Archive of posts tagged speech

Great words from great presidents

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… plus one other guy at the end.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt, March 4, 1933: Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, January 20, 1961: And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

Ronald Wilson Reagan, January 20, 1981: In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.

Ronald Wilson Reagan, June 12, 1987: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

George Walker Bush, September 14, 2001: I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.

Barack Hussein Obama, January 19, 2011: This bit of news… under a new agreement, our national zoo will continue to dazzle children and visitors with the beloved giant pandas.

Full text of Obama’s speech

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‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.


“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”


(applause)


He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.


(applause)


And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!


One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.


(applause)


“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.


‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.


(applause)