best election speeches of all time

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The 15 most inspiring presidential speeches in american history.

• By Tara Kibler
• February 15, 2021
• History , Political Science

Over the centuries, millions upon millions of words have been used by U.S. presidents to motivate, caution, reassure, and guide the American people. Whether written in the news, spoken at a podium, or shared on Twitter, all of these words have carried weight, each with the potential to impact the trajectory of our nation. Only a handful of times, however, has the particular arrangement and context of these words been considered truly inspiring.

This Presidents’ Day, join HeinOnline in rediscovering some of the greatest presidential speeches in American history using our   U.S. Presidential Library  and other sources.

1. Washington’s Farewell Address

Date:  September 17th, 1796

Context:  Toward the end of his second term as the first U.S. president, George Washington announced his retirement from office in a letter addressed to the American people. Though many feared for a United States without Washington, the address reassured the young nation that it no longer required his leadership. Washington also used the opportunity to offer advice for the prosperity of the country. After witnessing the growing division between the Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties, much of his advice was to warn against political parties, factions, and other animosities (domestic and foreign) that would eventually undermine the integrity and efficacy of the American government.

Notable Quote:  “This spirit [of party], unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind … [but] the disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

“Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions … A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.”

2. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

Date:  November 19, 1863

Context:  Four months after Union armies defeated Confederates at Gettysburg during the American Civil War, President Lincoln visited the site to dedicate the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. In what were intended to be brief, appropriate remarks for the situation, Lincoln used the moment to offer his take on the war and its meaning. The ten sentences he spoke would ultimately become one of the most famous speeches in American history, an inspiration for notable remarks centuries later, and even a foundation for the wording of other countries’ constitutions.

Notable Quote:  “… from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they heregave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain; that the Nation shall under God have a new birth of freedom, and that Governments of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

3. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Inaugural Address

Date:  March 4, 1933

Context:  The inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt was held as the country was in the throes of the Great Depression, and as such, America anxiously awaited what he had to say. Roosevelt did not disappoint, offering 20 minutes of reassurance, hope, and promises for urgent action.

Notable Quote:  “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is … fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.”

4. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Fireside Chat

Date:  March 12, 1933

Context:  Just a few days after his inauguration, Roosevelt instituted what he called “fireside chats,” using the relatively new technology of radio to enter the living rooms of Americans and discuss current issues. In these moments, he could speak at length, unfiltered and uninterrupted by the press, while also offering a reassuring, optimistic tone that might otherwise have been lost in the written word. In this first fireside chat, he crafted a message to explain the American banking process (and its current difficulties) in a way that the average listener could understand.

Notable Quote:  “Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith. You must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system, and it is up to you to support and make it work. It is your problem, my friends. Your problem no less than it is mine. Together, we cannot fail.”

5. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” Speech

Date:  January 6, 1941

Context:  By 1941, many affected by the Great Depression had experienced economic recovery, but another world-changing phenomenon had reared its head—Hitler and his Nazi regime. World War II was raging in Europe and the Pacific, but the United States had thus far remained largely neutral. In light of the atrocities occurring overseas, Roosevelt sought to change that. He crafted his State of the Union address that January to highlight four freedoms which are deserved by all humans everywhere. The “Four Freedoms” speech, as it was ultimately known, later became the basis for  America’s intervention in World War II  and significantly influenced American values, life, and politics moving forward.

Notable Quote:  “In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peace of time life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction, armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.”

6. Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” Speech

Date:  December 8, 1953

Context:  During World War II, Roosevelt formally authorized the Manhattan Project, a top-secret U.S. effort to weaponize nuclear energy. By 1945,  America had successfully created the atomic bomb , and President Truman had authorized its detonation in Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leveling the two cities and killing hundreds of thousands of people. Following the end of World War II, political and economic differences between the United States and Soviet Union drove the two countries to another war soon after, but this time, the Soviet Union had their own atomic bomb as well. The world was teetering on a frightening ledge built by access to nuclear power, causing President Eisenhower to launch an “emotion management” campaign with this speech to the United Nations about the very real risks but also peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Notable Quote:  “… the whole book of history reveals mankind’s never-ending quest for peace and mankind’s God-given capacity to build. It is with the book of history, and not with isolated pages, that the United States will ever wish to be identified. My country wants to be constructive, not destructive. It wants agreements, not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom and in the confidence that the peoples of every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life. … The United States knows that if the fearful trend of atomic military build-up can be reversed, this greatest of destructive forces can be developed into a great boon, for the benefit of all mankind.”

7. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address

Date:  January 17, 1961

Context:  As he came to the end of his term, President Eisenhower found himself in a nation much stronger, much richer, and much more advanced than when he began. Prepared as early as two years in advance, his farewell address acknowledged the pride all should have in these achievements, but also served to ground the American people in sobering reality—that how the United States uses this power and standing will ultimately determine its fate. Like Washington, his address was one of caution against dangers such as massive spending, an overpowered military industry, and Federal domination of scientific progress (or vice versa, the scientific-technological domination of public policy). In all things, he stressed the need to maintain balance as the country moves forward, for the preservation of liberty.

Notable Quote:  “Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.”

8. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address

Date:  January 20, 1961

Context:  A few days after Eisenhower’s farewell speech, he turned over his office to the youngest-ever elected president, John F. Kennedy. Kennedy now found himself faced with the monumental task of strengthening the United States while also quelling American anxieties about the Cold War and avoiding nuclear warfare. His speech thus focused on unity, togetherness, and collaboration both domestically and abroad.

Notable Quote:  “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

9. Kennedy’s “We Choose to Go to the Moon” Speech

Date:  September 12, 1962

Context:  In the name of national security, the United States and USSR set their sights on spaceflight as a top priority during the Cold War. To the surprise (and fear) of people around the globe, the Soviet Union launched the first-ever artificial satellite in 1957, then sent the first human being into space in 1961, signaling to onlookers that its nation was a technological force to be reckoned with. Kennedy was determined to come up with a challenge in space technology that the United States actually stood a chance to win. In the early ’60s, he proposed that America focus on putting a man on the moon. In an uplifting speech at Rice University, Kennedy reminded his listeners of the country’s technological progress so far and of his administration’s determination to continue the pioneering spirit of early America into the new frontier of space.

Notable Quote:  “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

Read about America’s successful moon landing in this blog post.

10. Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” Speech

Date:  May 22, 1964

Context:  Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as President in 1963, immediately following  Kennedy’s assassination . Johnson vowed to continue the former president’s work on poverty, civil rights, and other issues. Inspired in part by FDR’s New Deal, he devised a set of programs intended to completely eliminate poverty and racial injustice. In 1964, he formally proposed some specific goals in a speech to the University of Michigan, where he coined the lofty ideal of a “Great Society.”

Notable Quote:  “Your imagination, your initiative, and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.”

11. Lyndon B. Johnson’s “We Shall Overcome” Speech

Date:  March 15, 1965

Context:  By the 1960s, blacks in areas of the Deep South found themselves disenfranchised by state voting laws, such as those requiring a poll tax, literacy tests, or knowledge of the U.S. constitution. Furthermore, these laws were sometimes applied subjectively, leading to the prevention of even educated blacks from voting or registering to vote. Inspired (and sometimes joined) by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., protests were planned throughout the region. Eight days after racial violence erupted around one of these protests in Selma, Alabama, President Johnson addressed Congress to declare that “every American citizen must have an equal right to vote” and that discriminatory policies were denying African-Americans that right.

Notable Quote:  “What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause too. Because it’s not just Negroes, but really it’s all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome …

“This great, rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all, all black and white, all North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease. They’re our enemies, not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too—poverty, disease, and ignorance: we shall overcome.”

12. Reagan’s D-Day Anniversary Address

Date:  June 6, 1984

Context:  During World War II, the Allied forces attacked German troops on the coast of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944. A turning point for the war, the day came to be known as D-Day, and its anniversary is forever acknowledged. On its 40th anniversary, President Ronald Reagan honored the heroes of that day in a speech that also invoked a comparison of World War II’s Axis dictators to the Soviet Union during the ongoing Cold War. This reminder to the Allies that they once fought together against totalitarianism and must continue the fight now helped contribute to the ultimate dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Notable Quote:  “We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action. We will pray forever that some day that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it. We are bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We’re bound by reality. The strength of America’s allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe’s democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.”

13. Reagan’s Berlin Wall Speech

Date:  June 12, 1987

Context:  With the fall of Nazi Germany at the end of World War II, Western powers and the Soviet Union sought to establish systems of government in their respective occupied regions. West Germany developed into a Western capitalist country, with a democratic parliamentary government, while East Germany became a socialist workers’ state (though it was often referred to as communist in the English-speaking world). Many experiencing hunger, poverty, and repression in the Soviet-influenced East Germany attempted to move west, with the City of Berlin their main point of crossing. Ultimately, the Soviet Union advised East Germany to build a wall on the inner German border, restricting movement and emigration by threat of execution for attempted emigrants. Seen as a symbol of Communist tyranny by Western nations, the Berlin Wall persisted for nearly three decades. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan visited West Berlin and called upon Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to take down the wall as a symbol of moving forward.

Notable Quote:  “We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

14. George W. Bush’s Post-9/11 Speech

Date:  September 11, 2001

Context:  On September 11, 2001, the United States experienced  the single worst terrorist attack in human history , where four American planes were hijacked and flown into American buildings, killing nearly 3,000 people. Viewers around the world watched the news as five stories of the Pentagon fell and the World Trade Center buildings collapsed entirely. Later that evening, President George W. Bush addressed the nation with a brief but powerful message that chose to focus not on fear, but on America’s strength in unity.

Notable Quote:

“These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve. America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining.”

15. Obama’s “More Perfect Union” Speech

Date:  March 18, 2008

Context:  While campaigning for the presidency in 2008, Barack Obama came under fire for his relationship with pastor Jeremiah Wright, who had been heard to denounce the United States and accuse the government of racial crimes. To officially address the relationship and condemn Wright’s inflammatory remarks, Obama crafted a speech that discussed the history of racial inequality in America as well as the dissonance between that history and America’s ideals of human liberty. Importantly, however, he also highlighted the necessity for a unified American people to effectively combat those issues, rather than more racial division.

Notable Quote:  “[T]he remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country—a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America ….

“[These] comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems—two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all ….

“The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through—a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.”

Read about Barack Obama’s presidency in this blog post.

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The Best Presidential Speeches of All Time

Presidential speeches are often remembered for one great phrase, memorable line, or rhetorical flourish that makes its way into the history books. But they should be seen as more than collections of memorable words - in fact, as documents of their time and place. Great presidential speeches are made in the context of crises, challenges, and times of great peril. But they can also inspire, uplift, and encourage. The truly great speeches manage to do both at once.

What's less well-known about many of the great addresses by presidents that they're short. Maybe the most famous speech in American history, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, is just over two minutes long. Many others, rather than being long rambles of adjectives and superlatives, are fewer than one thousand words, and lasted just 10 minutes. They didn't need thousands and thousands of words to make their point, just a few well-chosen ones given by a dynamic speaker.

The Gettysburg Address

President Lincoln delivered his most famous speech just five months after the Battle of Gettysburg, at the dedication of the site's military cemetery. There is no existing final copy, and the five surviving manuscripts of the speech all have slightly different word choices. The speech was just 10 sentences long, and took two and a half minutes to deliver.

Kennedy's Inaugural Address

President Kennedy's only inaugural address was one of the shortest on record, fewer than 1,400 words and taking only 13 minutes and 42 seconds. But it perfectly encapsulated the social change, economic prosperity, and political upheaval Kennedy was walking into.

Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

President Lincoln gave his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, as the Civil War was reaching its bloody conclusion. With reconstruction between the North and South looming, Lincoln paused to take stock of what had been lost, and what could be gained. It was just 700 words long, and took around five minutes to deliver.

Washington's Farewell Address

President Washington actually wrote a version of his farewell to the American people after his first term, but decided to run for a second given the precarious state of the country. It was first published in the American Daily Advertiser newspaper, then in papers and pamphlets around the country. Washington never actually gave the address as a speech.

Kennedy's "We Choose to Go to the Moon" Speech

While President Kennedy had declared the United States's intention to put a man on the Moon in May 1961, the idea didn't truly resonate with the American people until his speech in September of the next year. In front of a massive crowd at Rice University, Kennedy managed to make Americans enthusiastic about spending billions of dollars on a prospect with no guarantee of success.

FDR's Infamy Speech

President Roosevelt's speech to a Joint Session of Congress the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor served to emphasize the idea of America as the victim of a cowardly sneak attack, rather than as a player in a complicated geopolitical struggle. Lasting just seven minutes, the speech let it be known that isolationism was no longer an option - and less than an hour later, the US declared war on Japan.

Reagan's Brandenburg Gate Speech

President Reagan's speech at an event commemorating the 750th anniversary of the founding of Berlin was little noticed in the American press, and hotly criticized by Communist media outlets, who found it inflammatory. Even Reagan's staff were divided on the speech's tone and call to disarmament, but one key phrase in the middle of the speech stuck out, and became a rallying cry for Reagan's final year in office.

Eisenhower's Farewell Address

Upon leaving office in January 1961, President Eisenhower cautioned against the growing influence of the defense industry. He warned the American people that the vast ratcheting up of defense spending and arms production could one day become a threat to our own liberty. Eisenhower deemed this the "military-industrial complex," a phrase now in the common vernacular.

FDR’s First Inaugural Address

Having won a landslide victory over Herbert Hoover, Roosevelt took the opportunity to deliver a fairly short speech of around 20 minutes, meant to reassure the nation. The address became famous for its optimistic tone, in spite of the raging Great Depression.

Lincoln's Cooper Union Speech

Given a few months before the Republican nominating convention, historians believe Lincoln's speech at New York City's Cooper Union sealed his winning of the nomination. The speech, one of Lincoln's longest, laid out his views on what seemed to be the only important issues of the time - slavery and secession. He forcefully and clearly laid out his views, juxtaposing them with the Founding Fathers'.

Teddy Roosevelt's "Man with the Muck-Rake" Speech

Roosevelt had been the first president to actively interface with the press, holding conferences and elevating the position of Press Secretary to his cabinet. In his April 1906 speech , the progressive president outlined his support of the crusading journalists who were bringing to light the abuses and exploitation of America's rapidly industrializing society. In doing so, he introduced the term "muckraker" into the popular vernacular.

Jefferson's First Inaugural

Thomas Jefferson was sworn in under a cloud of controversy, as, when he and Aaron Burr tied in the Electoral College, the election of 1800 had to be decided in the House of Representatives. With Jefferson finally emerging victorious, and the nation teetering on the edge, he spoke of the need to find common ground between the two parties controlling American politics at the time. 

George W. Bush's Post 9/11 Speech

With the nation reeling in the wake of the September 11th attacks, President Bush addressed the country with a short but powerful message . Since the culprits behind the attacks were still unknown, Bush spoke to the resoluteness of the American spirit, and encouraged the people not to be overtaken by fear of what was ahead.

FDR's 1941 State of the Union

Roosevelt spoke to a nation girding for war in 1941, reminding the people of what was at stake in the Second World War. The speech became known as the " Four Freedoms Speech," as Roosevelt advocated for freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear, and freedom from want. The speech was criticized by anti-war contingents, but came to be seen as a kind of shorthand for why the United States was fighting.

Ronald Reagan's First Inaugural

Reagan strode into office declaring his intention to sweep away the growing bureaucracy and economic stagnation that had plagued previous administrations. And while Reagan's address never directly mentions the American hostages being held in Iran, the tough message of the speech was clear, and the hostages were released while Reagan was speaking.

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

Johnson's "We Shall Overcome" Speech

On March 15, 1965, President Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress on behalf of the Voting Rights Act and to denounce the violence attacks on marchers in Selma, Alabama. While many questioned Johnson's motives in giving the speech (he'd been on the other side of the civil rights debate until late into the 1950s), nobody could question his sincerity after hearing it.

"Truman Doctrine" Speech

On March 12, 1947, President Truman addressed a Joint Session of Congress on the recent crises in Greece and the Turkish Straits. Truman made it clear that the US would attempt to contain the spread of Communism in both countries, as one falling would lead to the other falling - the "Domino Theory" that became used as a justification for the Cold War. Truman espoused the dangers the world was facing, and the cost of inaction. Historians point to this speech as the beginning of the Cold War that would dominate US foreign policy for the next 40 years.

Obama's "A More Perfect Union" Speech

In the throes of the 2008 Democratic primary, Barack Obama had become embroiled in a controversy over his previous association with an inflammatory pastor named Jeremiah Wright. At a campaign event in March, Obama spoke of race relations in America in general, and of his association with Wright in particular, in a fiery speech that some pundits believe won him the Democratic nomination.

