All-Time Influential Speech Rankings
Fifty of the most influential and celebrated speeches in history.
History & PoliticsTop 50
🌍 World Ranking
▲ Top 5
#1
Apology of Socrates (399 BC)
+5
#2
I Have a Dream
Martin Luther King Jr. (1963)
+4
#3
Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln (1863)
+3
#4
Inaugural Address
John F. Kennedy (1961)
+2
#5
William Faulkner
Nobel Prize acceptance (1950)
+1
▼ Bottom 5
#1
Ronald Reagan
Challenger Disaster Address (1986)
-5
#2
Tony Blair
Labour landslide speech (1997)
-4
#3
George W. Bush
Ground Zero bullhorn (2001)
-3
#4
Fidel Castro
History Will Absolve Me (1953)
-2
#5
Tear Down This Wall
Ronald Reagan (1987)
-1
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All Items (50)
Apology of Socrates (399 BC)+5
I Have a Dream — Martin Luther King Jr. (1963)+4
Gettysburg Address — Abraham Lincoln (1863)+3
Inaugural Address — John F. Kennedy (1961)+2
William Faulkner — Nobel Prize acceptance (1950)+1
We Shall Fight on the Beaches — Winston Churchill (1940)—
Their Finest Hour — Winston Churchill (1940)—
Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat — Winston Churchill (1940)—
We Shall Never Surrender — Winston Churchill (1940)—
Four Freedoms — Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)—
The Only Thing We Have to Fear — FDR (1933)—
I Am Prepared to Die — Nelson Mandela (1964)—
Tryst with Destiny — Jawaharlal Nehru (1947)—
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death — Patrick Henry (1775)—
The Pericles Funeral Oration (430 BC)—
Sermon on the Mount — Jesus Christ—
Cicero's First Catilinarian Oration (63 BC)—
Sojourner Truth — Ain't I a Woman? (1851)—
Frederick Douglass — What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? (1852)—
Emmeline Pankhurst — Freedom or Death (1913)—
Woodrow Wilson — Fourteen Points (1918)—
Lenin — April Theses (1917)—
Hitler — Beer Hall Putsch speech (1923)—
FDR — Declaration of War on Japan (1941)—
Charles de Gaulle — Appeal of 18 June (1940)—
Nikita Khrushchev — Secret Speech (1956)—
Che Guevara — UN speech (1964)—
Malcolm X — The Ballot or the Bullet (1964)—
LBJ — We Shall Overcome (1965)—
Robert F. Kennedy — On the Death of MLK (1968)—
Neil Armstrong — One Small Step (1969)—
Mikhail Gorbachev — resignation speech (1991)—
Nelson Mandela — Inauguration (1994)—
Barack Obama — A More Perfect Union (2008)—
Barack Obama — Yes We Can (2008)—
Malala Yousafzai — UN speech (2013)—
Greta Thunberg — How Dare You (2019)—
Volodymyr Zelensky — wartime address (2022)—
Steve Jobs — Stanford Commencement (2005)—
Lou Gehrig — Luckiest Man (1939)—
Bertrand Russell — Nobel Prize acceptance (1950)—
Harvey Milk — Hope Speech (1978)—
Gloria Steinem — various speeches (1970s)—
Aung San Suu Kyi — Freedom from Fear (1990)—
Desmond Tutu — various reconciliation speeches—
Tear Down This Wall — Ronald Reagan (1987)-1
Fidel Castro — History Will Absolve Me (1953)-2
George W. Bush — Ground Zero bullhorn (2001)-3
Tony Blair — Labour landslide speech (1997)-4
Ronald Reagan — Challenger Disaster Address (1986)-5