Oratorical Piece: I will Persist Until I Succeed

I was not delivered unto this World in defeat, nor does failure course in my veins. I will hear not those
who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious. The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny.

The prizes of life are at the end of each journey, not near the beginning; and it is not given to me to
know how many steps are necessary in order to reach my goal. Failure I may still encounter at the
thousandth step, yet success hides behind the next bend in the road. Never will I know how close it lies
unless I turn the corner.

I will be likened to the rain drop which washes away the mountain, the ant that devours a tiger, the star
which brightens the earth, and the slave who builds a pyramid. I will build my castle one brick at a time
for I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking. I will persist until I succeed.

I will never consider defeat and I will remove from my vocabulary such words and phrases as quit,
cannot, unable, impossible, out of the question, improbable, failure, unworkable, hopeless, and retreat.
I will avoid despair but if this disease of the mind should infect me then I will work on in despair. I will
toil and I will endure.

I will remember the ancient law of averages and I will bend it to my good. Each frown I meet only
prepares me for the smile to come. Each misfortune I encounter I will carry in it the seed of tomorrow’s
good luck. I must have the night to appreciate the day. I must fail often to succeed only once. I will
persist until I succeed.

Never will I allow any day to end with a failure. Thus I will plant the seed of tomorrow’s success and
gain an insurmountable advance over those who cease their labor at a prescribed time. When others
cease their struggle, then mine will begin, and my harvest will be full.

Nor will I allow yesterday’s success to lull me into today’s complacency, for this is the greatest
foundation of failure. I will forget the happenings of the day that is gone, whether they were good or
bad, and greet the new sun with confidence that this will be the best day of my life.
So long as there is breath in me, that long will I persist? For I know one of the greatest principles of
success – if I persist long enough, I will win.

I will persist!

I will win!

Oratorical Piece : Because Of What We Are, Of What We Believe

For every generation, there is a destiny. For some, history decides. For this generation, the choice must
be our own.

Our destiny in the midst of change will rest on the changed character of our people and on their faith.

In a land of great wealth, families must not live in hopeless poverty.

In a land rich in harvest, children must not be hungry.

In a land of healing miracles, neighbors must not suffer and die untended.

In a great land of learning and scholars, young people must be taught to read and write.
How incredible it is that in this fragile existence, we should hate and destroy one another. There are
possibilities enough for all who will abandon mastery; others to pursue mastery over nature. There is
world enough for all to seek their happiness in their own way.

We have discovered that every child who learns, and every man who finds work, and every sick body
that is made whole – like a candle added to an altar – brightens the hope of all the faithful.

So let us reject any among us, who seek to reopen old wounds, and rekindle old hatreds. They stand in
the way of a seeking nation.

Let us join reason to faith and action to experience, to transform our unity of interest into a unity of
purpose. To achieve change without hatred; not without difference of opinion but without the deep
and abiding divisions which scar the union for generations.

Under the covenant of justice, liberty and union, we have become a nation. And we have kept our
freedom.

It is the excitement of becoming – always becoming, trying, probing, resting, and trying again but always
gaining.

If we fail now, then we will have forgotten in abundance what we learned in hardship; that democracy
rests on faith, that freedom asks more that it gives.

If we succeeded, it will not be because of what we have, but it will be because of what we are; not
because of what we own, but rather because of what we believe.

For we are a nation of believers. Underneath the clamor of buildings and the rush of our day’s pursuits,
we are the believers in justice and liberty and union. And in our own union we believe that every man
must some day be free. And we believe in ourselves.
For this is what our country is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed bridge. It is the
star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground.

Is our world gone? We say farewell, is a new world coming? We welcome it – and we will bend it to the
hopes of man.

But you must look within your own hearts to the old promises and to the old dreams.