Famous quote: " I can no more disown [Wright] than I can disown the Black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of Black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

Nixon's "Silent Majority" Speech

President Nixon used this term in a November 1969 speech prevailing upon the American people to support the Vietnam War. He was referencing the great mass of blue collar and suburban conservatives who weren't joining anti-war protest marches, weren't participating in the counterculture, and preferred to not speak up. Nixon didn't invent the phrase, though, as several other prominent figures had used it, including Nixon's own vice president, Spiro Agnew.

Woodrow Wilson's Second Inaugural

While Wilson ran on the slogan, "He Kept Us Out of War," by the time of his second inauguration in March 1917, it was clear that US neutrality couldn't last. German attacks on merchant shipping had increased, and a number of American citizens had been killed on ships flying neutral flags. Wilson's speech prepared the nation to enter a war it was still divided about.

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10 Modern Presidential Speeches Every American Should Know

By: Allison McNearney

Updated: October 18, 2023 | Original: February 16, 2018

Presidential speeches reveal the United States’ challenges, hopes, dreams and temperature of the nation, as much as they do the wisdom and perspective of the leader speaking them. Even in the age of Twitter, the formal, spoken word from the White House carries great weight and can move, anger or inspire at home and around the world.

Here are the 10 most important modern presidential speeches selected by scholars at the Miller Center —a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in presidential scholarship—and professors from other universities, as well.

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address

When: 1933, during the Great Depression

What Roosevelt Said: “This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself… Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war.”

Why It Was Important: Roosevelt is embarking on something audacious, proposing that the national government has an obligation to provide an economic safety net for its citizens to protect them from the unpredictability of the market. In making a case for bold intervention in markets, he’s also making a case for a stronger executive at the top. But for all the disruptive talk in this speech, Roosevelt delivers reassurance. I think a hallmark of the speeches that we remember the most by presidents from both parties are ones that not only address the circumstances at hand, but also give people some hope.

— Margaret O’Mara, professor of history, University of Washington

2. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Fireside Chat 'On Banking'

When: March 1933

What Roosevelt Said: “My friends, I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking…confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith. You must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system, and it is up to you to support and make it work. It is your problem, my friends. Your problem no less than it is mine. Together, we cannot fail.”

Why It Was Important: Beginning with the simple phrase, “My friends,” the stage was set for the personalization of the presidency that continued throughout FDR’s administration. Roosevelt received an outpouring of support from the public and used the power of media to connect with his constituents. Recognizing publicity as essential to policymaking, he crafted a very intricate public relations plan for all of his New Deal legislation. The media allowed him to present a very carefully crafted message that was unfiltered and unchallenged by the press. Many newspapers were critical of his New Deal programs, so turning to radio and motion pictures allowed him to present his version of a particular policy directly to the people. Today, we see parallels in the use of Twitter to bypass opponents and critics of the administration to appeal directly to the American people. And that all started with FDR and his first fireside chat.

— Kathryn Cramer Brownell, Assistant Professor of History, Purdue University

3. Dwight Eisenhower’s 'Atoms for Peace' Speech to the United Nations

What Eisenhower Said: “I feel impelled to speak today in a language that, in a sense, is new. One which I, who have spent so much of my life in the military profession, would have preferred never to use: That new language is the language of atomic warfare…Against the dark background of the atomic bomb, the United States does not wish merely to present strength, but also the desire and the hope for peace. To the makers of these fateful decisions, the United States pledges before you, and therefore before the world, its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma. To devote its entire heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life.”

Why It Was Important: Eisenhower believed in the political power of nuclear weapons, but in this speech, he talks about their dangers. He speaks about the importance of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and proposes that the U.S. and Soviet Union cooperate to reduce their nuclear stockpiles. Keep in mind that there were just 1,300 nuclear weapons in the world in 1953 compared with more than seven times that number today. But Eisenhower is also a realist. He understands the importance of nuclear deterrence and he reminds his audience that his proposal comes from a position of American strength, not weakness.

— Todd Sechser, Professor of Politics, University of Virginia and Senior Fellow, Miller Center

4. Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address

What Eisenhower Said: “Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportion…In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic process.”

Why It Was Important: That speech gave a name to our modern era. Eisenhower was telling us that we now live in a time when government, the military and the corporate world all have joined together into a powerful alliance that shapes the basic democratic functioning of the country. Eisenhower understood that Americans wanted both security and liberty, and it’s a fundamental paradox of the American experiment. In order to have security, we need to have a large defense establishment. But he asks, who is going to be the guardian of our freedoms in a world where we have to have a permanent arms industry? What he was saying in the speech is that we have to learn how to live with it, and control it, rather than having it control us.

— Will Hitchcock, Randolph P. Compton Professor at the Miller Center and professor of history, University of Virginia

5. Lyndon B. Johnson’s 'Great Society' Speech at the University of Michigan

When: May 22, 1964

What Johnson Said: “For a century, we labored to settle and to subdue a continent. For half a century, we called upon unbounded invention and untiring industry to create an order of plenty for all of our people. The challenge of the next half-century is whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our American civilization. Your imagination and your initiative and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For, in your time, we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society. “

Why It Was Important: LBJ called on all Americans to move upward to a Great Society in which wealth is used for more than personal enrichment and is instead used to improve communities, protect the natural world, and allow all Americans, regardless of race or class, to fully develop their innate talents and abilities. The message of Johnson’s speech resonates today because we have lost not only that self-confidence and that idealism but also the vision to recognize that prosperity can be used for something greater than the self.

— Guian McKee, Associate Professor of Presidential Studies, the Miller Center

6. John F. Kennedy’s Address on the Space Effort

When: September 1962

What Kennedy Said: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the Industrial Revolution, the first waves of modern invention and the first wave of nuclear power. And this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space, we mean to be a part of it, we mean to lead it.”

Why It Was Important: We were in a new age of technology and space exploration. President Kennedy made Americans feel that there was nothing that we couldn’t do, no challenge we couldn’t conquer. It was before Vietnam, before Watergate, before the deaths of our heroes like Jack and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King —when we had a sense in this country that if we all joined together we could fulfill our loftiest goals.

— Barbara Perry, Director of Presidential Studies, the Miller Center

7. Ronald Reagan’s Speech Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of D-Day

When: June 6, 1984

What Reagan Said: “The rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers at the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades, and the American rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs they began to seize back the continent of Europe… (to veterans) You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for, and Democracy is worth dying for because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.

Why It’s Important: That day in June of 1984, before  Band of Brothers  and  Saving Private Ryan  ever came to be, President Reagan paid tribute to the heroism of those we now call the Greatest Generation, the men and women who liberated Europe and ensured freedom for generations to come.  But for the first time, he also tied resistance to totalitarianism in World War II to opposition to the Soviet Union during the Cold War . President Reagan’s words at the end of that speech, again in the second person, to our Allies that “we were with you then, and we are with you now,” when he called upon the West to “renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it” kept the coalition in place that later defeated the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War. The “boys of Pointe du Hoc” saved the world, and, in many ways, they did so more than once.

— Mary Kate Cary, Senior Fellow, the Miller Center

8. Ronald Reagan’s Address on the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

When: January 1986

What Reagan Said: “The future doesn’t belong to the faint-hearted but to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them…The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye, and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.”

Why It Was Important: In our current era of political divisiveness, we tend to think of presidents as partisan leaders. But the president’s role as “comforter in chief” is one of the most important functions. The great presidents are distinguished by their ability to set aside partisanship in times of tragedy to speak words that comfort a nation and remind us that, despite our differences, we are all, in the end, Americans.

— Chris Lu, Senior Fellow, the Miller Center

9. George W. Bush’s 'Get On Board' Speech

When: After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks

What Bush Said: “When they struck they wanted to create an atmosphere of fear, and one of the great goals of this war is…to tell the traveling public: Get on board. Do your business around the country. Fly and enjoy America’s great destination spots. Get down to Disney World in Florida. Take your families and enjoy life the way we want it to be enjoyed.”

Why It Was Important: In short, Bush was saying don’t let the terrorists deter you from spending—the economy needs you. More specifically, Bush’s remarks demonstrated the importance that consumption had come to play in the economy by the twenty-first century. He was carrying out what had become an essential responsibility of the 21st-century president. Even as Bush modeled what it meant to be a strong commander in chief, he juggled another role that had become almost as important: “consumer in chief.”

— Brian Balogh, Dorothy Compton Professor of History, the Miller Center

10. Barack Obama’s 'A More Perfect Union' Speech

What Obama Said: “Contrary to the claim of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve to think as to believe we can get beyond our racial divisions on a single election cycle or with a single candidate, particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. But I have asserted a firm conviction, a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people, that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice. We have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union…What we know, what we have seen, is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope, the audacity to hope, for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.”

Why It Was Important: Conventional wisdom wouldn’t recommend a speech on race. But Obama ran to the challenge, not away from it. Uniquely positioned to do so, he welcomed listeners to places many have never experienced—a predominantly black church, a cringe-worthy conversation with a beloved relative of a different race, the kitchen tables of white Americans who feel resentful and left behind—and he recounted Americans often divergent perspectives. He asked us to be honest about our past while connecting it to the structural barriers faced by African Americans and other people of color today…Direct, honest, but nuanced, Obama believed that most Americans were ready to hear the truth and make a choice, to move beyond racial stalemate, face our challenges, and act accordingly.

 — Melody Barnes, a Senior Fellow, the Miller Center

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'Politics of joy': the five most inspiring midterm speeches

From Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Stacey Abrams, candidates gave voters messages of hope on election night

W hile it didn’t amount to the overwhelming blue wave Democrats hoped for, midterm election night represented a number of historic firsts . Almost 100 women will take their seats in Congress in 2019, beating the previous record of 85. Contests throughout the country saw the first openly gay state governor and the first Native American women and first Muslim women winning national seats. That sense of change carried over into the speeches, both in victory and defeat, after the polls closed.

Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar celebrated her victory with a pair of phrases not typically heard in American politics, saying “ as-salam alaikum ” and “ alhamdulillah ”.

The symbolism of those everyday phrases for Muslim Americans being heard in the wake of one of the most racist and xenophobic campaigns ever waged by Republicans can’t be overstated.

“I stand here before you tonight as your congresswoman-elect with many firsts behind my name,” she said. “The first woman of color to represent our state in Congress. The first woman to wear a hijab. The first refugee ever elected to Congress. And one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress.”

“When people were selling the politics of fear and division and destruction we were talking about hope,” she went on. “We were talking about the politics of joy,” she said.

Beto O’Rourke

Even in defeat Beto O’Rourke illustrated why he came so close to defeating the Republican senator Ted Cruz in reliably red Texas.

“I’m as inspired, I’m as hopeful as I have ever been in my life. Tonight’s loss does nothing to diminish the way that I feel about Texas or this country,” O’Rourke said.

O’Rourke expressed his thanks to the groundswell of support he’d received around the state from his passionate supporters, using another phrase you don’t typically hear in political speeches.

“I want to thank this amazing campaign of people. Not a dime from a single Pac [political action committee]. All people, all the time, in every single part of Texas. All of you showing the country how you do this. I’m so fucking proud of you guys,” he said to riotous cheers.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

In her victory speech in New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, reiterated her campaign message of economic injustice.

This is not “a campaign or an election day”, she said, “but a movement, a larger movement for social, economic and racial justice in America.”

“There is never any fight that is too big for us to pick. We proved that this year,” she added. “Because in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, our greatest scarcity is not a lack of resources but the absence of political courage and moral imagination.”

“It is a hollow goal to simply be a rich country that seeks to concentrate wealth. We must also be a good nation too.”

Stacey Abrams

And while the results of her race have yet to be decided – she’s yet to concede to Brian Kemp in the knife-edge race for governor of Georgia – Stacey Abrams delivered one of the most passionate and inspiring speeches of the night.

“When you chose me as your Democratic nominee I made you a vow,” she said. “In our Georgia no one will be unseen, no one is unheard and no one is uninspired,” she said to cheers.

Calling for all of the absentee and mail ballots to be counted before the race is called, Abrams made reference to the voter suppressing tactics that Kemp, who is overseeing the election as the secretary of state, has been accused of.

“In Georgia, civil rights has always been an act of will and a battle for our souls,” she said.

“Democracy only works when we work for it. When we fight for it. When we demand it. And apparently today when we stand in lines for hours to meet it at the ballot box, that’s when democracy works,” she said.

Andrew Gillum

Although he lost his race for governor in Florida, Andrew Gillum, another candidate who, like O’Rourke, we may not have seen the last of, vowed to maintain his fight in the days to come.

“We may not have all shown up in the way that we thought and hoped that we would. But I still believe that there are still more of us who believe in what is common and what is decent and what is right. And I believe that in the long run good always wins out over evil,” he said in front of a crowd of supporters.

“I sincerely regret that I couldn’t bring it home for you, but I can guarantee you this: I’m not going anywhere. We’re going to fight.”

It was a night that delivered some reason to be hopeful, even in defeat. As Elizabeth Warren, who easily won re-election to her seat in Massachusetts, put it, it was a call to fight back.

“Two years ago, on a very dark election night, millions of women watched in horror as Donald Trump was elected president,” she said.

“They didn’t like it. But they didn’t whimper. They didn’t whine. They fought back.”

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Which ones are the very best?

Throughout American history, our presidents have delivered some of the world’s most memorable and inspirational speeches. Which ones drove the nation and the world to greatness? Which were the most motivating? Here are excerpts from 10 of our favorites. We have selected two by Abraham Lincoln , two by John F. Kennedy , three by Ronald Reagan and one each by Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Several historic addresses are not included, including Richard Nixon ’s famed Checkers speech, George Washington ’s Farewell Address and Jimmy Carter ’s Malaise speech. Why not? Perhaps we should have included Harry Truman ’s Truman Doctrine challenge or Woodrow Wilson 's Declaration of War on Germany. These and so many others marked important turning points in American history. However, today let’s consider the ten greatest presidential speeches that challenged us to greatness ... and inspired the entire world.

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

On November 19, 1863, Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg , Pennsylvania . While his speech itself was only two minutes long, it is considered one of the most powerful ever delivered – and has been memorized by school children ever since. Here, in its entirety is Lincoln ’s Gettysburg Address, which we rank as the most powerful and memorable presidential speech ever delivered:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty , and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate   –   we can not consecrate   –   we can not hallow   –   this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us   –   that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion   –   that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain   –   that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom   –   and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Lyndon Johnson's "We Shall Overcome" Speech

In the mid-1960’s America was convulsed in race riots and freedom marches. On March 15, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Southerner from a slave state, Texas, asked Congress and all Americans to unite in the cause of equal rights for every American. Johnson pointedly used the phrase “We Shall Overcome” which had been used by civil rights leaders and asked the nation not to think in terms of black and white, north and south, but as Americans.

I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of Democracy. I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause.

At times, history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord . So it was a century ago at Appomattox . So it was last week in Selma , Alabama . There, long suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many of them were brutally assaulted. One good man – a man of God – was killed.

There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma . There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight. For the cries of pain and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great government – the government of the greatest nation on earth.

Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country – to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man. In our time, we have come to live with the moments of great crises. Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues, issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression.

But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, or our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved nation. The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. And should we defeat every enemy, and should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation. For, with a country as with a person, "what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem.

And we are met here tonight as Americans – not as Democrats or Republicans. We're met here as Americans to solve that problem. This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose.

The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: "All men are created equal." "Government by consent of the governed." "Give me liberty or give me death." And those are not just clever words, and those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty risking their lives. Those words are promised to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man.

The last time a President sent a civil rights bill to the Congress it contained a provision to protect voting rights in Federal elections. That civil rights bill was passed after eight long months of debate. And when that bill came to my desk from the Congress for signature, the heart of the voting provision had been eliminated.

This time, on this issue, there must be no delay, or no hesitation, or no compromise with our purpose. We cannot, we must not, refuse to protect the right of every American to vote in every election that he may desire to participate in.

We must not wait another eight months before we get a bill. We have already waited 100 years and more and the time for waiting is gone.

It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause, too.

Because it's not just Negroes, but really it's all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.

And we shall overcome.

John F. Kennedy's Inauguration Address

Young, handsome with a young family and a beautiful wife, John F. Kennedy embodied the fresh optimism that had marked the 1960s. On January 20, 1961, he took the oath of office as the 35th President of the United States , the youngest president in U.S. history, He ushered the nation into a new era – and challenged them to think first of their country.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

Theodore Roosevelt, Five Minutes After Being Shot

Fiery orator, dramatic speaker Theodore Roosevelt was shot by a narchist John Schrank as the president rose to give an address in Milwaukee on October, 14, 1912. Schrank had stalked the Roosevelt for thousands of miles before getting a clear shot at him – and was immediately arrested. He spent the rest of his life in a mental institution. Roosevelt, on the other hand, propelled America into world power status and ended up on Mount Rushmore with Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln.

Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet - there is where the bullet went through - and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.

And now, friends, I shall have to cut short much of that speech that I meant to give you, but I want to touch on just two or three points.

