Speeches can be pretty badass, guys. Here's an example of a badass speech, as said by Joshua Lawerence Chamberlain in the movie
Gods and Generals. It is about Caesar crossing the Rubicon and Chamberlain said it just before his unit marched into the horrific battle at Fredericksburg.
In the Roman civil war, Julius Caesar knew he had to march on Rome itself, which no legion was permitted to do. Marcus Lucanus left us a chronicle of what happened:
"How swiftly Caesar had surmounted the icy Alps and in his mind conceived immense upheavals, coming war. When he reached the water of the Little Rubicon, clearly to the leader through the murky night appeared a mighty image of his country in distress, grief in her face, her white hair streaming from her tower-crowned head, with tresses torn and shoulders bare she stood before him, and sighing said:
'Where further do you march? Where do you take my standards, warriors? If lawfully you come, if as citizens, this far only is allowed.'
Then trembling struck the leader's limbs; his hair grew stiff and weakness checked his progress, holding his feet at the river's edge. At last he speaks:
'O Thunderer, surveying great Rome's walls from the Tarpeian Rock --
'O Phrygian house gods of Iulus, clan and mysteries of Quirinus who was carried off to heaven --
'O Jupiter of Latium, seated in lofty Alba and hearths of Vesta --
'O Rome, equal to the highest deity, favor my plans.
Not with impious weapons do I pursue you. Here am I, Caesar, conqueror of land and sea, your own soldier, everywhere, now, too, if I am permitted. The man who makes me your enemy -- it is he who be the guilty one.'
Then he broke the barriers of war and through the swollen river swiftly took his standards. And Caesar crossed the flood and reached the opposite bank. From Hesperia's forbidden fields he took his stand and said:
'Here I abandon peace and desecrated law.
Fortune, it is you I follow.
Farewell to treaties.
From now on war is our judge.'"
Hail, Caesar: We who are about to die salute you.
This is a badass speech. What are your favorite badass speeches that cause you to thump your chests and stamp your feet?
EDIT: Fucking copy-paste comic sans bullshits
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GENERAL LEE, I HAVE NO DIVISION
The man may have had many flaws, but by god he could command a captive audience with his oratory.
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George, my friend, he gave me this mop. It's not as good as my first mop, I miss my first mop, but it's still a good mop.
Sometimes you have to take what life gives you. Because life is like a mop.
Sometimes it's full of dirt and crud and bugs and hairballs and stuff, but you've got to clean it out. You gotta put it in here and rinse it out and start all over again.
And sometimes, life sticks to the floor so bad a mop isn't good enough. It's not good enough. You gotta get down here with a toothbrush and really scrub, and if that doesn't work, if that doesn't work...you can't give up. You've got to run a window and say,
"HEY! THESE FLOORS ARE AS DIRTY AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!"
Yes. That was a pretty awesome response.
Also, another speech by Chamberlain (Chamberlain was pretty awesome guys)
EDIT: The Geek wins prizes of esteem
Wait that's a song not a speech.
We will fight them on the beaches is fucking glorious.
Also.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning.
We will remember them.
Though I wish more politicians gave angry speeches like in Citizen Kane.
The Iron Curtain speech is my personal favourite.
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Man, I don't care if it's fictional.
Probably the greatest "Oh SNAP!" in history.
The Great Dictator was such a fantastic movie. Shit, I should watch that today.
"In the absence of orders, go find something and kill it."
"Sweat saves blood, blood saves lives, and brains saves both."
"Be an exapmle to your men, in your duty and in private life. Never spare yourself, and let the troops see that you don´t in your endurance of fatigue and privation. Always be tactfull and wellmannered and teach your subordinates to do the same. Avoid excessive sharpness or harshness of voice, wich usually indicates the man who has shortcommings of his own to hide."
Never has something so horribly wrong (economically) sounded so poetic.
And now, in order to quickly get off the .... awkward topic of the gold standard, I give you my favorite words by the man in my Facebook profile pic.
"...The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.
Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'" -WC
Also, not actually speeches so much as poetry (which could be spoken,) but it's hard to beat Charge of the Light Brigade (Tennyson) and Epitaph on a Band of Mercenaries (Houseman) on the scale of 1 to fucking epic.
"There is nothing so absurd, but some philosopher has said it." -C
What the fuck are you talking about?
O'Connor would have beaten his ass if he hadn't been captured in the desert.
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I dont buy into his godly legend either, but he did a damn good job with the Afrika Korps, espeically when they were rarely reinforced or resupplied.
Not that well. Much of his success was based on pure luck and over-stretching his supplies, and when he did get caught out he suffered badly. Even his retreat post-Alamein wasn't anything brilliant. He was competent at best.
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Oh yeah man he's great.
On another note, Obamamen hve set up shop right outside the library where I'm at and they're hassling people as they walk by.
I'm all for Obama but I really don't need somebody up in my face yelling about how awesome he is.
What, don't you like bonanza?
What about Bobby?
I was totally going to say that. My favorite is his impromptu (!) speech on the death of MLK. To a room full of black people who didn't know that MLK had been killed.
People don't talk like this anymore, and that is a fucking shame.
I mean, he quotes AESCHYLUS. Holy shit.
"My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black."
Whole speech:
I have some very sad news for all of you, and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.
Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.
For those of you who are black - considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible - you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.
We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization - black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.
For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.
But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond these rather difficult times.
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.
(Interrupted by applause)
So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, yeah that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love - a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke. We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past. And we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder.
But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.
(Interrupted by applause)
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people. Thank you very much. (Applause)
Also, I know Teefs' eyes will roll back into his skull but anyone that denies Reagan's ability as a communicator is just plain wrong.
It's not that much of a stretch.
Reagan was an awesome orator. His "Evil Empire" speech was pretty good.