Winston Churchill

"Let us therefore brace ourselves for our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"

-Winston Churchill, http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/churchill-hour.htm

There have been many great speakers in the history of the world, and I would definately include Winston Churchill in the top of that list. The Prime Minister of Britain had a wonderful way of writing and delivering speeches that were able to keep an entire country's morale up even as the world around it was falling apart. The quote from above is the conclusion of a speech made on June 18th of 1940 to the House of Commons. The speech was delivered just days after France had fallen to the German Army and the British were seemingly alone as the last defense in Western Europe. The situation was beginning to appear hopeless, but the words and the organization of this speech were able to inspire many people in Britain to keep on fighting. By telling the troops that people one thousand years in the future will remember what they did, he gives them reason to keep on going while also sharing the importance of the "Battle of Britain". Another thing that made the words even stronger was the fact that he included himself with the people he was speaking to. By saying "Let us therefore brace ourselves for our duties" instead of "brace yourselves" it made him easier to relate to and understand. Without a great leader like Churchill and his powerful speeches, the war could have turned out much worse.