In the first place, we do not regard as essential the way in which a man worships his God or as being affected by where he was born. We regard it as a matter of spirit and purpose. Now, friends, in the same way I want our people to stand by one another without regard to differences or class or occupation.

I ask you to look at our declaration and hear and read our platform about social and industrial justice.

And now, friends, I want to take advantage of this incident to say a word of solemn warning to my fellow countrymen. First of all, I am telling you the literal truth when I say that my concern is for many other things. It is not in the least for my own life. I want you to understand that no man has had a happier life than I have led; a happier life in every way. I am in this cause with my whole heart and soul.

What I care for is my country.

Ronald Reagan's Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate

At the end of World War II, Europe was divided. No nation was more negatively affected than Germany – a free, democratic republic in the west, but the east under authoritarian, Communist control, ruled by the Soviet Union . When President Reagan took office, he committed not only to bringing freedom to Czechoslovakia , Poland , Hungary and all the other nations under Soviet domination, but to bring down the entire “Evil Empire” Soviet system. While Franklin D. Roosevelt led America to victory in World War II and Lincoln gets the credit for holding America together in the War Between the States, it is Reagan whose strategies won the 40-year-long Cold War. There is no more memorable and symbolic moment of his influence than his June 12, 1987 speech at the Berlin Wall, the most visible symbol of the Soviet “Iron Curtain.” There, he challenged Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to bring down the concrete and barbed-wire barrier that barred East Germans from even being able to visit West Berlin.

We believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace.

There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate.

Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Abraham Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address

The Union’s victory was only a month away as President Lincoln began his second term as president of a bitterly divided United States . The South had been devastated. The border states – Missouri , Kentucky , Maryland – were only marginally loyal to Washington . Texas stood ready to become an independent republic again. Here, on March 4, 1865 , Lincoln wishes for an end to hostilities and the reunification of Americans.

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.

Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Ronald Reagan's 40th Anniversary of D-Day Speech

Ronald Reagan was perhaps as effective an orator as any president. On June 6, 1984, the 40 th anniversary of D-Day – the Allied Invasion of Nazi-Occupied France, Reagan gave a powerful tribute to a group of American Army Rangers who assaulted an impossible Nazi stronghold – Pointe Du Hoc, a sheer 100-foot cliff between Omaha and Utah beaches. Thousands of American soldiers on the beaches were being mowed down by machine gunners atop the bluff. The Rangers scaled the cliffs, took the position, then without reinforcements or resupply for two days, fended off relentless German counterattacks. Only 90 of the 225 Rangers survived.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender’s poem. You are men who in your ‘lives fought for life…and left the vivid air signed with your honor’…

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith, and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

John F. Kennedy's Decision to Go to the Moon

On April 12, 1961, the Soviets, who occupied much of eastern Europe and had nuclear missiles aimed at America , launched the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin. Then the Communist propagandists proclaimed that Gagarin had looked around the cosmos and seen no God. In actuality, Gagarin, a devout Russian Orthodox Christian, never made the claims the officially atheist Soviet government attributed to him. However, the Soviets used the successful space flight for the maximum propaganda purposes. Communist Party Chairman Nikita Khrushchev touted the Soviet triumph as prime evidence of Communism’s superiority. On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy spoke in Houston , declaring that America would go to the moon. And then we did. The Soviets never made it.

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic ? Why does Rice play Texas ?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.

Because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept – one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor Address

On December 7, 1941, the United States was shocked by a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor , Hawaii , that sank the pride of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Our great battleships were destroyed and thousands of lives were lost. Overnight, America united in desire to enter World War II. Here is what President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared to the nation:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

Always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this, the American people in their righteous might will win – through to absolute victory.

We will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounding determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God!

Ronald Reagan's "Space Shuttle Challenger" Address

On January 28, 1986, millions of Americans witnessed the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger just 73 seconds after it lifted off from Kennedy Space Center . Just a few hours after the disaster, President Reagan spoke to the nation:

We’ve grown used to wonders in this century. It’s hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years the United States space program has been doing just that. We’ve grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we’ve only just begun. We’re still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.

The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them.

We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye …

And ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’

Kamala Harris’ victory speech: Read the full transcript

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Good evening.

Congressman John Lewis, before his passing, wrote: “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.”

And what he meant was that America’s democracy is not guaranteed.

It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it, to guard it and never take it for granted.

And protecting our democracy takes struggle.

It takes sacrifice. There is joy in it, and there is progress.

Because “We the People” have the power to build a better future.

And when our very democracy was on the ballot in this election, with the very soul of America at stake, and the world watching, you ushered in a new day for America.

To our campaign staff and volunteers, this extraordinary team: thank you for bringing more people than ever before into the democratic process and for making this victory possible.

To the poll workers and election officials across our country who have worked tirelessly to make sure every vote is counted: our nation owes you a debt of gratitude as you have protected the integrity of our democracy.

And to the American people who make up our beautiful country: thank you for turning out in record numbers to make your voices heard.

I know times have been challenging, especially the last several months.

The grief, sorrow, and pain. The worries and the struggles.

But we’ve also witnessed your courage, your resilience, and the generosity of your spirit.

For four years, you marched and organized for equality and justice, for our lives, and for our planet.

And then, you voted. You delivered a clear message.

You chose hope, unity, decency, science, and, yes, truth.

You chose Joe Biden as the next president of the United States of America.

Joe is a healer. A uniter. A tested and steady hand.

A person whose own experience of loss gives him a sense of purpose that will help us, as a nation, reclaim our own sense of purpose.

And a man with a big heart who loves with abandon.

It’s his love for Jill, who will be an incredible first lady.

It’s his love for Hunter, Ashley, his grandchildren, and the entire Biden family.

And while I first knew Joe as vice president, I really got to know him as the father who loved Beau, my dear friend, who we remember here today.

To my husband Doug, our children Cole and Ella, my sister Maya, and our whole family — I love you all more than I can express.

We are so grateful to Joe and Jill for welcoming our family into theirs on this incredible journey.

And to the woman most responsible for my presence here today — my mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who is always in our hearts.

When she came here from India at the age of 19, maybe she didn’t quite imagine this moment.

But she believed so deeply in an America where a moment like this is possible.

So, I’m thinking about her and about the generations of women — Black women, Asian, white, Latina, and Native American women throughout our nation’s history who have paved the way for this moment tonight.

Women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality, liberty, and justice for all, including the Black women, who are too often overlooked, but so often Prove that they are the backbone of our democracy.

All the women who worked to secure and protect the right to vote for over a century: 100 years ago with the 19th Amendment, 55 years ago with the Voting Rights Act, and now, in 2020, with a new generation of women in our country who cast their ballots and continued the fight for their fundamental right to vote and be heard.

Tonight, I reflect on their struggle, their determination and the strength of their vision — to see what can be unburdened by what has been — I stand on their shoulders.

And what a testament it is to Joe’s character that he had the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exists in our country and select a woman as his vice president.

But while I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last.

Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.

And to the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message:

Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before.

And we will applaud you every step of the way.

Covering Kamala Harris

To the American people:

No matter who you voted for, I will strive to be the vice president that Joe was to President Obama — loyal, honest, and prepared, waking up every day thinking of you and your families. Because now is when the real work begins.

The hard work. The necessary work. The good work.

The essential work to save lives and beat this pandemic.

To rebuild our economy so it works for working people.

To root out systemic racism in our justice system and society.

To combat the climate crisis.

To unite our country and heal the soul of our nation.

The road ahead will not be easy.

But America is ready. And so are Joe and I.

We have elected a president who represents the best in us.

A leader the world will respect and our children can look up to.

A commander in chief who will respect our troops and keep our country safe.

And a president for all Americans.

It is now my great honor to introduce the president-elect of the United States of America, Joe Biden.

More to Read

Harris hammers Trump on abortion in surprise Los Angeles appearance

April 13, 2024

Kamala Harris, in San Francisco, outlines ‘profound’ stakes of election, raises her own profile

March 12, 2024

How Kamala Harris found her groove. And why being vice president is still tough

Feb. 4, 2024

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© Copyright 2001-Present. American Rhetoric by Michael E. Eidenmuller All rights reserved.

7:00 AM EST | FEB 18, 2016

The Perfect Democratic Stump Speech

We asked democratic speechwriter jeff nussbaum to write a totally pandering stump speech for an imaginary democratic presidential candidate — one who espouses only positions that a majority of democrats agree with (we also did the same with republicans ). here’s the speech he wrote, including notes to explain his phrasing, behind-the-scenes tips on appealing to democratic voters and the data he used to decide which positions to take..

By Jeff Nussbaum

Research by Harry Enten , graphics by Ella Koeze , production by Gus Wezerek

Thank you, CITY.

Every election is a choice. And this year, the choice could not be more clear.

And even more than a choice between parties, or personalities, it’s a choice between philosophies.

You see, we look at our country and say: We know what it takes to make our economy stronger and fairer. We know what it takes to make our communities safer. We know what it takes to make college more affordable, and retirement more secure. We know that we need to strengthen, not abandon, the promise of public education. We know that inclusion makes us stronger, and so, by the way, do the immigrants who come here to play by the rules and build better lives. We know what it takes to lead the world both with the example of our power, and with the power of our example.

We know what needs to be done. When I place my hand on the Bible and John Roberts has to pretend to smile while he swears me in as your next president, I’ll offer you another oath: We’re going to get to work.

Listen to our opponents and you hear a different refrain. Listen to all of their talk about liberty and freedom and government getting out of your way — and what you’ll really hear is one thing over and over: We are powerless in the face of our problems. There’s nothing we can do.

But I want to ask you a question: What if, at the most pivotal moments in our history, their philosophy had won the day?

What if, at the height of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt looked out on America and said, “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished … and there’s nothing we can do”?

There’d be no Social Security — and today, 22 million Americans would be thrown into poverty just like that.

What if John F. Kennedy saw Russia getting ready to point nuclear missiles at us from Cuba and said, “There’s nothing we can do”?

What if Lyndon Johnson had said, “I know we say all men are created equal … but there’s nothing we can do”?

There’d be no Civil Rights Act. No Voting Rights Act.

What if Bill Clinton had said, “George H.W. Bush left us a pretty bad recession, and people can be fired from their jobs just for wanting to take some time off to care for a family member … but there’s nothing we can do”?

What if Barack Obama had said, “I know millions of Americans don’t have health coverage … I know we’re mired in two seemingly endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan … I know we’re in the worst recession since the Great Depression, but can we change things? No. We. Can’t.”

Republicans say there’s nothing government can do, as if government is some entity that rules us. But this is a democracy. Government is us. By us and for us. And creating the America we want is up to us.

So in this election, you have a choice. You have a choice between a party that — to a man, and yes, it is almost entirely men — says government can’t do anything, and then they get into office and set out to prove it.

And you have us, who look out on an America that we, too, believe is exceptional — but we know isn’t perfect — and seek to make it that more perfect union.

So if you want to “make America great again” there’s a surefire way to do it: Elect a Democrat.

If you want someone “who can fix it,” there’s an easy way to find that someone: Look for a Democrat.

The Economy

And that work begins with our economy.

Today, working Americans feel like they’re playing a rigged game. Heads, Wall Street wins. Tails, Main Street loses.

When a bunch of bankers rig the interest rates so that you pay more to borrow for your house, or your car — that’s a rigged game.

When companies stash their profits offshore and millionaires and billionaires squirrel their money in tax shelters and sneak it through tax loopholes, refusing to pay their fair share to the country whose laws and infrastructure and universities allowed them to accumulate that wealth to begin with, that’s not fair.

When the top 25 hedge-fund managers in this country are making more than all of America's kindergarten teachers combined , and usually paying a lower tax rate, too, that’s not fair.

Close the loopholes. Tell American companies that if you want to profit under the protection of our laws, bring those profits home. Create a fairer economy. That’s something we can do to make America work for everyone.

When Donald Trump can escape from his own bad deals by declaring bankruptcy four times, but Americans who can’t afford to pay a traffic ticket go to jail — it’s a rigged game.

That’s not the free market. It’s a fixed bet. It’s loaded dice.

Since 1978, CEO compensation has gone up by 937 percent. Worker productivity went up by 65 percent. But what did the workers who delivered that productivity and who made it possible for those CEOs to take home an average of more than $15 million last year get? Nothing.

When America’s workers play a rigged game, we all lose.

When unions are busted and workers can’t organize, we all lose.

But look at what happens when you raise wages, even by a modest amount.

When you raise the minimum wage, you give money to the people who spend more. If you give someone a $1 tax rebate or other one-time break, they only spend about 50 cents. But when you increase their income by a dollar, they actually spend more than a dollar, because, knowing they can count on those wages going forward, they can use credit. And by the way, if the minimum wage had gone up with productivity, today it would be nearly $22 an hour.

Plus, a higher minimum wage pushes up near-minimum-wage salaries.

Basic decency and sound economics both bring you to the same conclusion: It’s time to raise the minimum wage.

Again, that’s something we can do to make America work for everyone.

And by the way, in 2007, when the House passed a minimum wage increase, 82 Republicans voted for it. It got 94 votes in the Senate, half of them from the Republican Party.

This is not your father’s Republican Party. And if you have a grandfather who voted for Barry Goldwater, it’s not even his Republican Party. If Ronald Reagan showed up at a meeting of today’s Republican Party, he’d be laughed out of the room as too liberal.

Of course, if we really want to strengthen our economy, the best answer, the only answer, is to educate our way forward.

And education doesn’t mean teach our kids how to fill in little bubbles on a test sheet. It means strong community schools and well-trained teachers who not only spark a love of learning, but prepare our children for college, for careers, and for life.

We need to treat teachers like the professionals that they are.

And we know that in today’s economy, a high school diploma isn’t enough. College is essential. And more than ever, it’s expensive. The average student graduates college today with more than $35,000 in debt.

We’re basically telling our students that your degree is a mighty tool that you can use to do whatever you want. So long as the first thing you do with it is use it to pay off your loans.

So here’s something we can do to make America work for everyone: We can make sure that every student in this country has the opportunity to get a community college degree for free. And we can make sure that students who do take out loans can get the same low rates the banks get when they borrow money. Why should a student pay more to borrow money than Morgan Stanley?

Health Care

And when it comes to making things more affordable, here’s another something we can do: We can tell Republicans to stop trying to repeal Obamacare.

Sixty-one times, they’ve voted to repeal a health care law that the Supreme Court says is constitutional, and that 15 million Americans who now have health care can attest is working. It’s this simple: Costs are coming down. Coverage is going up. And it’s time for Republicans to get over it.

Entitlements

Education helps people get the best start in life. During their working lives, health care protects people from fearing that illness could mean losing everything. And we want to make sure our fellow Americans can feel just as secure in their later years.

That’s why when it comes to Medicare, nobody should have to decide between filling her grocery cart and filling her prescriptions.

And that’s why I’ll make you this simple pledge that my opponents won’t: The Social Security you know, the Social Security you depend on, the Social Security that provides a retirement with dignity and survivors benefits to those who will live out their lives without their life partners … that Social Security will be there for you.

Because when it comes to keeping the combined promise of Medicare and Social Security — that’s not just something we can do, it’s the least we can do.

Just as we work to make our neighbors and friends and loved ones more secure in their own lives, we can also do much more to make us all more secure in our communities.

Fort Hood. Binghamton. Aurora. Oak Creek. Newtown. The Navy Yard. Santa Barbara. Charleston. San Bernardino. And it’s not just the mass shootings that capture the headlines. It’s the daily tragedies of the streets of Chicago, and Los Angeles, and cities and towns all across our country. Thirty thousand Americans are killed by gun violence every year. When will we say enough?

There are some who see this plague and say, the only thing we can do is offer our thoughts and prayers.

But I think we ought to listen to the words of Congressman John Lewis: “When you pray, move your feet.”

We’ve got to move our feet. And we’ve got to recognize that there are ways, totally consistent with the Second Amendment, to make sure that criminals, terrorists and other dangerous people don’t get guns. This isn’t about hunters or sportsmen, who are some of the most responsible gun owners I know. This is about recognizing that there’s simply no reason for anyone to own an assault weapon. And we should all be able to agree that if you want to buy a gun, no matter where you want to buy it, you get a background check.

The gun lobby may own Congress, but they don’t own us. And we’re going to do something about gun violence in this country.

Immigration

And I want to say something to those of you who have chosen to make America your home.

I know there are politicians who say that they want to build a “yuuuge” wall to keep people like you out. They say they want you to “self-deport.” But I want to lead a country that will allow you to work hard, play by the rules and better your life here in America.

President Obama has made it possible for 2 million young immigrants to stay in the only country they’ve ever called home. I want to go further and fix our broken immigration system for good.

Because yes, that’s something we can do.

