The Greatest Speech Ever Made - Charlie Chaplin
Tip: Highlight text to annotate itX
the Dictator of Tomainia,
the conqueror of Osterlich,
the future Emperor of the World!
Speak.
I can't.
You must. It's our only hope.
Hope...
I'm sorry
but I don't want to be an
emperor.
That's not my business.
I don't want to rule
or conquer anyone.
I should like to help everyone:
Jew, gentile, black man, white.
We all want to help one another.
Human beings are like that.
We want to live by each other's
happiness, not misery.
We don't want to hate one
another.
In this world,
the good earth is rich
and can provide for everyone.
The way of life can be free
and beautiful
but we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men's souls,
has barricaded the world with
hate,
has goose-stepped us into
bloodshed.
We have developed speed
but have shut ourselves in.
Machinery has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us
cynical,
our cleverness, hard and unkind.
We think too much
and feel too little.
More than machinery
we need humanity.
More than cleverness
we need kindness and gentleness.
Without these qualities, life
will
be violent and all will be
lost...
The aeroplane and radio
have brought us closer.
These inventions cry out
for the goodness in man,
cry out for universal
brotherhood,
for the unity of us all.
Even now
my voice is reaching millions,
millions of despairing men,
women and children,
victims of a system
that makes men torture
and imprison innocent people.
To those who can hear me I say,
do not despair.
The misery upon us
is but the passing of greed,
the bitterness of men who fear
the way of human progress.
The hate of men will pass,
and dictators die,
and the power they took
will return to the people.
So long as men die
liberty will never perish.
Soldiers,
don't give yourselves to brutes,
men who despise you, enslave
you,
regiment your lives,
tell you what to think and feel,
who drill you, treat you like
cattle
and use you as cannon fodder.
Don't give yourselves to these
men,
machine men with machine minds
and machine hearts.
You are not machines,
you are not cattle, you are men!
You have
the love of humanity in you.
Don't hate. Only the unloved
and the unnatural hate.
Soldiers, don't fight for
slavery,
fight for liberty!
St Luke says, ''The Kingdom of
God
is within man.''
Not in one man nor a group of
men,
but in all men. In you!
You have the power
to create machines,
the power to create happiness.
You have the power to make
this life free and beautiful,
to make this life
a wonderful adventure.
In the name of democracy,
let us use that power.
Let us all unite,
let us fight for a new world,
a world
that will give men a chance to
work,
that will give youth a future
and old age security.
Promising these things,
brutes have risen.
But they lie! They do not fulfil
that promise. They never will!
Dictators free themselves
but they enslave the people.
Now let us fight
to fulfil that promise!
Let us fight to free the world,
to do away with national
barriers,
to do away with greed,
with hate and intolerance.
Let us fight for a world of
reason,
a world where science and
progress
will lead to the happiness of
all.
Soldiers, in the name of
democracy,
