Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.
Let us therefore brace ourselves to 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 - June 18, 1940
I have always thought this was one of the most amazing passages in any speech, given the circumstances. Still gives me goosebumps.
The man could definitely turn a phrase and rallied a nation/world in doing so. The important thing was he had the stones to back it up.