The words are mightier than the pen

For this week, I offer you the following, an excerpt from the book I am working on. It is a book of historical lists and contains common and uncommon knowledge from antiquity to today.

Most influential speeches in History

This list illustrates my personal choice of groundbreaking and influential speeches in Western history. It would be naive to think that these speeches single-handedly affected change. I propose that these jewels of oratory are the voicing of social, political and cultural trends at the time.

1. Moses – c. 1250 BC – The 10 commandments (The basis of Western law)

2. Cicero – 63 BC – Conjuration of Catilina (He foiled a Roman coup d’État and prosecuted its conspirators. Thus, the law and justice prevailed over summary judgements.)

3. Jesus – c. 33 AD – Blessed are the poor in spirit (This speech elaborated the following 2000 years in Western morality.)

4. Elizabeth 1^st – Aug 9^th 1588 – I have the heart and stomach of a king (Upon taking personal command of the defence of England against the invading Spanish Armada, the Queen gave this speech. It stands as a testament to female authority and power.

5. William Wilberforce – May 12^th 1789 – Let us make reparations to Africa (This man and this speech pioneered the movement for the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire. It was finally accomplished in 1809)

6. Maximilien de Robespierre – Dec. 3^rd 1792 – Louis must perish because our country must live (This speech elaborated and justified the violent downfall of European monarchies through the promotion of the ideas of the Enlightenment. This led to the following 50 years in which Europe formed nations and renounced absolute, divine-right monarchy)

7. Thomas Jefferson – March 4^th 1801 – Equal and exact justice to all men (Dressed in plain clothes and without escort, this American president’s inaugural address emphasized the class-blindness of the law.)

8. Abraham Lincoln – Nov. 19^th 1863 – Gouvernment of the people, by the people and for the people (This oration is the most quoted in history. It confirmed the holy and ethical virtue of liberty and equality among men.)

9. Vladimir Illyich Lenin – April 15^th 1917 – Long live the World Socialist revolution (When philosophers theorised about equality among men, Lenin promoted the violent overthrow of the established order to accomplish it.)

10. Winston Churchill – June 18^th 1940 – This was their finest hour (Amidst the preparations for the imminent invasion of Britain by the Nazis, Churchill defiantly reiterated the undying courage and valour of democracy in the face of tyranny.)

11. Dr. Martin Luther King – August 28^th 1963 – I have a dream (Dr. King proudly shouted his hope that racial discrimination should fall as the last major bastion of ignorance.)

End.