Recently, I read a story about a woman named Linda who came here from Syria. Her crime back at home was to live in a neighborhood where several people had led peaceful protests. So Assad’s government bombed their neighborhood. Soldiers ransacked their home, stealing cash and jewelry. Linda’s five daughters had to walk around army tanks to go to school. And then Linda gave birth to a son. Because he was born with jaundice, he was receiving treatment at the hospital when the government, believing that a rebel was hiding there, shelled the building. Her child’s life lasted all of seven days. After a year of applying — and a rigorous series of interviews that we put all people seeking to settle here through — we, America, gave them the right to resettle here. These people are Muslims. They love our country. They’re grateful to America. And they’re working hard to make it in America.

These aren’t the terrorists. They’re the people fleeing the terrorists.

If you’re someone who can trace your family to this country before the Pilgrims arrived, God bless you. I’m guessing most of us can’t. So let’s make America the beacon of hope it was for our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents.

Foreign Policy

Look around the world today, and you see nuclear tests in North Korea, ISIS seeking territory in the Middle East and spurring attacks outside it. We have to protect against hijackers … and hackers. Never before have we faced so many threats, in so many places.

So I get why there are some out there who want to simplify things. With us or against us. Put a wall up, or drop some bombs down. To them, the world is as simple as it is scary.

But we know that the world is something else — it’s interconnected.

When someone who aspires to be our president says we should register Muslims — ISIS uses that to recruit more terrorists.

When kingdoms and petro-dictators in the Middle East don’t give their young people something real to live for, radicals are happy to step in and give them something false to die for.

But our best defense against militant Islam is moderate Islam.

Our best defense against extremism is to drain the swamps from which it rises — and to do that we have to be strong as well as smart, supporting development when possible and deployment only when absolutely necessary.

Yes, we have the only military force in the world capable of projecting force anywhere around the world, at any time. Look at Osama bin Laden’s notes from his hideout. He was terrified that we could listen to him, track him and kill him. He was right to be scared.

(hold for applause)

And so should anyone who means to harm American people, at home or abroad.

And when we send our men and women to protect us abroad, we'd better make sure they receive the benefits they've earned when they come home. They served us, and we have an obligation to serve them!

Of course, there is one threat right in front of us — and that is the threat of climate change. Yes, voters get to judge an elected official every two or four or six years. But I believe we’ll face a much more meaningful judgment. The judgment of our children, and grandchildren, who will say to us: “When the science was so clear, and storms were getting more severe, and cities and entire countries were sinking, why weren’t you brave enough to do something?”

This shouldn’t be a political issue. In 2008, the GOP platform acknowledged the impact of human activity on our climate. John McCain campaigned on cap-and-trade. But when your biggest funders also happen to be the biggest polluters … which Koch Industries is … well I guess in today’s Republican Party, whose bread I eat, his song I sing.

In Paris, we’ve taken a good step. But how strong a step it is and whether it’s followed by more depends on who we elect.

Supreme Court

And there’s something else that depends on who we elect. The Supreme Court. We already have a Supreme Court that denied Lilly Ledbetter fair pay and that’s rolled back the Voting Rights Act. We are one right-wing justice away from putting the government directly between a woman and her doctor, between two people who love each other, between you and your desire to have a voice on the job. And we can’t let that happen. And with me as your president, we won’t.

In our courts, and in Congress, I will defend a woman’s right to choose.

Look, we all learned everything we need to know about this country when we took drivers ed. If you want to go backward, put it in R. But if you want to go forward, put it in D!

And we need to move forward.

For women’s rights, and workers’ rights, and civil rights. Forward!

To ensure that black lives do indeed matter. Forward!

To create a fairer, safer, more prosperous America for everyone.

(Crowd is now responding: Forward! )

To create an America where every child gets a world-class education. (Forward!)

Where every worker earns a decent wage. (Forward!)

Where every senior has a retirement with dignity. (Forward!)

Where every person is allowed to worship the god of their choice and love the person of their choice, where every woman is allowed to make her own health care decisions … and is paid the same as a man for doing the same job. (Forward!)

To fight the rising tide of extremism, and the rising tide of a changing climate. (Forward!)

My friends, we can bend the arc of history toward justice.

This is within our power.

But for us to do something, I need you to do something.

I need you to vote. I need you to get your friends and neighbors to vote.

I ask you to stand with me. Join me. And together we’ll build the country we know we can be.

Thank you, and may God bless America.

Illustration by Joel Plosz.

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The 50 Greatest Awards-Show Speeches of the Last 55 Years

The best acceptance moments make or break careers, cement fandoms, and spark blind items..

This article was featured in One Great Story , New York ’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly.

The entire room was holding its collective breath when Olivia Colman beat odds-favorite Glenn Close to the Best Actress Oscar in 2019. Close had long been expected to win the season’s biggest prize for her performance in The Wife — a movie in which she plays the wife of all wives — having already taken home the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama and other precursor awards. Colman also won a Golden Globe that year, for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy , for her part as the gouty, manipulated Queen Anne in The Favourite , and her tipsy speech (in which she thanked her “bitches” and extolled private jets) fortified what prognosticators already thought: Colman was funny, but Close was the serious winner. Until she wasn’t. In the face of such upset, what would Colman say?

Looking out onto a crowd she didn’t expect to face, Colman reached for the truth: to win, she said, is “ genuinely quite stressful ,” before admitting, through gasps and tears, it’s also “hilarious.” It’s an accurate two-part description of the general allure of awards shows, which can present moments both laughable and genuinely thrilling. We anticipate the Oscars and its kindred ceremonies for their red carpets and host monologues and cinematic montages and the times when Queen Latifah sings something, but we endure the hours-long award-show broadcasts for the psychic whiplash of acceptance speeches, when the polished Hollywood stars we admire are caught earnestly surprised, gracious, or moved to tears — or, just as captivating, when they perform surprise, gratitude, and deeply felt emotion and make it all seem genuine. Even the most choreographed of speeches embrace the power of pure spectacle, becoming windows into souls that are, at their core, either deeply beholden to the people who helped them along the way or deeply vengeful toward the people who didn’t help them along the way. Some of the best read like blind items forming live on our TV screens.

Back at the Oscars, Colman eventually composed herself and delivered a heartfelt and perfectly meandering ode to Close, Colman’s kids, her husband of 25 years, her agent, little girls practicing speeches in front of the telly, some people at Fox, Yorgos Lanthimos and her aforementioned “bitches” castmates, and, for no apparent reason other than she’s sitting in the front row of the audience, Lady Gaga — every appreciation customized for the subject and punctuated by genuine physical outbursts, as though her ecstatic brain was warring with her stunned body. It is a spectacle you can’t peel your eyes from that builds with tension until she blows a kiss to Ally Maine and relinquishes the stage to, as promised, snog anyone she forgot to acknowledge. Like any unforgettable speech giver, she managed to meet the high-stakes moment in which she found herself.

Watching as many acceptance speeches as we have as hosts of a podcast with the name “Oscar” in it , we’ve come to appreciate the specific qualities that separate the merely adequate awards-ceremony speeches (from nearly every male performer) from the truly special ones (from actresses, plus certain ornery old men and at least one rabble-rousing documentarian). The greatest acceptance speeches are enthusiastic like Colman’s without verging into inscrutability (sorry, Roberto Benigni ), though exceptions exist for speeches that are so low energy it’s the gag. They are quotable, with at least one defining line of speech, even if it’s the only line of speech (see Nos. 31 and 23 on this list). Sincerity in a speech is more important than the message; it’s why a baffling but believable reaction to winning an Oscar is cemented in our brains before the ones that are dutifully gracious or that perfunctorily advocate for something beyond the recipient’s own skills. (Although everyone loves a scorched-earth speech — see No. 14 on this list). And, of course, the prestige level of the award show itself matters; a memorable speech at the Oscars can outrank one of the same caliber at the Globes, because the pins-and-needles suspense at the pinnacle of awards season only ups the ante of the viewing experience. At the same time, a precursor speech of lower standing can tip the scales of an Oscar campaign, and we recognized those too. (In the interest of variety, we also only considered one speech per actor per awards cycle; sorry, Colman’s breathy “hi” at the Globes, but her breathy “hi” at the Oscars was better.)

This year, an already dense awards season will see the Emmys wedged in between the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards, so what better time to revisit unforgettable awards-season moments by acknowledging the 50 speeches of the last 55 years? (To be eligible for this list, speeches needed to be archived somewhere online, and the earliest recording here dates back to 1969.) While the Grammys will also be broadcast next month, we’re keeping this ranking to screen and stage awards (the MTV movie awards qualify, but the VMAs do not), where the art of the acceptance speech has been perfected by stars who make a living performing dialogue and the filmmakers and craftspeople who make them look good doing it. (Speeches by below-the-line artists were eligible for this list, but our final 50 ended up favoring the performers of Hollywood.) And remember, this ranking is about speeches , not bits. Winona Ryder mugging behind David Harbour’s SAG Ensemble speech for Stranger Things ? Good meme, beautiful meme, but you won’t see Harbour’s acceptance moment celebrated here.

50. Patti LuPone, 62nd Tony Awards (2008)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Gypsy

The Tony Awards are where we’re most reliably reminded that “Stars, they are not like us. Its recipients are accustomed to not only the spotlight but commanding a theater of people eight times a week. Take, for example, Patti LuPone, who in 2008 won the second of her three Tonys as Mama Rose in a revival of Gypsy . It was her first win in nearly three decades, despite boasting one of the most revered careers in the American theater. With a sense of glory and triumph usually reserved for horn sections, LuPone amended a prepared speech from a previous loss (hilarious!) and trilled through an inventory of thank-yous that spanned multiple theater companies and professionals, up to and including the ghosts of the St. James Theatre. But as one of Broadway’s grand dames, naturally she still comes off as earnest and heartfelt doing it. When the orchestra begins to play over her speech (we’ll have more of those, just wait), she’s affable to it at first, but then she erupts like an ocean squall full of pent-up Tony losses and earned litigiousness toward Andrew Lloyd Webber: “Shut up! It’s been 29 years!”

49. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, 70th Academy Awards (1998)

Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, Good Will Hunting

Speaking of yelling: Sometimes when you win an award, the Boston jumps out. The otherwise prim quality of an awards ceremony can favor a speech where the winner’s enthusiasm and wide-eyed disbelief are at full volume. Here, Affleck and Damon maintain the composure expected in a ceremony like the Oscars (Affleck even says the words “We’re fortunate enough to be involved with a lot of great people upon whom it’s incumbent upon us to thank”) … before basically ending their speech doing keg stands. Like a pair of brothers with a fancy new toy, their thank-yous get louder, more tangled, more manic. Producers are great! Moms are beautiful! Their hometown is everything! Affleck’s voice eventually cracks and the effusion comes to a halt. They really were just two young guys!

48. Ving Rhames, 55th Golden Globe Awards (1998)

Best Actor — Miniseries or Television Film, Don King: Only in America

Over the years, the Golden Globes has earned a reputation for being the awards show where all the craziest shit happens. And that reputation was probably formed around the time Ving Rhames tried to give his best actor trophy to Jack Lemmon. The entire moment is a generosity battle between two unyielding mensches. First of all, Rhames is endearingly formal in asking “Mr. Jack Lemmon” to emerge from the crowd and take the stage. Lemmon is in a daze as he takes the long route to the stage. Rhames tells Lemmon he’s not going to give him the Globe — so as not to scare him off, then gives Lemmon the award as soon as he arrives at the mic. At this point, Lemmon’s basically playing one of his everyman characters, trying to figure out in real time whether the right thing to do is hand the award back or accept Rhames’s gesture in the spirit in which it was intended. Meanwhile, in the audience, Goldie Hawn is in tears, Jodie Foster is laughing her ass off, and Jack Nicholson is cheekily suggesting Lemmon pass the award to him next. Despite the “you take it, no you take it” tug-of-war that nearly ends with the statue getting dropped, both Rhames and Lemmon ultimately combine for an incredible tandem speech. Rhames brings emotion (the tears come quickly and don’t stop) and the elegance (a Stanislavsky quote). You get the sense that only someone as emotionally open as Rhames would have ever made the gesture, and only someone as seasoned as Lemmon could have rolled with the punch.

47. Susan Lucci, 26th Daytime Emmy Awards (1999)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, All My Children

The occasion of Susan Lucci finally winning a Daytime Emmy after 18 previous nominations failed to result in a statue would have been enough to enshrine this moment in awards-show history. But Lucci went on to deliver a speech worthy of soap opera history, too. After lapping up the absolute pandemonium of the crowd (Rosie O’Donnell weeping; Oprah Winfrey hollering from the wings of the stage) for nearly 90 seconds, smiling, gasping, squealing, and bursting with “I can’t believe it’s,” Lucci eventually thanks the audience, her husband and kids, and the team at All My Children . But she gets into an oratory groove when she mentions that she was originally seen by casting directors as merely an “ethnic type,” only good enough to appear every other Tuesday. Lucci then points to Agnes Nixon, the great matriarch of daytime drama, for “changing the face of our medium” — placing her own struggle for legitimacy in the historical context of soaps’ perpetual uphill climb for industry respect. And she’s right to do so — Lucci’s quest for a long-awaited Daytime Emmy helped legitimize the awards by giving them a level of intrigue every year. And by the end of the speech, she might as well be standing in the middle of Pine Valley’s town square. She’s fully slipped into Erica Kane’s version of magnanimity, standing proudly beneath the stage lights, promising her legions of fans that she’ll be back at work with them on Monday.

46. Lin-Manuel Miranda, 62nd Tony Awards (2008)

Best Original Score, In the Heights

On any list of polarizing figures and acquired tastes in musical theater, there is Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose style of rapping has become as omnipresent at the Tonys as the phrase “the Shubert organization.” It’s easy to find his energy infectious, this fresh young face taking Broadway by storm, the look of awe still there on said face. You could, at the same time, find his schtick cringey, the Wesleyan try-hard pirouetting out as he nods to Thomas Kail “for keepin’ the engine burnin’, for being so discernin’.” But there’s an undeniable energy to his first Tony win as he tremulously freestyled his thank-yous, crescendoing with shout-outs to Stephen Sondheim and Puerto Rico. You need only look at the ensuing years of Tony Awards full of Neil Patrick Harris spitting L.M.M.-penned rhymes at the end of the show to see how this speech resonated.

45. Patty Duke, 22nd Primetime Emmy Awards (1970)

Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, My Sweet Charlie

There’s nothing like watching a celebrated performer suck the inflated pomp and circumstance out of a room with their sheer magnetic intensity. Patty Duke does so by taking the stage and making the audience soak in her silence — something you’ll almost never hear during an awards ceremony! Soon after she arrives at the mic, she raises a flattened hand to her brow to wordlessly investigate the audience only to utter the words, “You, Mom. Happy birthday.” (No exclamation point.) The dead air she inserts on either side of an eventual word — “enthusiasm” — turns her minimalist intensity into a fine art. And even as it dips into the slightly bizarre, she never loses our attention.

44. Rue McClanahan, 39th Primetime Emmy Awards (1987)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy, The Golden Girls

When Ben Affleck won Best Picture for Argo , he said to endure in Hollywood as he had, you can’t hold grudges. But he said it in a way that sounded like he’d very much been holding onto some real grudges. He’d have been better off accepting his Oscar by showing a video of Rue McClanahan’s speech from 1987. After winning for her role on The Golden Girls , McClanahan recalled her mother’s advice that “Every kick’s a boost.” And to the ones who gave her kicks along the way, Rue — eyes darting and narrowing in a genuinely intimidating rhythm, fingers massaging her rings, that Southern voice purring as was her signature sound onscreen — assured them they’d be “in the book.”

43. James Cameron, 70th Academy Awards (1998)

Best Director, Titanic

This is a list of the greatest speeches, though not necessarily the most innately likable ones. James Cameron’s brand of cheerful self-regard, which he carried with him throughout Titanic ’s full-steam-ahead push in the 1997 awards season, wasn’t always the most endearing. But when he capped off his best director win by earnestly quoting his own character, Jack Dawson, with an “I’m the king of the world!” — his howls echoing through the Shrine Auditorium — he was the triumphant auteur incarnate. Sure, he sounded like he was shoving it in the face of all the other movies that got steamrolled by Titanic that year, but if you can’t feel on top of the world when you’re winning an Oscar, when can you?

42. Sharon Stone, 53rd Golden Globe Awards (1996)

Best Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama, Casino

For as much as Sharon Stone got kicked around Hollywood, with everyone from critics to comedians acting like she was some kind of bad actress after Basic Instinct , she’d be forgiven for thinking it a miracle that she’d get this award over the likes of Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, and the eventual Oscar winner in her category that year, Susan Sarandon. Stone’s speech makes the list for two reasons: first, the pitch-perfect comic timing when Stone, fumbling for how to begin this unlikely acceptance, finally fixes her eyes on the audience and deadpans, “Okay, it’s a miracle.” And the unvarnished yet still appreciative way she thanks people like Martin Scorsese who made “room for the breadth and annoying moments of my uncontrollable passion.” We love candid self-awareness.

