Martin Luther King I Have a Dream 1963

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its
governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification –
one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join
hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted and every hill and
mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked
places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all
flesh shall see it together.

King George VI Radio Address 1939

In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in history, I send to every household of
my peoples, both at home and overseas, this message, spoken with the same
depth of feeling for each one of you as if I were able to cross your threshold and
speak to you myself.

For the second time in the lives of most of us, we are at war.

Over and over again, we have tried to find a peaceful way out of the differences
between ourselves and those who are now our enemies, but it has been in vain.
Winston Churchill We shall fight on the beaches 1940
…we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the
beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in
the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I
do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and
starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British
Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with
all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

Elizabeth I Speech to the Troops 1588

I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and
disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die
amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my
honour and my blood, even in the dust. 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; to which rather than any dishonour
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.

Chief Joseph Surrender Speech 1877

Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my
heart. I am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool
Hool Shute is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or
no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the
little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to
the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are – perhaps
freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many
of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my Chiefs! I
am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no
more forever.

Emmeline Pankhurst Freedom or Death 1913

You have left it to women in your land, the men of all civilised countries have left it
to women, to work out their own salvation. That is the way in which we women of
England are doing. Human life for us is sacred, but we say if any life is to be
sacrificed it shall be ours; we won’t do it ourselves, but we will put the enemy in
the position where they will have to choose between giving us freedom or giving
us death.

John F. Kennedy The Decision to go the Moon 1961

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.

Shakespeare The Tempest Act 3 Scene 2 c.1610

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.
Shakespeare Henry V Act 3 Scene 1, 1598
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage

William Lyon Phelps The Pleasure of Books 1933

A borrowed book is like a guest in the house; it must be treated with
punctiliousness, with a certain considerate formality. You must see that it sustains
no damage; it must not suffer while under your roof. You cannot leave it carelessly,
you cannot mark it, you cannot turn down the pages, you cannot use it familiarly.
And then, some day, although this is seldom done, you really ought to return it.