I have a dream

by Martin Luther King

“I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its
governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification –
one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join
hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and
mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the
crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed
and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith
we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this
faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful
symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray
together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom
together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to
sing with new meaning “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I
sing. Land where my father’s died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every
mountainside, let freedom ring!”
 Tilbury Speech
by Queen Elizabeth I

“My loving people,

We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed
how we commit our selves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I
assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people.

Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have
placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of
my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time,
not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of
the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my
kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust.

I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and
stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that
Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of
my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will
take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one
of your virtues in the field.

I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns;
and We do assure you on a word of a prince, they shall be duly paid. In the
mean time, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never
prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your
obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the
field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over these enemies of my God, of
my kingdom, and of my people.”
 Ain’t I A Woman
by Sojourner Truth

“That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and
lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps
me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t
I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and
gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could
work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the
lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen
most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none
but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside
down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get
it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.”
 I Have A Dream Speech
by Mary Wollstonecraft

“If, I say, for I would not impress by declamation when Reason offers her sober
light, if they be really capable of acting like rational creatures, let them not be
treated like slaves; or, like the brutes who are dependent on the reason of man,
when they associate with him; but cultivate their minds, give them the salutary,
sublime curb of principle, and let them attain conscious dignity by feeling
themselves only dependent on God. Teach them, in common with man, to submit
to necessity, instead of giving, to render them more pleasing, a sex to morals.

Further, should experience prove that they cannot attain the same degree of
strength of mind, perseverance, and fortitude, let their virtues be the same in kind,
though they may vainly struggle for the same degree; and the superiority of man
will be equally clear, if not clearer; and truth, as it is a simple principle, which
admits of no modification, would be common to both. Nay, the order of society as
it is at present regulated would not be inverted, for woman would then only have
the rank that reason assigned her, and arts could not be practised to bring the
balance even, much less to turn it.”
 I Am Prepared to Die
by Nelson Mandela

“Above all, My Lord, we want equal political rights, because without them our
disabilities will be permanent. I know this sounds revolutionary to the whites in
this country, because the majority of voters will be Africans. This makes the
white man fear democracy.

But this fear cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the only solution which
will guarantee racial harmony and freedom for all. It is not true that the
enfranchisement of all will result in racial domination. Political division, based
on colour, is entirely artificial and, when it disappears, so will the domination of
one colour group by another. The ANC has spent half a century fighting
against racialism. When it triumphs as it certainly must, it will not change that
policy.

This then is what the ANC is fighting. Our struggle is a truly national one. It is
a struggle of the African people, inspired by our own suffering and our own
experience. It is a struggle for the right to live.

During my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African

people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against
black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society
in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.
It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, My Lord, if it
needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
 The Audacity of Hope
by Barack Obama

“I’m not talking about blind optimism here — the almost willful ignorance that

thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t think about it, or the health care

crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m

talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a

fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores;

the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the

hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid

with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.

Hope — Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The

audacity of hope!

In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in

things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.”
 “Be Your Own Story”
by Toni Morrison

“But I’m not going to talk anymore about the future because I’m hesitant to

describe or predict because I’m not even certain that it exists. That is to say, I’m

not certain that somehow, perhaps, a burgeoning ménage a trois of political

interests, corporate interests and military interests will not prevail and literally

annihilate an inhabitable, humane future. Because I don’t think we can any longer

rely on separation of powers, free speech, religious tolerance or unchallengeable

civil liberties as a matter of course. That is, not while finite humans in the flux of

time make decisions of infinite damage. Not while finite humans make infinite

claims of virtue and unassailable power that are beyond their competence, if not

their reach. So, no happy talk about the future.

Because the past is already in debt to the mismanaged present. And besides,

contrary to what you may have heard or learned, the past is not done and it is not

over, it’s still in process, which is another way of saying that when it’s critiqued,

analyzed, it yields new information about itself. The past is already changing as it

is being reexamined, as it is being listened to for deeper resonances. Actually it

can be more liberating than any imagined future if you are willing to identify its

evasions, its distortions, its lies, and are willing to unleash its secrets.”
 Questioning the Universe
by Stephen Hawking

“This brings me to the last of the big questions: the future of the human race. If we

are the only intelligent beings in the galaxy, we should make sure we survive and

continue. But we are entering an increasingly dangerous period of our history.

Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth are growing

exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment for good

or ill. But our genetic code still carries the selfish and aggressive instincts that

were of survival advantage in the past. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster

in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million.

Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward-looking on planet

Earth, but to spread out into space. The answers to these big questions show that

we have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to

continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space. That is why I am

in favor of manned — or should I say, personned — space flight.”