41. Steven Soderbergh, 73rd Academy Awards (2001)

Best Director, Traffic

In recent years, as Oscar telecast producers have gotten more stringent about limiting their broadcast’s runtimes, they have used the occasion of the nominees’ luncheon to screen Soderbergh’s 2001 acceptance as an ideal speech. It’s brief (under a minute), it says something meaningful about art, and thanks anybody out there “who spends part of their day creating.” Most importantly, it eschews the laundry list of names that ceremony producers just cannot stand. In general, this ranking endeavors to celebrate exactly the kind of speeches that Oscars producers say they don’t want, but we have to admit, Soderbergh is quite eloquent in his brevity. Here’s to those who create!

40. Marion Cotillard, 80th Academy Awards (2008)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, La Vie en Rose

Quick, say “Thank you, love; thank you, life” to the first person you find in an unironic beret and they will surely tell you that it’s true there are some angels in this city. At the 80th Academy Awards ceremony, a then new-to-English and new er -to-awards Cotillard brims with the gratitude and possibility of a child witnessing their first snowfall. You can’t blame her zeal — her performance as Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose was the first performance in the French language to win a best actress statue, and no one could have predicted her win even after smaller roles in a few American movies. Cotillard was running neck-and-neck with Julie Christie for the win, and clearly Cotillard was taken by surprise to be declared the victor. The triumph blends the best of two awards-speech worlds: profound honesty and accidental quotability. “You rocked my life!”

39. Taraji P. Henson, 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards (2017)

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Hidden Figures

Speeches can achieve greatness for their level of contagious pep, or for the recipient’s simple talent for speaking, and Taraji P. Henson’s acceptance on behalf of her Hidden Figures cast is an example of both. But what it most resoundingly delivers is something that many speeches aim for and miss: a galvanizing message at exactly the moment we need to hear it. Succinctly speaking to the film’s real-life subjects as inspirational figures for finding solutions in times of infinite problems, Henson gave a response to the 2016 electoral elephant in the room without even having to invoke him by name. “This story is about unity, this story is about what happens when we put our differences aside and we come together as a human race.” SAG Ensemble prizes are often love fests, but Henson seized the moment and it was anything but an accident.

38. Tiffany Haddish, 84th New York Film Critics Circle Awards, 2018

Best Supporting Actress, Girls Trip

By the miracle of Vulture’s own Alison Willmore, there exists video evidence of Tiffany Haddish’s incredible 17-minute acceptance speech. Which means we’re clear to include this NYFCC award on our list. Haddish openly flirts with Michael B. Jordan; chats at length about the giant many-armed goddess statue at the ceremony’s venue, TAO; gives a line reading from Girls Trip that Universal demanded be cut; and wonders why critics don’t have another TV show like Siskel and Ebert did. It is a marathon, not a sprint, and Haddish held court the entire time, displaying her star power as sure as any onscreen performance could. Speeches like this one (and the annual Governor Awards that celebrate lifetime achievement in the film industry) don’t put time constraints on recipients, and are a reminder that if the speaker is captivating enough, we’ll watch them for as long as they want to keep speaking. And if they speak long enough, they might make a joke about wearing “God’s panties,” and that’s when it gets really special.

37. James Hong, 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards (2023)

Best Performance by an Ensemble in a Film, Everything Everywhere All at Once 

The great thing about SAG’s ensemble award is that it allows some of the cast members who haven’t been singled out for individual awards to get their moment in the spotlight. That was never better than when 94-year-old James Hong accepted on behalf of his Everything Everywhere All at Once cast in 2023. Hong began by speaking Cantonese “in case they broadcast us in Hong Kong,” then pulled some classic grandpa “I remember my first movie was with Clark Gable” business. But Hong followed that up with a harsh reminder of Hollywood’s racist past, when Asian characters were played by white men with slanted-eye makeup. Hong’s rebuke was a welcome dash of vinegar to keep Hollywood from being too self-congratulatory over finally awarding Asian actors like Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan.

36. Rita Moreno, 29th Tony Awards (1975)

Best Featured Actress in a Play, The Ritz

Not only did Moreno practically samba her way onto the stage to accept her Tony Award in a stunning fashion turban, but she did so with bracing honesty. “I’m the leading lady of The Ritz , I am not a supporting actress,” she said about her performance as heavily accented bathhouse performer Googie Gomez in Terrence McNally’s pre-AIDS sex farce. It was a not-so-subtle jab at the powers that be for putting her into a lesser category. Good natured as always, Moreno points out, as Ms. Gomez might have said: “Listen, honey, the only thing I support in that show is my beads!”

35. Tilda Swinton, 80th Academy Awards (2008)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Michael Clayton

Tilda Swinton is a one-of-a-kind performer, and so she also delivered a one-of-a-kind acceptance speech. By that I mean, one curiously obsessed with anatomy. She kicks off her speech (clearly flummoxed, but in a totally chill Tilda Swinton way) by saying she’ll give the trophy to its doppelgänger, her agent, who looks like it in all physical attributes including, “It has to be said, the buttocks.” Then, when thanking her Michael Clayton collaborators, she calls out George Clooney’s Batman nipples as the inspiration that they are. You could give the art-world-borne Swinton points for being the most high-toned person in the room, but she wasn’t above this . Typically steelish and composed when speaking publicly, it’s oddly affecting to see Swinton with her guard down.

34. Denzel Washington, 74th Academy Awards (2002)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Training Day

We’re going to say it a lot on this list, but so much of what goes into a great speech is a sense of occasion: delivering the right speech, with the right tone, at the right time, with the spotlight on you. Denzel Washington knew that Sidney Poitier would be in the audience when he accepted his Oscar. Poitier was an icon to Washtinton and to that date was the only Black performer to win an Oscar for a leading role. Both Washington and Halle Berry would join those ranks in 2002, and Washington used his speech to build a bridge from Poitier’s groundbreaking career to his own, and in doing so, helped to crystallize one of that night’s most historic narratives. “I’ll always be chasing you, Sidney,” Washington said, beaming. “I’ll always be following in your footsteps, sir. There’s nothing I would rather do.”

33. Ruth Gordon, 41st Academy Awards (1969)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Rosemary’s Baby

One interesting element of speech writing is finding your own unique way of stating “thank you” without using those two words. Ruth Gordon, after years in the business, opened with this phrasing: “I can’t tell you how encouraging a thing like this is!” An Oscar, she hints, is simply the nicest pat on the back to emerging talent like her. The riotous laughter and applause she garnered is proof the succinct bit landed perfectly.

32. Ingrid Bergman, 47th Academy Awards (1975)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Murder on the Orient Express

“It’s always very nice to get an Oscar” is the neatest way to begin any awards speech. In fact, it should be mandatory for all repeat winners, like an AMPAS pledge of allegiance. (See also: costume designer Sandy Powell’s “I’ve already got two of these.”) But third time winner and screen legend Ingrid Bergman’s acceptance for Murder on the Orient Express is even more wonderful for how she spends the rest of the speech either celebrating fellow nominee Valentina Cortese or lamenting how she doesn’t quite understand how Oscars rules work for international films.

31. Joe Pesci, 63rd Academy Awards (1991)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Goodfellas

Sometimes, the brevity of an acceptance speech can be read as shade (take, for example, Alfred Hitchcock accepting his honorary Oscar with a curt “Thank you” and a quick exit) or a symptom of confusion (hello, Gloria Grahame ). But the famously press-shy Pesci’s version of the simple hat tip was the gentleman’s version: “It was my privilege.” It was poetry that acknowledged his appreciation of his industry and his peers without skimping on the showmanship. Brief but full-bodied, like a shot of bourbon.

30. Sutton Foster, 65th Tony Awards (2011)

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, Anything Goes

Please give Sutton Foster another Tony so that she can give us an update on her former dresser Julien Havard who was leaving her next week (which was a great thing!!) to pursue his dream as an artist on Cape Cod.

29. Robin Williams, Eighth Critics’ Choice Awards (2003)

Best Actor, One Hour Photo

How does a loser give the most memorable speech of an awards ceremony? He just has to be Robin Williams. In the early days of the Critics’ Choice Awards, categories only held three nominees. When a tie occurred between Jack Nicholson for About Schmidt and Daniel Day-Lewis for Gangs of New York , rascal extraordinaire Nicholson called the unawarded Williams (for One Hour Photo ) to the stage. Williams then gave a speech to cheers that thanked the Irish people, mocked the ceremony’s set design, referenced Buddhism, and called Jack so thrilled “He could drop a log.” It’s so wild that it manages to make Day-Lewis seem painfully square, Nicholson seem so disarmed as to shed his trademark awards-show sunglasses, and presenter Salma Hayek seem like the only person in Hollywood able to corral them all.

28. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 65th Primetime Emmy Awards (2013)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy, Veep

Comedy bits as acceptance speeches can work, but the risk-reward ratio is daunting. For when they fail, they fail miserably. The secret sauce is commitment, which Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tony Hale possessed in spades when they opted to accept Louis-Dreyfus’s award in character, with Hale playing his Veep flunky. They didn’t cheat or giggle or give any indication that the ceremony was taking place in anything but some weird in-between space where reality and Veep have converged for the length of this one acceptance speech. As the series went on, that convergence felt permanent.

27. Jack Nicholson, 56th Golden Globe Awards (1999)

Cecil B. DeMille Award

Just a year prior to receiving his lifetime achievement award, Nicholson had taken the stage to accept an award for As Good As It Gets and paid tribute to his co-nominee Jim Carrey by literally talking out of his butt , Ace Ventura –style. The 1999 version of Nicholson was more demure, but only by a degree. At the 1999 Golden Globes ceremony, Nicholson reminisced on the good old days before the awards were televised, when Joan Crawford grabbed her own breasts onstage (“In my day, we had ’em”) and Rita Hayworth flipped her dress up over her head. It’s Jack in prime “life of the party” form, regaling you with tales like we were all courtside at a Lakers game. He takes some friendly shots at presenter and pal Warren Beatty, too, and delivers one perfectly executed joke about his agent (“… His name escapes me”). ) This is old-school Hollywood at its finest, and most unfiltered. And in feeling free to tell his ribald tales, Nicholson manages to be his most sincere. Even his acknowledgement of his advancing years is met with a joke (the “fear of the shroud”) and a reminder to the room that he’s still ready to work.

26. Renée Zellweger, 92nd Academy Awards (2020)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Judy

Renée Zellweger’s second Oscars speech gloriously derailed, transforming from a well-meaning listing-off of her heroes to a communication from a fugue state. Neil Armstrong gives way to Dolores Huerta and Venus, Serena, and Selena. Bob Dylan! India, disillusionment, silence. The dreams we used to say, the house we spent away. Ever the class act, Zellweger finds her point again, making the whole thing positively Garlandian.

25. Fred Rogers, 24th Daytime Emmy Awards (1997)

Lifetime Achievement Award

What makes a tear-jerker speech worthy of accolades? Given the preponderance of award recipients who thank their spouses and children and parents and mentors, it’s not exactly difficult to find an acceptance moment that tugs at wholesome heartstrings. But there’s low-hanging sentiment and then there’s Mr. Rogers. His call for ten seconds of silence “To think of the people who helped you become the people you are” was a classic Fred Rogers gambit. And wouldn’t you know, he had Linda Dano weeping in the crowd.

24. Jane Fonda, 44th Academy Awards (1972)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Klute

Fonda was no stranger to memorable awards-show stage appearances, whether she was signing in ASL for her second Oscar win for Coming Home or standing proud with a Mount Everest of hair as she accepted on behalf of her ailing father, Henry Fonda, for his On Golden Pond performance. But the most striking speech is the one she made after her first win for Klute , loaded in its simplicity — and therefore deeply quotable. This was months before her controversial visit to Hanoi, but she was already well-established as an antiwar activist, much to Hollywood’s discomfort. But instead of using her time at the mic to speak specifically to the activism she cared about, she let these words linger in the room instead: “There is a great deal to say and I’m not going to say it tonight.” There would continue to be a great deal to say, to say the least.

23. Merritt Wever, 65th Primetime Emmy Awards (2013)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, Nurse Jackie

The single greatest quick speech of all time came from a shock Emmy win for underdog contender Merritt Wever, facing stiff competition and clearly unprepared for victory. Whether Wever genuinely did not want to be in the situation or was simply yes-anding the surprise of her own win to comedic effect, her “I gotta go, bye” will absolutely go down in awards-ceremony history.

22. Meryl Streep, 74th Golden Globe Awards (2017)

Donald Trump’s election was a fresh wound when Meryl Streep, hoarse from protesting, took the stage to accept her lifetime achievement award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Streep took the occasion to blast the president — without ever uttering his name — for the cruelty of his politics, as well as his recently instituted travel ban on people from Muslim-majority countries. Streep took a tour of the ballroom at the Beverly Hilton and cited the birthplaces of everyone from Viola Davis to Ryan Gosling to Dev Patel — “outsiders and immigrants” partially responsible for the stories being celebrated that night. Sure, it wasn’t hard to whip up the spirits of a sympathetic room, but her staunch defense of compassion and multiculturalism gave focus and clarity to Hollywood’s anti-Trump movement — she’d be nominated a year later for the politically timely The Post — and earned her a place on the then-president’s shit list.

21. Ally Sheedy, 14th Independent Spirit Awards (1999)

Best Actress, High Art

“OHHH MYYY GODDDDD!” was how Ally Sheedy began her acceptance speech, after literally crawling up onto the stage and locking best pal and presenter Rosanna Arquette into an unbreakable embrace. Sheedy, an icon of ’80s movies like The Breakfast Club but largely forgotten by the time she starred in Lisa Cholodenko’s 1998 lesbian drama, High Art , physically demonstrated just how impossible it felt to claw her way back to industry recognition. And whatever emotional or chemical state she was in at the time, she was not going to relinquish that spotlight. Sheedy spoke, hollered, laughed, and cried for ten full minutes, highlighting the Spirits’ anti-Oscars vibe while at the same time guaranteeing this career resurgence of hers would live on in some way.

20. Kirstie Alley, 43rd Primetime Emmy Awards (1991)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Cheers

To say that Kirstie Alley was a peculiar personality in her prime is probably putting it lightly. Her acceptance speech when she won the Emmy on her third try as Cheers ’ leading lady was an exercise in resisting sincerity and schmaltziness. So she poked fun at co-star Ted Danson’s famous Emmy drought and made a joke about the dry cleaner finding her old unused acceptance speeches in her dress pockets. But she put a bow on her stand-up when she thanked her then-husband, Parker Stevenson, “For giving me the big one for the last eight years.” Cheers to that .

19. Mo’Nique, 82nd Academy Awards (2010)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Precious

Throughout Mo’Nique’s Oscars season in 2009–2010, she faced unfair criticisms from the press and bloggersphere for her reticence to participate in the Hollywood baby-kissing tour that is an Academy Awards campaign, even as she obtained frontrunner status. Mo’Nique gave very limited interviews, and appeared at few “for your consideration,” events but was also busy launching her talk show at that time. So when the multi-hyphenate performer took the stage and thanked the Academy for awarding “the performance and not the politics,” the more casual Oscar watchers at home might have been confused as to what she meant. But it was a gratifying crack to the system that Mo’Nique could achieve what many of them could not.

18. Geena Davis, 63rd Golden Globe Awards (2006)

Best Actress in a Television Series — Drama, Commander in Chief

Geena Davis delivered the ultrarare postmodern acceptance speech when she won the Globe for playing the [gasp] female president of the United States on Commander in Chief . Adopting some of the more treacly clichés of the acceptance-speech artform, Davis began to tell a story about a little girl out on the red carpet who tugged on her dress and told her, “Because of you, I want to be president.” And then Davis yanked the rug right out from under the audience, weaponizing their “ awwws ” against them by revealing the story to be a complete lie. Besides showing the Globes audience as a bunch of credulous saps, Davis also delivered a subtle message: Keep giving me awards and I’ll keep being this funny.

17. Elaine Stritch, 56th Primetime Emmy Awards (2004)

Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, Elaine Stritch at Liberty

Leave it to another Broadway legend to perform the hell out of a Hollywood acceptance speech. Elaine Stritch won the Emmy for the HBO filmed version of her stage show, then proceeded to stage an epic siege of the podium. Stritch referenced her drinking problem, got bleeped, nearly got HBO exec Chris Albrecht’s name wrong, and then declared she’d just start naming names until someone dragged her off the stage. Was the speech genuinely unhinged? Did it matter? By the time Stritch was shouting out Scott Saunders (“I don’t like him very much, but he got us the money!”) and flirting with an F-bomb, she’d very nearly earned herself a second Emmy for the speech itself.

16. Jack Palance, 64th Academy Awards (1992)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, City Slickers

It took nearly 40 years from Jack Palance’s first brush with Oscar — he was nominated back to back for 1952’s Sudden Fear and 1953’s Shane — for him to finally get the prize, and by the time he took the stage to accept his award from Whoopi Goldberg, the old man was full of beans. Casting a glance downstage to that year’s host, his City Slickers co-star Billy Crystal, Palance quoted his character, Curly, by sneering, “I crap bigger than him.” He followed that with some words about how Hollywood producers won’t always cast old veterans for parts that require any physicality, before dropping to the stage and performing a series of one-armed push-ups, to the delight of the audience — not to mention Crystal, who spent the rest of the evening riffing off of Palance’s surprising show of vitality.

