SAXTON | people | connecting and communicating

Nelson Mandela

Today, all of us do, by our presence here, and by our celebrations in other parts of our country and the world, confer glory and hope to newborn liberty. Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.

Patrick Henry

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as the abilities of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the house. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I should speak forth my sentiments freely, and without reserve.

Winston Churchill

I spoke the other day of the colossal military disaster which occurred when the French High Command failed to withdraw the northern Armies from Belgium at the moment when they knew that the French front was decisively broken at Sedan and on the Meuse. This delay entailed the loss of fifteen or sixteen French divisions and threw out of action for the critical period the whole of the British Expeditionary Force.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

Abraham Lincoln

Fourscore 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.

Susan B. Anthony

Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Exactly a year ago, three bombs exploded on this beautiful peaceful island of God. Two-hundred-and-two men and women perished that evening. Never mind their nationalities. Never mind their race, religion, ethnicity or profession. They were our sons, our daughters, our fathers, our mothers, brothers and sisters, cousins, best friends, soul mates. And they were all innocents.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

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. The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Hon Paul Keating

In the business of nation building - which is the business of all of us in public life - we are creatures of our time and circumstances. Of the prevailing geo-political and geo-economic moods. And we are always searching for the Rosetta stone, that code stone that tells us how best we might find that happy mix between what should be rendered unto Caesar - and what may properly be left to the individual.

Maximilien Robespierre

The day forever fortunate has arrived, which the French people have consecrated to the Supreme Being. Never has the world which He created offered to Him a spectacle so worthy of His notice. He has seen reigning on the earth tyranny, crime, and imposture. He sees at this moment a whole nation, grappling with all the oppressions of the human race, suspend the course of its heroic labours to elevate its thoughts and vows toward the great Being who has given it the mission it has undertaken and the strength to accomplish it.

William Faulkner

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work - life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust.

Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer

I stand before you today, the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning, before a world in shock. We are all united, not only in our desire to pay our respects to Diana, but rather in our need to do so.

John F. Kennedy

We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom - symbolising an end, as well as a beginning - signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago.

Hon Dr Barry Jones

Leadership is a quality regrettably lacking in much of our political, academic, business, social and even religious life. Much of Australia's leadership has been - and continues to be mediocre. However, we maintain high standards of excellence in law, fine arts, architecture, science - especially medical science, and sport. (I have some doubts about sports administration).

Dr Philip Emeagwali

We are information technology thought leaders. And as thought leaders, society expects us to provide it a vision of where information technology will be in the future. Tonight, I would like to time travel 100 years into the future, and predict some major developments in information technology that, I believe, will occur at the end of this century.

Dr Peter Ellyard

For most of us the world of the future is unforeseen, even unforeseeable. However many of us also know people who somehow can predict what will or should happen and know how to get to the future first. These are the natural future makers. I am reminded of a President of Columbia University in the 1890s. He noted there are a few people who make things happen, there are rather more who watch things happen, and there is the rest of humanity who ask: "What happened?"

John F. Kennedy

Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum". Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner".