Heroic Speechs - Reminders of what we fight for - Inspirations

[Atlantea]

We've got a good musical thread for that sort of thing going over here -

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,5025.0.html

And it occurred to me - what about some inspirational quotes from movies, books, etc? Stuff that calls to us?

Here's a few that stick with me. Feel free to add your own. 



Mal: You all got on this boat for different reasons, but you all came to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. 'Cause as sure as I know anything, I know this: they will try again. Maybe on another world. Maybe on this very ground, swept clean. A year from now, ten, they'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave.

Tony D'Amato: You know when you get old in life, things get taken from you. That's part of life. But you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out life's this game of inches. So is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small. I mean...one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast, you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches, that's gonna make the F____N' DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WINNING AND LOSING! BETWEEN LIVING AND DYING! I'll tell you this - in any fight, it's the guy who's willing to die who's gonna win that inch. And I know if I'm going to have any life anymore, it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch. Because THAT'S WHAT LIVING IS! THE SIX INCHES IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE!

Sam: "I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand! I know now! Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't! They kept going! Because they were holding on to something."
Frodo: "What are we holding onto, Sam?"
Sam: "That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for!"

[Lucretia MacEvil]

It may be a good idea to say what each quote is from, for those who don't know (I missed the middle one, myself).

This one's from A Sound of Thunder:

Sonia Rand: "No, I don't know if this plan will work, but I DO know that doing nothing will NOT work."

[The Fifth Horseman]

From the trailer for Pacific Rim:

Today, at the edge of our hope, at the end of our time... we've chosen to believe in each other. Today we face the monsters that are at our door! Today we are cancelling the apocalypse!

Note to self: I really need to watch that movie when it comes out.

Loki: I have an army.
Stark: We have... a Hulk.

Rachel Dawes: But it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you.

[HarvesterOfEyes]

"There are no great men. There are only great challenges that ordinary men like you and me are forced by circumstances to meet."

Adm. William F. Halsey

[Globetrotter]

From Karate Kid 1984:


Kreese: Fear does not exist in this dojo, does it?
Karate Class: NO, SENSEI!
Kreese: Pain does not exist in this dojo, does it?
Karate Class: NO, SENSEI!
Kreese: Defeat does not exist in this dojo, does it?
Karate Class: NO, SENSEI!

[Stunrunner]

"He knows a hero when he sees one. Too few characters out there, flying around like that, saving old girls like me...and Lord knows, kids like Henry need a hero. Courageous, self-sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero...people line up for them, cheer them, scream their names, and years later they'll tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who taught them to hold on a second longer. I believe there's a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride. Even though sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams."

--Aunt May, Spider-Man 2

[DashaBlade]

Here are a few of my favorites to add to the list.

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.
- Atticus Finch"
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

"The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly; who know the great enthusiasums, the great devotions, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who at best know the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
― Theodore Roosevelt

"As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us."
― Winston Churchill


"He who stands for nothing will fall for anything."
― Alexander Hamilton

"Hey you, don't tell me there's no hope at all. Together we stand, divided we fall."
― Pink Floyd

And finally, from Doctor Who:

Dalek: I will talk to the Doctor.
The Doctor: Oh will you? That's nice. Hello!
Dalek: The Dalek strategem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene.
The Doctor: Oh really? Why's that, then?
Dalek: We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated.
The Doctor: No.
Dalek: Explain yourself.
The Doctor: I said, "No."
Dalek: What is the meaning of this negative?
The Doctor: It means, "No."
Dalek: But she will be destroyed!
The Doctor: No! 'Cause this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna rescue her. I'm gonna save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet, and then I'm gonna save the Earth. And then—just to finish off—I'm gonna wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!
Dalek: But you have no weapons, no defenses, no plan.
The Doctor: Yeah! And doesn't that scare you to death? Rose?
Rose: Yes, Doctor?
The Doctor: I'm coming to get you.

[Victoria Victrix]

"Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always."  Mahatma Ghandi

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats."  H. L. Mencken

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."  Eleanor Roosevelt

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." - Frederick Douglass, 1857

[Greg Lloyd]

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
----- Henry V (circa 1599)

"Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world, and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. Mankind. That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom. Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice: We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!"
----- President Thomas Whitmore, Independence Day (1996)

G

[antarcticaa]

A few more for your consideration:

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."  -Winston Churchill
 
"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." -Thomas A. Edison

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."  -Winston Churchill

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." -C. S. Lewis

"I dwell in possibility."  -Emily Dickinson

[Quinch]

"We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are,
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
- Tennyson

[Terwyn]

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.  ~ T. Roosevelt

Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory.
~ Sun Tzu

[shadeovblack]

Thanks guys, I needed that.

[healix]

What lies ahead of you & what lies behind you is nothing compared to what lies within you.

Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."

[Ironwolf]

From Legend, Book One of the Drenai Saga, by David Gemmel

The Earl of Bronze speaking to Ulric Khan of the Nadir.

"Stopping you is not important," said the Earl. "It never was."
"Then what are you doing?"
"We are trying to stop you."
"Is this a riddle which I should understand?"
"Your understanding is not important. It maybe that destiny intends you to succeed. It may be that a Nadir empire will prove vastly beneficial to the world.But ask yourself this:Were there no army here when you arrived save Druss alone, would he have opened the gate to you?"
"No, he would have fought and died," said Ulric.
"But he would not have expected to win. So why would he do it?"
"Now I understand your riddle, Earl. But it saddens me that so many men must die when it is futile to resist. Nevertheless I respect you.

[Quinch]

I'm reminded of this little exchange from Ursula Vernon's "Digger".

http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=848

[Perfidus]

Inspiration, eh? I've got a full tray of [Enrage].

[Septipheran]

 ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1muMkbMypA