The Final Speech

This is the final speech in the film The Great Dictator starring Charlie Chaplin in his first speaking role. It's amazing how pertinent this is, considering it was made in 1940. Way to set the bar high for yourself, Chaplin. Thoughts?


I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible- Jew, Gentile, black men, white…

We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others’ happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind.

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery ,we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all.

Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me, I say “Do not despair.”

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder!

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men—machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have a love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate!

Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural.

Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!

In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it’s written “the kingdom of God is within man”, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power.

Let us all unite.

Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill their promise. They never will!

Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people!

Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance!

Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

I think it was Plato or Socrates that said something to the affect that he was worried for our future because the youth of today do not honor the traditions of the past or the elderly.

My My, how things have changes, seems to me they are about the same!

Someone on here posted an excellent video that went along with the speech a while back. It had the scene from the movie cut with snippets of relevant (heart moving) scenes. And a little bit about space. I'm not sure where it's hiding in the forums though and the search function never likes me.

discordor wrote: Someone on here posted an excellent video that went along with the speech a while back. It had the scene from the movie cut with snippets of relevant (heart moving) scenes. And a little bit about space. I'm not sure where it's hiding in the forums though and the search function never likes me.

You must mean this one (which I believe I posted sometime soon after I registered here, and am happy to post again ).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WibmcsEGLKo

... and there's this one. Wescli sent me this a little while back :

Oh yes that was a great movie...i believe it was the first "speaking" film he did...he did a great job.

hehe lol you alreadysaid that at the top...woops...

I love this speech and it is so timeless. I am sure in another 100 years it'll be as relevant as it does today and in the 1940's.

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men—machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have a love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate!

Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural.

I love this speech so much and have found so much truth in it… I believe it carries with it a message that transcends the ages. That is why it is one of the lessons I will have all my apprentices cover. Good topic for discussion!

One of my favorite parts of the speach...

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery ,we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all.

One of the things that always gets me thinking is who he is addressing the speech to in the movie. I’m sure Reacher has heard this before, “We are here to protect Democracy, not to practice it.”

When I listen to it now, I can feel how he is addressing you… and me. Not as soldiers in an army, but warriors of life. Those who can make a difference as they go out into the world.

Yes… you, the one reading this. Even though we are just a small part of a greater whole, each one of us matters and makes a difference. Everyday! With everything we do. So let us be a positive influence.