15. Michelle Williams, 71st Primetime Emmy Awards (2019)

Best Lead Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie, Fosse/Verdon

Two years before she took on the role of Gwen Verdon, Michelle Williams found herself inadvertently at the center of one of the great dust-ups of the new Me Too era when it came out that she had been paid a fraction of what her All the Money in the World counterpart, Mark Wahlberg, had been paid for the job. Two years later, when accepting her Emmy, Williams put a button on that moment, thanking her bosses at FX for listening to her needs for more vocal training, dance lessons, better fake teeth and wigs (essential!), and for paying her equally. “They understood that when you put value in a person, it empowers that person to get in touch with their own inherent value, and where do they put that value? They put it into their work.” Williams made an extra-pointed statement for women of color in this regard, making the speech a home run for advocacy — and succinctness (the entire speech fell under two minutes).

14. Sacheen Littlefeather for Marlon Brando, 45th Academy Awards (1973)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, The Godfather

The massive success of The Godfather was a victory lap for Marlon Brando, overturning a decade’s worth of film failures overnight and making him the obvious best actor winner for his performance as Don Corleone. But Brando boycotted the ceremony to speak out against the ongoing mistreatment and misrepresentation of Native Americans in Hollywood films amid the ongoing occupation of Wounded Knee. In his place, Brando sent Native American actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather to read a prepared statement (which was forcibly reduced onscreen by Oscars producers). Littlefeather received a torrent of boos in the theater and was harassed by industry members backstage before reading the entire speech for the press backstage. Brando was criticized not only for using the Oscars as a political platform but also for forcing Littlefeather to face the heat from the industry. Months before she passed away in 2022, the Academy issued Littlefeather a formal apology.

13. Sheryl Lee Ralph, 28th Critics’ Choice Awards (2023)

Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, Abbott Elementary

So many speeches, even great ones, play to the room rather than the audience watching at home. Not I, said the great Sheryl Lee Ralph, who after speaking of the hardships in her career, knew exactly where her camera was and pointed straight to it with the righteous self-conviction of a trash-talking WWE champion. But instead of bringing the pain, she brought a new pinnacle of the uplifting awards speech. Making eye contact with our souls as the camera operator zoomed in, she spoke of the importance of self-love (which can sound phony coming out of most Hollywood mouths) over any other form of respect, making even the most wavering self-doubter into a believer in only the way a truly self-actualized person can.

12. Jim Carrey, MTV Movie Awards (1999)

Best Male Performance, The Truman Show

It’s important to situate this one on the grand Jim Carrey timeline, as it came mere months after he was snubbed for an Academy Award and shortly after he filmed the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon . Perhaps taking Kaufman’s cue, Carrey accepted his tub of golden popcorn deep in character as a Jim Morrison–esque free-loving biker burnout. To the delight of several A-listers in the crowd (his co-star Courtney Love but also Keri Russell and Salma Hayek), Carrey leeringly noted that there was “Some fine-looking pussy in the room tonight,” thus checking the “quotable” box on our scorecard and bringing the performance of sincerity to a whole other stratosphere.

11. Cuba Gooding Jr., 69th Academy Awards (1997)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Jerry Maguire

In any awards show — but especially at the Oscars, it seems — there is an unspoken battle between the producers and the awards recipients. The producers have their eye on the clock, not wanting to let the ceremony drift toward an unwieldy runtime. They also know that a rambly, unfocused speech isn’t great television, and they tend to hustle those off the stage with a premature cue of the orchestra. This battle can be uncomfortable to watch play out. An overzealous orchestra can give the unwelcome impression that we’re all just trying to get this over with as soon as possible. But when Cuba Gooding Jr. accepted his Oscar for Jerry Maguire and seemed momentarily dazed by the enormity of the moment, the orchestra’s intrusion kind of hip-checked Gooding into action. Suddenly fighting back against the music, Gooding’s thank-yous got louder, his gratitude got more exuberant — he was about 30 seconds away from levitating off the stage. It’s one of the most pure expressions of joy ever seen at the Oscars, and it’s even better when you watch the view from the production booth .

10. Tom Hanks, 66th Academy Awards (1994)

Best Actor in a Leading Role, Philadelphia

It’s fair to criticize the history of straight actors being rewarded for playing gay characters, and Hanks was quick to acknowledge the unfairness of his position when awarded an Oscar for playing Andy Beckett in Philadelphia . The lasting impression of his speech is its impassioned plea for acceptance of gay people during a hostile time, one that rings more honestly felt than the talking points later male-acting winners would mimic. Hanks chokes up early and stays that way throughout, giving one of his first steps as everyone’s movie dad and a quintessential message speech so articulate you might overlook its religious overtones. Hanks also recognizes the impact of two gay fellow creatives on his life, a fellow actor and his high-school drama teacher, a statement that would be satirized a few years later in In and Out — bet you can’t name another acceptance speech that inspired a whole movie!

9. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, MTV Movie Awards (2005)

Best Kiss, The Notebook

The MTV Movie Awards’ Best Kiss category has a checkered past, displaying mild-to-medium homophobia some years and engendering over-the-top eye rolls other years. But it’s an interesting subset of Hollywood awards in that it has, in retrospect, recognized some of our greatest performers (from Moonlight actors to Twilight actors). So how, in accepting such an award, do you express the gratitude indicative of a future star while also recognizing the frivolity of the whole affair? If you’re complete geniuses like Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, you re-create the whole lift-kiss thing from The Notebook onstage while perfectly mid-aughts sex-groove Maroon 5 plays in the background. And one of you has a Darfur T-shirt on. The then-still-dating stars milked the moment for all it was worth, demonstrating a level of confidence and showmanship you would expect from seasoned stars, not two breakthroughs, as well as a savvy understanding of the fact that the MTV Movie Awards exist for fan service and not much else. While McAdams hasn’t had many opportunities to accept awards thereafter (fix it, Academy cowards!), this speech set the tone for Gosling’s later mischief-maker persona, someone who refuses to take any awards ceremony too seriously.

8. Michael Moore (with Michael Donovan), 75th Academy Awards (2003)

Best Documentary Feature, Bowling for Columbine

Even with Moore’s reputation for political pot-stirring, the filmmaker was entering Oscars night as something of a success story, riding high on the praise for Bowling for Columbine that made him among the surest bets to win that night. But this ceremony was also three days after the U.S. invaded Iraq. Taking the stage for his documentary feature win with his fellow nominees, the audience gave him a standing ovation (how often does that happen for docs?!) and chaos ensued. Moore called out the Bush administration, remarking, “We live in fictitious times [with] fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president … sending us to war for fictitious reasons.” Instantly throughout the theater a cloud of boos descends, with scattered agreeable applause, and the voice of fear visibly ringing in the head of every star on camera not to show their true feelings (catch Scorsese beginning to clap, though! Harrison Ford, living for the chaos!). It would make Moore a household name in America and serve as table setting for his next film, Fahrenheit 9/11 , the highest-grossing documentary to that point.

7. Olivia Colman, 91st Academy Awards (2019)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, The Favourite

Colman’s win takes us on a breakneck guided tour of the best categories of awards speeches, arriving at each new fence post with a swiftness envied by most high-speed rail systems: the wildly funny type, the directed-to-the-daydreamers-at-home motivational type, the sobbing type, the effusively aware-of-her-fellow-nominees type. It is arguably the most quotable acceptance speech of recent years, from the anxious opener, “It’s genuinely quite stressful,” to her smooching “LADY GAGA!!” finish. But the speech category that ties them all together is one more typically found at the Golden Globes: the drunk type (later, Colman admitted that expecting not to win, she’d gotten knackered). Every great speech should offer a lingering question (in this case, who earned Colman’s early tears of “Hi”?). And if they must be scattered, they should be gloriously and hilariously so, and cement what makes the recipient a deeply lovable and emotionally activated comedic actress [ blows raspberry ].

6. Halle Berry, 74th Academy Awards (2002)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Monster’s Ball

Halle Berry’s Oscar for Monster’s Ball was the first best-actress win for a Black woman, carrying with it the weight of not only the past but the present of an industry that hadn’t advanced as much as it liked to tell itself it had. And Berry managed to meet that moment with the feeling in her speech. Berry’s emotional outpouring is still impossible not to be moved by on rewatch, and it (along with Denzel’s speech) remains the gold standard for how to recognize the performers that paved the road before you. Crucially, her speech mentions not only former Oscar nominees like Dorothy Dandridge and Diahann Carroll but also her contemporaries who hadn’t been given the chance at an Oscar because of Hollywood’s continual denial of opportunities for Black actresses.

5. Sally Field, 57th Academy Awards (1985)

Best Performance by a Leading Actress, Places in the Heart

Sally Field got so much shit for this, you guys. Expressing how her second win felt like acceptance into an industry — that had once pigeonholed and discarded her as Gidget and the Flying Nun — in a way that her first had not, this speech was a moment of vulnerable “you like me!” earnestness that instead turned her into the butt of the joke. Forgive me for tsk-tsking the culture at large from half a century ago, but there was no mention at the time in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rulebook that a second-time Oscar winner must be self-effacing, and there has yet to be any to this day.

4. Viola Davis, 89th Academy Awards (2017)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Fences

A rousing speech can floor us in a single quote, as Viola Davis did: “There’s one place where all the people with the greatest potential are gathered … that’s the graveyard.” Hers is the delivery of a master speechwriter, piecing together the kind of personal and professional gratitudes that usually get doled out in an acceptance speech, and molding them into a moving proclamation as much about the artist’s calling as it is about how you choose to live a life. Too many speeches, even by the most charismatic stars, are bullet-pointed names of people we know nothing about, but Davis’s speech makes them feel like real humans begging to be known. Lesser stars can be clunkier when trying to pull into their speeches the themes of the film for which they won, but Davis shows Fences and the work of August Wilson as intrinsic to who she is as an actress and a person who makes this one hell of an artist’s statement.

3. Shirley MacLaine, 56th Academy Awards (1984)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Terms of Endearment

Humility is a great virtue, provided it comes naturally. But if that’s not what you’re feeling, sing out , Louise! Shirley MacLaine ended her Oscar speech with a hurried “I deserve this,” which was partly comical and partly sincere — MacLaine owning her pride at achieving a career pinnacle in Terms of Endearment , into which she put so much of her creativity and hard work. But before the sincere part, MacLaine took a good-natured dig at the length of the ceremony, poked fun at her own recently earned reputation for transcendentalism, thanked Jack Nicholson for the “middle-aged joy” of having him in bed in the film, and thanked her co-nominated co-star, Debra Winger, for her “turbulent brilliance.” MacLaine and Winger famously feuded on the set of the film, and Winger’s bemused (yet smiling!) reaction seemed to hide something muttered under her breath. We’ll say it again, there’s nothing like an Oscar speech that produces a blind item.

2. Julia Roberts, 73rd Academy Awards (2001)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Erin Brockovich

You think you know the moment when Julia Roberts’s Oscar speech becomes the second greatest of all time. Certainly, it was when she unhinged her jaw and let out that irrepressible, whooping cackle, ending with an “I love it up here!” Or wait, perhaps it was a smidge earlier when she admonished orchestra conductor Bill Conti (“Stick Man”) to keep his baton at bay. But the real moment when Roberts officially GOATed that speech arrived with the fifth word out of her mouth: “Thank you, thank you ever so much!” like she was just handed a scepter from the queen of England. And wield that scepter she did. By a rough watch of the clock, Roberts took three minutes and 48 seconds — including one break to make sure her dress looked pretty — to be gracious (mentioning her fellow nominees), quotable (she loves it up there!), and unabashedly thrilled. The speech was criticized at the time, mostly for being too long and for forgetting to thank the real Erin Brockovich (whom Roberts had thanked profusely at the Golden Globes). But what her critics failed (and in some cases continue to fail) to see is that the Oscars exist as a public pageant because of the power of movie stars. And here was Roberts, one of the biggest movie stars in the world, accepting a long-awaited industry recognition of her talent. So she took her time, straightened her dress, and thanked everybody else, from Steven Soderbergh to Albert Finney, Danny DeVito to her niece Emma. Her speech was everything the Oscars should be: self-indulgent, loudly complimentary about artists, compulsively watchable, and long.

1. 1. Dame Emma Thompson, 53rd Golden Globes (1996)

Best Motion Picture Screenplay, Sense and Sensibility

Let this be your quarterly reminder to invite Dame Emma Thompson to every awards show and let her do whatever she wants. There has never been a more ingenious way of accepting a Hollywood award than when Thompson called a séance on the ghost of Jane Austen after adapting Sense and Sensibility . Owing the success of the film’s writing (and thus the screenplay award she was accepting) to the original author, Thompson jettisoned a traditional speech and instead composed a diary entry in the voice of Austen herself, as if she had attended the Globes. (Among the speech’s many Austen-approximating brilliancies include calling the ceremony the “Golden Spheres” and saving the worst of her scorn for Thompson herself.) In doing so, Thompson simultaneously takes the piss out of the awards, exalts Austen, and ever-so-deftly silences any lingering naysayers who didn’t believe that a mere actress could translate the prose of one of the greatest writers of all time. And after winning the lion’s share of acting prizes a few years before for Howards End , why not have a little fun? Few have ever dared, much less achieved, a pre-written gag awards speech so decadently bold, but Thompson has the talent to pull it off without breaking a sweat. Her Austen invocation feels commensurately silly and self-aggrandizing, while hitting the bull’s-eye of legitimate gratitude. It’s a perfect speech if there ever was one, and it undoubtedly paved the way for her Oscar win that year .

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The 21 greatest graduation speeches of the last 60 years

By german lopez on may 11, 2016.

Graduation speeches are the last opportunity for a high school or college to educate its students. It's unsurprising, then, that these institutions often pull in some of the world's most powerful people to leave an equally powerful impression on their students. Here are the best of those speeches and some of the sections that resonate the most.

David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College, 2005

Jamie Sullivan

“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, 'Morning, boys. How's the water?' And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, 'What the hell is water?' This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches: the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories. The story thing turns out to be one of the better, less bulshitty conventions of the genre, but if you're worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don't be. I am not the wise old fish.”

Steve Jobs at Stanford University, 2005

Stanford University

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it’s quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Ellen Degeneres at Tulane University, 2009

Tulane University

“I know that a lot of you are concerned about your future, but there’s no need to worry. The economy is booming, the job market is wide open, the planet is just fine. It’s gonna be great. You’ve already survived a hurricane. What else can happen to you? And as I mentioned before, some of the most devastating things that happen to you will teach you the most. And now you know the right questions to ask for your first job interview — like, ‘Is it above sea level?’ So to conclude my conclusion that I’ve previously concluded in the common cement speech, I guess what I’m trying to say is life is like one big Mardi Gras. But instead of showing your boobs, show people your brain. And if they like what they see, you’ll have more beads than you know what to do with. And you’ll be drunk most of the time.”

Conan O'Brien at Dartmouth College, 2011

“Way back in the 1940s there was a very, very funny man named Jack Benny. He was a giant star and easily one of the greatest comedians of his generation. And a much younger man named Johnny Carson wanted very much to be Jack Benny. In some ways he was, but in many ways he wasn’t. He emulated Jack Benny, but his own quirks and mannerisms, along with a changing medium, pulled him in a different direction. And yet his failure to completely become his hero made him the funniest person of his generation. David Letterman wanted to be Johnny Carson, and was not, and as a result my generation of comedians wanted to be David Letterman. And none of us are — my peers and I have all missed that mark in a thousand different ways. But the point is this: it is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It’s not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can be a catalyst for profound reinvention.”

Carol Bartz at University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2012

University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Accept failure and learn from it. Failure is part of life, it’s part of every career, and you have to know how to take advantage of it. The single greatest strength that this country has via Silicon Valley is that failure is seen as a sign of experience. Failure is part of work, it’s part of life. People are willing to take risks on the way to innovation. One of my fondest sayings is fail, fast, forward. Recognize you’ve failed, try to do it fast, learn from it, build on it, and move forward. Embrace failure, have it be part of your persona. You’re going to have long careers, as I’ve already told you, you’re going to have many failures — personal, business, professional. I’ve had my share. But just use this as a building block to your next success.”

President John F. Kennedy at American University, 1963

“Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process — a way of solving problems. With such a peace, there will still be quarrels and conflicting interests, as there are within families and nations. World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor — it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement.”

David McCullough Jr. at Wellesley High School, 2012

Wellesley High School

“Like accolades ought to be, the fulfilled life is a consequence — a gratifying byproduct. It’s what happens when you’re thinking about more important things. Climb the mountain not to plant your flag but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air, and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you. Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly. Exercise free will and creative independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you but for the good they will do others — the rest of the 6.8 billion and those who will follow them. And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you’re not special, because everyone is.”

