The inauguration speech: memorable quotes from past addresses
On April 30th, 1789, George Washington stood before both houses of Congress and delivered the first inaugural address as the nation’s first president. In marking the historic moment, Washington said:
“The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
Since then, each president has used the inaugural address as an opportunity to reflect on the challenges we’ve faced and the progress we’ve made together as a nation. Take a look back at a few memorable lines from inaugural addresses:
"We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid."
—Theodore Roosevelt in his 1905 address, noting America’s rise as a global force.“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds."
—Abraham Lincoln in his 1865 address, reflecting on four years of the Civil War."This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
—Franklin D. Roosevelt in his 1933 address, facing an America at the depth of the Great Depression."My fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
—John F. Kennedy in his 1961 address, appealing to peace in the early years of the Cold War."Justice requires us to remember that when any citizen denies his fellow, saying, 'His color is not mine,' or 'His beliefs are strange and different,' in that moment he betrays America, though his forebears created this nation."
—Lyndon B. Johnson in his 1965 address, expressing a bedrock principle of the Civil Rights movement.“Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.”
—Ronald Reagan in his 1981 address, declaring America’s strength during the Cold War.“America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.”
—George H.W. Bush in his 1989 address, anticipating the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.“The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit, to choose our better history, to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”
—Barack Obama in his 2009 address, reaffirming the founding principles of our country.
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