Modern Speeches

"If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed."

"Trust yourself. Break the rules. Don't be afraid to fail. Don't listen to the naysayers. Work your butt off. And give something back."

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union... two hundred and twenty-two years ago, a group of men gathered and issued that document."

"Vulnerability is not weakness; it's our greatest measure of courage."

"It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique."

"There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says 'Morning, boys. How's the water?' And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes 'What the hell is water?'"

"Reggie Jackson struck out 2,600 times in his career—the most in the history of baseball. But you don't hear about the strikeouts. People remember the home runs. Fall forward."

"History is going to bifurcate along two directions. One path is that we stay on Earth forever, and then there will be some extinction event. The alternative is to become a spacefaring civilization and a multiplanetary species."

"Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom—the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time—now depends on us."

"I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!"

"How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words."

"The most intellectual creature that has ever walked the planet is destroying its only home."

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default."

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable."

"I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. I will not."

"One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world."

"When an agency like NASA dares to dream big, it inspires an entire generation of young people to become scientists, engineers, and innovators."

"The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something."

"Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything."

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking."

"Data is precious and it's going to last longer than the systems themselves."

"A unipolar world refers to a world in which there is one master, one sovereign. And in the end this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself."

"Against all odds and doom-and-gloom scenarios, Ukraine didn't fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking."

"No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war."