Stephen Colbert at Northwestern University, 2011

Joshua Sherman

“You have been told to follow your dreams, but what if it’s a stupid dream? For instance, Stephen Colbert of 25 years ago lived at 2015 North Ridge with two men and three women in what I now know was a brothel. He dreamed of living alone — well, alone with his beard in a large, barren loft apartment, lots of blonde wood, wearing a kimono, with a futon on the floor and a Samovar of tea constantly bubbling in the background, doing Shakespeare in the street for homeless people. Today, I am a beardless, suburban dad who lives in a house, wears no iron khakis, and makes Anthony Weiner jokes for a living. And I love it, because thankfully dreams can change. If we’d all stuck with our first dream, the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses. So whatever your dream is right now, if you don’t achieve it, you haven’t failed, and you’re not some loser. But just as importantly — and this is the part I may not get right and you may not listen to — if you do get your dream, you are not a winner.”

Sheryl Sandberg at Harvard Business School, 2012

Harvard Business School

“I sat down with Eric Schmidt, who had just become the CEO [of Google], and I showed him the spreadsheet and I said, this job meets none of my criteria. He put his hand on my sheet and he looked at me and said, ‘Don’t be an idiot.’ Excellent career advice. And then he said, ‘Get on a rocketship. When companies are growing quickly and having a lot of impact, careers take care of themselves. And when companies aren’t growing quickly or their missions don’t matter as much, that’s when stagnation and politics come in. If you’re offered a seat on a rocketship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.’”

Michael Lewis at Princeton University, 2012

Princeton University

“In a general sort of way you’ve been appointed leader of the group. Your appointment may not be entirely arbitrary. But you must sense right now its arbitrary aspect: you are the lucky few. Lucky in your parents, lucky in your country, lucky that a place like Princeton exists that can take in lucky people, introduce them to other lucky people, and increase their chances of becoming even luckier. Lucky that you live in the richest society the world has ever seen, in a time when no one actually expects you to sacrifice your interest to anything. All of you have been faced with the extra cookie. All of you will be faced with many more of them. In time you will find it easy to assume that you deserve the extra cookie. For all I know, you may deserve the extra cookie. But you will be happier, and you will be better off, if you at least pretend that you don't.”

Jon Stewart at the College of William & Mary, 2004

College of William & Mary

“Lets talk about the real world for a moment. ... I don’t really know to put this, so I’ll be blunt: we broke it. Please don’t be mad. I know we were supposed to bequeath to the next generation a world better than the one we were handed. So, sorry. I don’t know if you’ve been following the news lately, but it just kinda got away from us. Somewhere between the gold rush of easy internet profits and an arrogant sense of endless empire, we heard kind of a pinging noise, and then the damn thing just died on us. So I apologize. But here’s the good news: you fix this thing, you’re the next greatest generation, people.”

Oprah Winfrey at Spelman College, 2012

Spelman College

“You must have some kind of vision for your life, even if you don’t know the plan. You have to have a direction in which you choose to go. I never was the kind of woman who liked to get in a car and just go for a ride. I had a boyfriend that would say, ‘Let’s just go for a ride.’ I want to know where are we going. Do we have a destination? Is there a plan? Are we just riding? What I’ve learned is that’s a great metaphor for life. You want to be in the driver’s seat of your own life, because if you’re not, life will drive you.”

Neil Gaiman at the University of the Arts, 2012

Lennie Alzate

“The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you’re walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself, that’s the moment you may be starting to get it right. The things I’ve done that worked the best were the things I was the least certain about, the stories where I was sure they would either work or more likely be the kinds of embarrassing failures that people would gather together and discuss until the end of time. They always had that in common. Looking back at them, people explain why they were inevitable successes. And while I was doing them, I had no idea. I still don’t. And where would be the fun in making something you knew was going to work? And sometimes the things I did really didn’t work. There are stories of mine that have never been reprinted. Some of them never even left the house. But I learned as much from them as I did from the things that worked.”

George Saunders at Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences, 2013

Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences

“Seek out the most efficacious anti-selfishness medicines energetically for the rest of your life. And do all the other things of course, the ambitious things: travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim naked in a wild jungle river — after first testing it for monkey poop. But as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness. Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial. That luminous part of you that exists beyond personality — your soul, if you will — is as bright and shining as any that has ever been. Bright as Shakespeare’s, bright as Gandhi’s, bright as Mother Teresa’s. Clear away everything that keeps you separate from this secret luminous place. Believe it exists, come to know it better, nurture it, share its fruits tirelessly.”

Nora Ephron at Wellesley College, 1996

Wellesley College

“So what are you going to do? This is the season when a clutch of successful women who have it all get up and give speeches to women like you and say, ‘To be perfectly honest, you can’t have it all.’ Well, maybe young women don’t wonder whether they can have it all any longer, but in case any of you are wondering, of course you can have it all. What are you going to do? Everything is my guess. It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications. It will not be anything like what you think it’s going to be like, but surprises are good for you. And don't be frightened. You can always change your mind. I know. I've had four careers and three husbands. And this is something else I want to tell you, one of the hundreds of things I didn’t know when I was sitting here so many years ago: you are not going to be you, fixed and immutable you, forever.”

Aaron Sorkin at Syracuse University, 2012

Syracuse University

“Decisions are made by those who show up. Don't ever forget that you're a citizen of this world. Don't ever forget that you’re a citizen of this world, and there are things you can do to lift the human spirit, things that are easy, things that are free, things that you can do every day: civility, respect, kindness, character. You’re too good for schadenfreude, you’re too good for gossip and snark, you’re too good for intolerance — and since you're walking into the middle of a presidential election, it’s worth mentioning that you’re too good to think people who disagree with you are your enemy. … Don’t ever forget that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world. It’s the only thing that ever has.”

Barbara Kingsolver at DePauw University, 1994

DePauw University

“It’s not up to you to save the world. That’s the job of every living person who likes the idea of a future. But I’m going to go out on a limb here and give you one little piece of advice, and that is, like the idea of a future. Believe you have it in you to make the world look better rather than worse seven generations from now. Figure out what that could look like. And then if you’re lucky, you’ll find a way to live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.”

Jane Lynch at Smith College, 2012

Smith College

“My counsel to you, women of Smith College: let life surprise you. Don’t have a plan. Plans are for wusses. If my life went according to my plan, I would never ever have the life I have today. Now, you are obviously good planners, or you wouldn’t be here. So stop it! Stop it now! Don’t deprive yourself of the exciting journey your life can be when you relinquish the need to have goals and a blueprint.”

Bill Gates at Harvard University, 2007

Harvard University

“In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue — a complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it. If you make it the focus of your career, that would be phenomenal. But you don’t have to do that to make an impact. For a few hours every week, you can use the growing power of the internet to get informed, find others with the same interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them. Don’t let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on big inequities. I feel sure it will be one of the great experiences of your lives.”

Eugene Mirman at Lexington High School, 2009

Eugene Mirman

“What’s the worst grade you’ve ever gotten? A D? An F? When I was in eighth grade in Diamond Middle School on a homework assignment — this is true — I once got a -8. Sadly very true. I did my assignment worse than not doing it. But did I let getting a grade lower than the lowest possible grade stop me? No. I was put into resource room in special education, and I turned my F into a D. So you see sometimes you can fail, then barely pass, and then become a comedian.”

Michelle Obama at Spelman College, 2011

“Some of you may have grown up like me, in neighborhoods where few had the chance to go to college, where being teased for doing well in school was a fact of life, where well-meaning but misguided folks questioned whether a girl with my background could get into a school like Princeton. Sometimes I’d save them the trouble and raised the questions myself, in my own head, lying awake at night, doubting whether I had what it took to succeed. And the truth is that there will always be folks out there who make assumptions about others. There will always be folks who try to raise themselves up by cutting other people down. That happens to everyone, including me, throughout their lives. But when that happens to you all, here’s what I want you to do: I want you to just stop a minute, take a deep breath — because it’s going to need to be deep — and I want you to think about all those women who came before you.”

• The formula for a good life after college
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The states to watch on the 2024 electoral map

Domenico Montanaro

To better understand the landscape for the presidential election with a little more than six months to go, here is our initial Electoral Vote map of the cycle.

It focuses on the states that are expected to be most competitive in the effort by the campaigns to get to 270 electoral votes, a majority of the 538 total available.

There are a number of paths each candidate can take to victory. Follow them here.

This analysis, which will appear and be adjusted semi-regularly until Election Day, goes beyond just polling and is based on conversations with campaigns and strategists, NPR reporting from the field, campaign activity, and historical and demographic trends.

It lays out which direction the states are leaning at this point and are organized into seven categories — Toss Up, Lean Republican, Lean Democratic, Likely Republican, Likely Democratic, Safe Republican and Safe Democratic.

Voting booths are seen at Glass Elementary School's polling station in Eagle Pass, Texas, on November 8, 2022. Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Voting booths are seen at Glass Elementary School's polling station in Eagle Pass, Texas, on November 8, 2022.

State analysis and ad spending

Trump holds slight advantages in most of the swing states right now, according to averages of the polls. Strictly going by the polls, Trump would have a 283-255 lead (if you give Biden Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which are currently statistical ties).

But the toss up states are expected to be close, within just a few points, in either candidate's direction. Biden currently has a massive war chest and ad-spending advantage. In addition to personnel, ads are the largest expenditure of a presidential campaign.

Third-party scramble

It's also unclear how third-party candidates could affect the map. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been pulling double digits in polling, and it's not totally clear which side he pulls most from. Polls have shown him pulling evenly, some have shown him pulling more from Trump, others more from Biden. The Biden campaign would prefer a one-on-one matchup with Trump and super PACs are cropping up on the left to attack Kennedy's record.

He's qualified so far for the ballot in three states — Michigan, Hawaii and Utah. A Quinnipiac poll last month showed Trump's lead expanding from 3 to 5 points when RFK Jr. was included. Kennedy's campaign and a super PAC supporting him say he has enough signatures to potentially also get on ballots in Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina and South Carolina.

The state of play in the states

In Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Biden has caught up, pulled even or taken a lead in some recent surveys. And Pennsylvania happens to be where Biden and allies are spending the second-most on ads right now — almost $4 million in the past month and a half since Super Tuesday, the unofficial start to the general election.

That's only slightly behind what they're spending in Michigan. Biden is trying to make up ground there with younger voters and Black voters, groups he's lagging with. Trump and groups supporting him have spent only about $700,000 in Pennsylvania in that same time frame.

Team Biden has also spent $2 million in Wisconsin. Trump and groups supporting him have spent nothing there so far.

Most of the money in this election is going to be poured into seven states, and they fall into two familiar buckets — the so-called "Blue Wall" states of Michigan , Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and the Sun Belt states of Arizona , Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada .

The Blue Wall states are home to significant shares of white, working-class voters, but Biden has retained strong support with unions. Democrats are also putting in significant efforts, especially in Wisconsin , to reach Black voters and be on college campuses. All three states have significant Black populations and multiple colleges and universities.

While North Carolina was also close in 2020 — within 2 points — given its history of voting Republican, it begins the cycle in the Lean Republican category. Democrats feel the gubernatorial race in the state could help them, as Republicans nominated a highly controversial candidate, who could turn off swing voters.

The increasing population of white, college-educated voters in the state's Research Triangle continues to make the state competitive. But Republicans have won it in all but one presidential election since 1976.

Demographics are important but it isn't everything

The industrial Midwest has moved more toward Republicans because of the shift toward the GOP among white voters without college degrees. That's why states like Ohio and Iowa, which were competitive for decades until the Trump era, are no longer Democratic targets.

It's the key group Trump is targeting. But they are declining as a share of the population and of the electorate. That's a big reason Trump lost despite whites without degrees voting at a higher rate in 2020 (64%) compared to 2016 (55%), according to data from Michael McDonald, the preeminent turnout expert in the country and professor at the University of Florida.

It's also because of the continued shift with college-educated white voters toward Democrats. In 2020, Trump won college-educated white men by 3 points in 2020, according to exit polls, but the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll showed Biden winning the group by more than 20 points.

Combined with the increasing Latino and Asian American population and a remigration to the South of young Black voters, particularly in Georgia, that has meant a reshaping of the electoral map.

"In 2024, we'll see an even more diverse electorate than we saw in 2020, which was even more diverse than 2016 and more diverse than 2012," McDonald predicted.

Consider that 20 years ago, Republican George W. Bush won Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico and North Carolina. That's all changed, as each is either competitive or clearly in the Democratic column.

In addition to the Latino population increase in the Southwest, McDonald pointed to the uptick in Asian Americans, and a remigration of Black voters to Georgia as to why those states continue to trend toward Democrats.

But it's not all demographics. Latinos, Black voters and young voters all view the economy negatively. Majorities overall disapprove of Biden's handling of the economy and more voters say they think the economy was better under Trump.

"Issues matter as well," McDonald noted. "But the sort of issues that can move a sizable chunk of the electorate change with the demographics. And so that's where the two things intersect."

Post-pandemic election realities

This year's election is also going to be different from 2020 in a very big way. Because of the pandemic, mail-in voting was used widely and that contributed heavily to increased turnout. In 2020, 66% of registered voters cast ballots, the highest since 1900 . That's unlikely to be the case again, McDonald noted.

"I would be very surprised if we have a turnout rate like we saw in 2020," McDonald said. "And the people who would most likely then not participate ... are going to be these lower-education voters. And so it's going to pose a real challenge to the Trump campaign, to energize these folks yet again to vote in 2020."

NOTES: President Biden is headed to Tampa, Fla., this week for a campaign event. Campaigns will say that nothing is more precious than a candidate's time, and that stops in a particular state can move numbers. Because of an abortion-related ballot measure in the state, Democrats think they can make Florida competitive. That may be, but it's incredibly expensive because it's such a large state with so many TV markets. In 2020, the Biden team spent more than $150 million in Florida, more than any state, to no avail. To this point, the Biden campaign has spent almost nothing in ads on the state and the polling has, to this point, shown Trump well ahead. For now, it ranks decidedly below the most competitive states. Texas is a majority-minority state, but remains something of a white whale in Democratic politics. In 2020, it was the closest it has been since 1996, decided by 7 points. But with other paths to 270 and how expensive Texas is to advertise and organize in, expect the core seven states to be the focus.

In this combination of file photos, President Joe Biden, left, speaks on Aug. 10, 2023, in Salt Lake City, and former President Donald Trump speaks on June 13, 2023, in Bedminster, N.J. Biden and Trump have set up a political movie the country has seen before — even if the last version was in black and white. Andrew Harnik/AP hide caption

In this combination of file photos, President Joe Biden, left, speaks on Aug. 10, 2023, in Salt Lake City, and former President Donald Trump speaks on June 13, 2023, in Bedminster, N.J. Biden and Trump have set up a political movie the country has seen before — even if the last version was in black and white.

Paths to 270

As the map stands, if Trump and Biden win the states leaning in their direction, Trump would need to win 35 electoral votes from the toss ups to get to 270, and Biden would need 44.

Here are three paths to get over the top for each candidate.

• The Blue Wall Crumble: Trump toppled the Blue Wall in 2016, winning Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. If he did so again, the 44 electoral votes there would be more than enough. Any other states would be icing. But importantly: Trump likely needs to win at least one of these states to win election again, because the Sun Belt states of Nevada, Arizona and Georgia only provide 33 Electoral Votes.
• Sun Belt Plus: Trump could sweep the Sun Belt, but would come up short if he were to lose all the Blue Wall states. That would mean a whisker-close, 270-268 loss for Trump. So he would need at least one other state — likely one of the toss-up Blue Wall states, or he could aim to pick off New Hampshire or Minnesota... or win the one electoral vote in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, which would lead to a tie race (see below).
• The Eastern Front: Pennsylvania and Georgia provide exactly the 35 Electoral Votes Trump would need to get over the finish line and would put him at 270, even if Biden wins Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada.
• The Repeat: Remember, Biden already won once and with 51% of the vote, so he just has to convince the people who voted for him once to do so again. Biden won in 2020 with 306 electoral votes, meaning he can lose up to 36 and still win. Four years ago, Biden swept all of the states in the toss up column.
• Hold the Wall: If Biden hangs onto Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, he'd have a 270-268 win. Of those, the state he most needs to make up some ground is in Michigan, though most polls are currently within the margin of error. That's why Biden is campaigning so hard talking about steel and increasing tariffs on Chinese imports to appeal to the kinds of union and working-class voters – that were so key in 2020 – in those states.
• The Southwest Chip Shot: Latino voters are critical to Biden's efforts to win in Nevada and Arizona. He's lagging with them currently, but is running lots of Spanish-language ads in both places to try and boost his appeal. Plus, the Arizona abortion ruling threatens to make abortion a focus and be a turnout motivator in the state. If Biden were to win both, and Trump were to chip off Michigan (or Wisconsin), but Biden holds Pennsylvania, Biden would win 272-268. (By the way, if Biden were to win Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan, he'd still lose if he lost Pennsylvania, 270-268.)

