William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist
‘To the Freemen of Coventry’, Political Register (4 April 1818), p. 404
1810s
Address to the Democratic National Convention http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/huberthumphey1948dnc.html (July 14, 1948), Convention Hall, Philadelphia.
William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist
‘To the Freemen of Coventry’, Political Register (4 April 1818), p. 404
1810s
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
The third and fourth sentences are a paraphrase of a sentence by G. K. Chesterton: "I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act." Generally Speaking, "On Holland' (1928).
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Context: It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look.
Pat Paulsen (1927–1997) United States Marine
Unidentified press conference, 1968 <br class="br">Featured in Pat Paulsen for President (1968), part 2 of 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbP0ufyax5A&feature=relmfu, 01:01 ff (10:01 ff in full program)
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
1850s, Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), The Present Time (February 1, 1850)
José Saramago (1922–2010) Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature
Interview with "El País", 2009.
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Remarks by the President on Immigration -- Chicago, IL (November 25, 2014) http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/25/remarks-president-immigration-chicago-il <br class="br">2014
“There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?"”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, I Have A Dream (1963)
Context: There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
Kevin Rudd (1957) Australian politician, 26th Prime Minister of Australia
Rudd's first speech as Labor leader
2006