May be a bit bias here, but Lou Gehrig's farewell speech when he announced he had ALS and retired from baseball.
Lou Gehrig :: The Official Web Site
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Full text version of the Farewell Speech
"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. ...
..."Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight ...of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. ...Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder ...of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that ...wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine ...years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the ...best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky. ...
...
..."When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to ...beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody ...down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with ...trophies - that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes ...sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter - that's something. When ...you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an ...education and build your body - it's a blessing. When you have a wife who ...has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed ...- that's the finest I know. ...
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..."So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for."
Really inspirational imo. Gehrig is one of my idols. Can always look up to a real man like him.