But, there could also be a tie:

There has only been one Electoral Vote tie in U.S. history — it happened in the election of 1800 .

The country came thisclose in 1876, and 2000 was within 5 electoral votes... and some hanging chads.

If a tie happened, Trump would likely become president, because a tie would go to the House. Each House delegation would cast one collective vote for their states. The voting delegations would be those voted into the House after this year's congressional elections.

Republicans currently hold an advantage and are still likely to do so in 2025 as well.

Here are two potential, not outside the realm of possibility, tie scenarios:

• Sun Belt + Omaha: Trump sweeps the Sun Belt, wins the one electoral vote in the Omaha area congressional district in Nebraska, as he did in 2016, but Biden wins the Blue Wall states.
• Industrial tie: Biden sweeps the Sun Belt toss ups, but loses Michigan and Pennsylvania in the Blue Wall. (NOTE: In this scenario, Georgia and North Carolina could be swapped out because they both have the same number of Electoral Votes.)

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Donald Trump’s rally speech in Wisconsin examined

By CHRISTINA ANAGNOSTOPOULOS , SOFIA PAREDES and SEANA DAVIS

Filed April 20, 2024, 10 a.m. GMT

Reuters examined 11 statements made by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at his rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on April 2. While Reuters monitored the 58-minute speech in its entirety, the news agency did not examine opinions, rhetorical or direct questions, anonymous sourcing and information that could not be independently verified.

The statements are listed in chronological order with the timestamps in Central Daylight Time (CDT).

CLAIM  17:09 CDT

Trump says he won Wisconsin by “a lot,” referring to the 2020 presidential election

WHAT WE KNOW

This is false. Joe Biden won the state of Wisconsin in the 2020 presidential election with 49.4% of the vote over Trump’s 48.8%.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to take up a case by Trump challenging the election results.

CLAIM  17:11 CDT

Trump says Biden declared Easter Sunday to be Transgender Visibility Day

This is misleading. Biden made public remarks about Transgender Day of Visibility, but he did not say Easter Sunday would become Trans Visibility Day.

Transgender Day of Visibility has been celebrated on March 31 for 14 years, according to the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD . It happened to be the same day as Easter Sunday in 2024. Read more.

CLAIM  17:12 CDT

While talking about crime during the Biden administration, Trump says crime in Venezuela is down by 67%

The source of the 67% figure is unclear. A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a Reuters request for the data supporting the figure.

According to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory , a Caracas-based research organization, violent deaths declined 25% last year from 2022.

CLAIM  17:18 CDT (again at 17:37-17:39 and 17:45 CDT)

Trump repeats his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen or illegitimate

This is false. State governments, courts and members of Trump’s administration have repeatedly rejected the former president’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen .

Federal and state judges have dismissed more than 50 lawsuits alleging election fraud or other irregularities related to the 2020 presidential election brought by Trump or his allies. Read more .

CLAIM  17:19 CDT

Trump quotes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as saying, “The only way you’re going to clean up this world is if Trump becomes president again”

This is in line with past statements Hungary’s nationalist prime minister has made about Trump. Orban said in a meeting with the former president in Florida last month that only Trump could bring peace to Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.

“We need leaders in the world who are respected and can bring peace. He is one of them! Come back and bring us peace, Mr. President!,” Orban said in a post on X after that meeting.

CLAIM  17:26 CDT

Trump says he built 571 miles of border wall. He did not specify which land border but since 2016 he has campaigned for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

This is not accurate. The Trump administration completed around 458 miles of barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to January 2021 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

The majority were barriers that were built during previous administrations and replaced during Trump’s tenure. In areas where no structures existed prior to Trump taking office in January 2017, his administration constructed a total of 52 miles of primary wall.

A January 2021 CBP report obtained by Factcheck.org shows 33 miles of new secondary wall were built during Trump’s tenure.

CLAIM  17:27 CDT

Trump says illegal immigration into the U.S. fell to its lowest point “in history” during his presidency

This is mostly true, based on available government data.

During Trump’s administration, the number of apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol at the southwest border (an indicator of attempts of illegal border crossings) for a single month fell to their lowest point on record in April 2017, according to monthly CBP data that goes back to fiscal year 2000 .

CBP has yearly data for nationwide apprehensions by all land, air and sea routes since fiscal year 1925.

Going by these figures, Trump’s aren’t the lowest on record but they are the lowest in over four decades. In fiscal year 1971, during Richard Nixon’s administration, total apprehensions dipped to 302,517, which is below Trump’s lowest tally of 310,531 in fiscal year 2017.

CLAIM  17:30 CDT

Trump says wages rose during his presidency without any inflation

Nationwide wages rose 3.1% during Trump’s presidency, based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index inflation-adjusted constant dollar estimates.

Inflation was not at zero, but it was lower than during the Biden administration.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) during the Trump administration varied from a high of 2.9% in July 2018 to a low of 0.2% in May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave.

It is true that inflation significantly increased during Biden’s tenure; it stood at 1.4% when he took office and rose to 9% in June 2022, following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

Inflation rates have remained below 3.6% since October 2023.

CLAIM  17:34 CDT

The U.S. has more oil and gas than any country in the world

Venezuela has the largest proven crude oil reserves as of 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) while Russia has the largest natural gas reserves, per the International Energy Agency.

As for recoverable oil resources, the expected amounts in existing fields, Saudi Arabia leads the way followed by the U.S. and Russia, according to a 2023 report by oil analysts Rystad Energy.

In terms of production, the U.S. became the world’s largest crude oil producer in 2018 during Trump’s presidency and has remained the top producer since.

The U.S. is also the top producer of natural gas. Since 2017, U.S. natural gas exports have exceeded imports. The latest rankings available (2022) from the EIA show the U.S. produces more energy from petroleum and other liquids than any other country.

The U.S. oil and gas industry has also boomed under Biden’s presidency by almost all metrics, even if he has pushed to transition the economy toward a greener future, hitting record levels of crude oil production in 2023. Read more.

CLAIM  17:36-17:37 CDT

Talking about immigration, Trump says that under the Biden administration, the U.S. has taken in “at least 15 million people”

It’s not clear what Trump meant by the U.S. having “taken in” 15 million people. While it is true that the number of encounters reported by the CBP at the U.S.-Mexico border reached record levels during the Biden administration, it isn’t 15 million.

CBP data compiled between January 2021 and February 2024 show 7,522,711 encounters at the southwest land border.

In terms of nationwide encounters , CBP registered 9,139,037 encounters between January 2021 and February 2024.

Encounter figures include data for Title 8 apprehensions and inadmissibles . This policy grants some migrants the chance to seek asylum in the U.S. or be processed for deportation.

Between March 2020 and May 2023, encounters also included expulsions under the now-expired Title 42 , a COVID-era restriction that allowed border agents to quickly expel migrants without allowing them to seek asylum.

CLAIM  17:50-17:51 CDT

Trump says he was the first president in decades who started no new wars

Defining wars can be difficult. If we consider the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq War, Trump joins former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower in not having officially brought the U.S. into a new war since 1945.

Trump’s tenure, however, did involve military hostilities overseas and the threat of new ones. The Pentagon said Trump ordered a 2020 drone strike in Iraq that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani , triggering Iranian retaliation that threatened to spiral into open conflict, but did not.

The United States in 2017 launched a missile attack on a Syrian army airbase, marking an escalation of the U.S. military’s role in Syria.

Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea in 2017 but eventually de-escalated tension with Pyongyang.

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to several requests for comment about the statements examined.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.

By Christina Anagnostopoulos, Sofia Paredes and Seana Davis

Photo editing: Corinne Perkins

Art direction: John Emerson

Edited by Stephanie Burnett, Suzanne Goldenberg and Christine Soares

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Other Reuters investigations

Indian Prime Minister Modi Accused of ‘Hate Speech’ Toward Muslims in Campaign Rally

I ndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under fire for invoking anti-Muslim tropes in a speech on Sunday as he campaigns in the nation’s ongoing general election.

Speaking to a large crowd at a rally in the western state of Rajasthan, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader made controversial remarks describing Muslims as “infiltrators.” Modi said that if the main opposition party , the Indian National Congress, is voted into power at the end of the weeks’ long election, they would unfairly distribute wealth. 

“When they were in power, they said Muslims have first right over resources. They will gather all your wealth and distribute it among those who have more children,” Modi told a crowd of supporters. “Do you think your hard-earned money should be given to infiltrators? Would you accept this?” he said of India’s Muslim population, which consists of around 230 million people. 

The remarks appeared to be a reference to harmful tropes that accuse Muslims of displacing Hindus by building large families. The comments have been widely criticized by opposition leaders and prominent Muslim figures and triggered anger worldwide. Local polls officials confirmed to Al Jazeera that they had received two complaints calling for Modi’s campaign suspension and arrest. 

As the world’s most populous nation, India is home to some 1.44 billion citizens. Modi’s BJP party has been criticized for viewing the Muslim community, which includes asylum seekers and refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar, as outsiders. 

Critics say Modi’s comments build on a divisive campaign of Hindu nationalism has been associated with the ruling BJP, which is expected to claim a third consecutive term.

Read More: The Hindu Leaders Fighting Hindu Nationalism

“Modi today called Muslims infiltrators and people with many children. Since 2002 till this day, the only Modi guarantee has been to abuse Muslims and get votes,” Asaduddin Owaisi, a Muslim lawmaker and president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen said in a post on social media platform X.

Meanwhile, congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said Modi’s comments constitute “hate speech” and form “a well thought-out ploy to divert attention.” In a post on X , he added that Modi has been influenced by “the values of the Sangh,” referencing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu paramilitary organization that Modi was affiliated with in his youth. “In the history of India, no prime minister has lowered the dignity of his post as much as Modi has,” Kharge said. 

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)—the United States’ largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization—also condemned Modi’s speech in a statement shared with TIME on Monday. 

“It is unconscionable, but not surprising, that far-right Hindutva leader Narendra Modi would target Indian Muslims with a hateful and dangerous diatribe despite his role as the leader of a nation with such a diverse religious heritage,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.

CAIR also called on U.S. President Joe Biden to declare India a “Country of Particular Concern" over its systematic treatment of Indian Muslims and other minority groups. Modi was previously denied entry into the U.S. in 2005, due to his proximity to the 2002 Gujarat massacres during his term as chief minister of the state from 2001 to 2014. The religiously charged riots saw more than 1,000 people killed, with most of them Muslims.

Modi claimed the nation’s top political role in 2014, with a focus on development and anti-corruption. He was re-elected with a landslide victory in 2019 with a more Hindu nationalist agenda. 

Anti-Muslim hate speech has been soaring in India, with a recent report by the Washington-based research group India Hate Lab recording 668 cases in 2023 . While 255 events took place in the first half of 2023, the figure rose to 413 in the second half of the year, marking a 63% increase.. The report documented that 75% of the total instances that year took place in BJP-ruled states. 

In light of Sunday’s remarks, opposition leaders are calling for the Election Commission of India  (ECI) to investigate whether Modi’s speech breaches its code of conduct. The code stipulates that politicians cannot appeal to voters on the basis of  “caste” and “communal feelings,” nor can they run campaigns that “aggravate differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension” between communities.

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Modi Calls Muslims ‘Infiltrators’ Who Would Take India’s Wealth

The direct language used against the country’s largest minority was a contrast to the image Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents on the world stage.

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By Alex Travelli and Suhasini Raj

Reporting from New Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called Muslims “infiltrators” who would take India’s wealth if his opponents gained power — unusually direct and divisive language from a leader who normally lets others do the dirtiest work of polarizing Hindus against Muslims.

Mr. Modi, addressing voters in the state of Rajasthan, referred to a remark once made by Manmohan Singh, his predecessor from the opposition Indian National Congress Party. Mr. Singh, Mr. Modi claimed, had “said that Muslims have the first right to the wealth of the nation. This means they will distribute this wealth to those who have more children, to infiltrators.”

Mr. Modi aimed his emotional appeal at women, addressing “my mothers and sisters” to say that his Congress opponents would take their gold and give it to Muslims.

Modi Calls Muslims ‘Infiltrators’ in Speech During India Elections

Prime minister narendra modi of india was criticized by the opposition for remarks he made during a speech to voters in rajasthan state..

I’m sorry, this is a very disgraceful speech made by the prime minister. But, you know, the fact is that people realize that when he says the Congress Party is going to take all your wealth and give it to the Muslims, that this is just a nakedly communal appeal which normally any civilized election commission would disallow and warn the candidate for speaking like this.

Implications like these — that Muslims have too many babies, that they are coming for Hindus’ wives and daughters, that their nationality as Indian is itself in doubt — are often made by representatives of Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P.

Mr. Modi’s use of such language himself, as he campaigns for a third term in office, raised alarm that it could inflame right-wing vigilantes who target Muslims , and brought up questions about what had prompted his shift in communication style. Usually, Mr. Modi avoids even using the word “Muslims,” coyly finding ways to refer indirectly to India’s largest minority group, of 200 million people.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the Congress party, called Mr. Modi’s remarks “hate speech.” Asaduddin Owaisi, who represents the only national party for Muslims, lamented how “common Hindus are made to fear Muslims while their wealth is being used to enrich others.”

Tom Vadakkan, a spokesman for the B.J.P., said that Mr. Modi’s speech was being misinterpreted. “This is not about our compatriots, the Muslims,” he said. Mr. Modi was talking only about “infiltrators,” according to Mr. Vadakkan.

The prime minister’s fiery oration, delivered in 100-degree heat in the town of Banswara in arid Rajasthan, marked a contrast to the image he presents in international contexts.

During a visit to the White House in June, Mr. Modi said there was “no question of discrimination” in India. When he played host to the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi three months later, he chose the theme “the world is one family”(in Sanskrit, the primary liturgical language of orthodox Hinduism).

He put his own face on soft-power outreach programs like World Yoga Day, broadcast to Times Square, using it to present a Hindu-centric India as a benign “teacher to the world.”

Campaigns that divide Hindus and Muslims can be useful in animating the hard-right Hindu base of Mr. Modi’s otherwise broad-based electorate, especially in places like Banswara, where Hindus outnumber Muslims by three to one.

With his remarks, Mr. Modi may have been trying to close a divide that has opened among Hindus in Rajasthan over whether to support the B.J.P., with one prominent group holding protests over comments made by a party official.

But the prime minister’s speech was also clearly intended for a wider audience; he shared a clip on his official social media channels.

The B.J.P. remains the favorite to win another parliamentary majority when six weeks of voting concludes on June 1 and ballots are counted three days later. Mr. Kharge, the Congress party president, called Mr. Modi’s speech — perhaps hopefully — a sign of desperation, adding that opposition candidates must be faring well in the early stages of balloting.

Neerja Chowdhury, a columnist and the author of “How Prime Ministers Decide,” echoed Mr. Kharge, saying that, in her view, “voters are expressing their dissatisfaction much more openly this time.” The B.J.P. is capable of a swift course correction, she added, because “they get feedback very quickly.”

Rahul Gandhi, the public face of the Congress party , said that Mr. Modi’s comments had been intended as a diversion from subjects that trouble ordinary voters, like joblessness and inflation.

That the prime minister alluded to religion at all in his speech drew complaints that he may have violated India’s election rules.

Candidates are supposed to be barred from asking for votes in the name of religion or caste. But B.J.P. leaders regularly invoke Hindu deities during campaign rallies. The country’s Election Commission, which enforces the rules, has taken little action against the party, even as it has moved against members of other parties in similar cases.

Uddhav Thackeray, a former ally of Mr. Modi’s who is now running against the B.J.P., declared that he would now ignore an Election Commission order to remove the word “Hindu” from his own party’s campaign song.

The basis for Mr. Modi’s attack was a 22-second excerpt from a statement that Mr. Singh, a Sikh economist who was the prime minister before Mr. Modi, made in 2006. Mr. Singh had been listing many of the traditionally disadvantaged groups in India, including lower-caste Hindus and tribal populations, and “in particular the Muslim community,” and said that all should share equitably in the nation’s wealth.

Since Mr. Modi took office in 2014, Muslims haven’t had a proportional share of India’s steady economic and social development . Just one of the 430 candidates the B.J.P. is fielding in the current election is Muslim.

Mr. Singh’s speech from 2006 seems old now, but it was made just four years after riots in the state of Gujarat under the watch of Mr. Modi. Hindus and Muslims hacked and burned one another and at least 1,000 died, most of them Muslims.

An earlier version of this article misstated the number of Muslim candidates that the B.J.P. is fielding in India’s current election. It is one, not zero.

How we handle corrections

Alex Travelli is a correspondent for The Times based in New Delhi, covering business and economic matters in India and the rest of South Asia. He previously worked as an editor and correspondent for The Economist. More about Alex Travelli

Suhasini Raj is a reporter based in New Delhi who has covered India for The Times since 2014. More about Suhasini Raj