Great Speeches

What compels an audience shifts over time, meaning yesterday's popular speeches might not go over the same way if delivered today. However, impactful campaign speeches across time share some qualities, including taking the audience seriously, inviting listeners to engage with or respond to presented materials, and using everyday, informal language. Additionally, US political candidates typically promote themselves in their speeches, an approach initially considered vulgar in Australia and Britain.

One of seven antiapartheid activists charged with sabotage and tried in a racially segregated courtroom, Nelson Mandela showed up to court wearing traditional Xhosa attire and delivered an hourslong address against racial domination. Nelson said he hoped to live to see realized his ideal of a democratic and free society—"But, my Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

On June 2, 1989, two days before the military-led massacre that would come to be known as the Tiananmen Square crackdown, nine of China's top leaders discussed how to stop pro-democracy protesters. During this meeting, leader Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech that has shaped the country ever since, in which he advocated for a forceful end to the protests while supporting China's economic "opening-up" featured in protesters' demands.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, wrote his famed Gettysburg Address on a train car. Actually, he had a version of it ready a few days before. Well, really, he came up with it on the spot. Rumors about the speech's creation abound. This 1909 article walks readers through evidence Lincoln's speech was carefully planned and written in Washington, DC (in pencil).

The epic "Gilgamesh and Aga," which dates back to 1900-1600 BCE, features a speech by the Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh in which he tries to convince his city's all-male assembly to agree to fight an invading army. Surviving records indicate many ancient cultures, including those in China, India, and North America, had rich public speaking traditions, at least some of which survived time and colonization.

The highest awards in film are highlighted by the winners' speeches. While many give thanks to a list of colleagues, friends, and parents, some diverge into politics, extreme emotion, or goofiness. This incomplete list showcases the most memorable speeches in Academy Award history: from Joe Pesci's in-character six-word thanks, to Sally Fields' candid and humorous one—which inspired some misinterpretations. Learn more here.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was still drafting his August 28, 1963, speech the night before he was set to speak to more than 250,000 people at a demonstration in Washington, DC. As he delivered his speech, a cry from his favorite gospel singer to “Tell ‘em about the dream, Martin" prompted King to push aside his prepared remarks and rely on his established refrain.

Like many practices handed down throughout the ages, the ability to enrapture audiences through oration is an art. And, like all arts, that means anyone can learn to do it well through practice. The first step to a good speech? Paying attention to the audience. Knowing the intended listeners of a speech and their expectations provides insights on how to connect with them.

After NASA’s Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity’s fragility and the responsibility to protect "the only world we’ve ever known."

On Sept. 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy set forth this argument for the effort to land humans on the moon’s surface, casting the Apollo mission in terms of historic human ambitions.