World And Why We Need Them by Philip Collins
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