Speeches are in themselves an art. Everyone cannot make speeches. They can of course address the people through words, but they cannot be called speeches. Moreover all the speeches that have been delivered are not good. What then is the quality required for the words to form a good speech.
Great speeches are not time bound. They are eternal rather they have everlasting impact; very often excerpts from them are quoted by other speakers; thus making them timeless.
Some of the speeches included in the book resulted in assassina-tion; execution and war. One of the speeches  turned  to  be  very prophetic. It was Martin Luther King’s speech—I’ve been to the Mountaintop, delivered the evening before he was assassinated.
Reading the speeches one gains immensely from the contents. It gives an insight to the time, person who delivered it and the audience it was addressed to. The speaker comes alive through his speeches. Therefore it is fruitful to read the speeches and get to know the speaker through them.
This book I am sure will enlighten the reader and broaden his/her outlook and perceive the orator and his time in a new light.

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Contents

Introduction — 5

1. Abraham Lincoln – House Divided Speech — 11

2. Abraham Lincoln – 2nd Inaugural Address — 21

3. Adolf Hitler – Before the Munich Court — 23

4. Albert Einstein – Peace in the Atomic Age — 29

5. Barack Obama – A More Perfect Union — 32

6. Benito Mussolini – A Call to Arms — 46

7. Benjamin Franklin – Constitutional Convention on State Representation — 49

8. Benjamin Franklin – On the faults of the — Constitution — 51

9. Dalai Lama – A Human Approach to World Peace — 54

10. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam – My Visions for India — 71

11. Franklin Delano Roosevelt – First Inaugural Speech — 77

12. George Washington – Farewell Address — 83

13. George Washington – Resignation Speech — 101

14. Helen Keller – Strike Against War — 103

15. Hillary Clinton – Women’s Rights are Human Rights — 110

16. Jawaharlal Nehru – A Tryst with Destiny — 117

17. Jawaharlal Nehru – Asia Finds Herself Again — 121

18. Jawaharlal Nehru – A Glory has Departed — 125

19. John F. Kennedy – Inauguration Address — 128

20. John F. Kennedy – The Decision to Go to the — Moon — 133

21. Julius Caesar – On the Treatment of the — Conspirators — 140

22. Kofi Annan – Both Nuclear Disarmament, Non-proliferation — 145

23. Mahatma Gandhi – Quit India — 153

24. Mahatma Gandhi – Non-Cooperation Movement — 157

25. Mahatama Gandhi – Reception in Madras — 163

26. Mahatma Gandhi – Kashmir Issue — 166

27. Marie Curie – On the Discovery of Radium — 170

28. Mark Twain – Votes for Women (Suffrage Speech) — 173

29. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Before the Diet of — Worms — 175

30. Martin Luther King, Jr. – I Have a Dream — 179

31. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Nobel Prize Speech — 185

32. Mother Teresa – Whatsoever You Do — 189

33. Muhammad Ali Jinnah – First Presidential — Address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan — 198

34. Napoleon Bonaparte – Farewell to the Old Guard — 203

35. Nelson Mandela – DEMOCRACY – The only solution — 205

36. Nelson Mandela – I am Prepared to Die — 208

37. Patrick Henry – Give Me Liberty or Give Me — Death — 237

38. Queen Elizabeth I of England – Speech to the Troops — at Tilbury — 241

39. Rabindranath Tagore – Nationalism in India — 243

40. Ralph Waldo Emerson – The Memory of Burns — 246

41. Richard Nixon – Resignation Speech — 250

42. Sir Muhammad Iqbal – Presidential Address to the 25th Session of the All-India Muslim League — 256

43. Socrates – On His Condemnation to Death — 281

44. Socrates – Apology — 286

45. Subhash Chandra Bose – Give me Blood and I — will give you Freedom! — 308

46. Swami Vivekananda – Work and its secret — 311

47. Swami Vivekananda – The Power of the Mind — 319

48. Swami Vivekananda – Sisters and Brothers of America — 331

49. Theodore Roosevelt – The Man with the Muck- rake — 333

50. Winston Churchill – We Shall Fight on the Beaches — 342