Speech by Chaplin

- from " The Great Dictator " -

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 as 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 things 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 has come 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.
(In a passionate raging voice now)
Soldiers ! Don't give yourselves to these brutes
who despise you, 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 and 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 men !
With the love of humanity in your hearts !
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 is
written that 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 fulfil that
promise. They never will !
Dictators free themselves but they enslave the
people! Now 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 the happiness
of us all. Soldiers, in the name of democracy,
let us unite!

--- End of the Speech to Public ---

( now speaking to Hannah who is being beat
up by soldiers in a far away land )

Hannah, can you hear me?
Wherever you are, look up !
Look up, Hannah !
The clouds are lifting !
The sun is breaking through !
We are coming out of the darkness into the light !
We are coming into a new world; a kinder world,
where men will rise above their greed, their hate
and their brutality.
Look up, Hannah !
The soul of man has been given wings and at last
he is beginning to fly.
He is flying into the rainbow !
Into the light of hope !
Look up, Hannah !
Look up !

- Written by Charles Chaplin -