Inaugural Address Quotes - Page 2

• With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking his blessing and his help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

  John F. Kennedy

  Love, Blessing, Land

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside

  John F. Kennedy

  Power, Best Effort, Riding

  Inaugural Address, delivered 20 January 1961

  41 Copy quote

  Show source

• So let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

  John F. Kennedy

  Weakness, Sides, Remember

  Inaugural Address, delivered 20 January 1961

  140 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Almighty has His own purposes.

  Abraham Lincoln

  God, Civil War, Purpose

  Second Inaugural Address, delivered 4 March 1865

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring this endeavor will light our bounty and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

  Kennedy

  Fire, Light, Vision

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  God, Business, Work

  Second Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1865

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Inspirational, Leadership, Bullying

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1933 See Francis Bacon 7; Montaigne 4; Thoreau 16; Wellington 3

  303 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Life, Friendship, Memories

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1861

  42 Copy quote

  Show source

• Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.

  Abraham Lincoln

  God, Civil War, Unity

  Second Inaugural Address, delivered 4 March 1865

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.

  Barack Obama

  Father, Men, Rights

  First Presidential Inaugural Address, Delivered 20 January 2009

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether government works.

  Barack Obama

  Government, Today, Bigs

  Barack Obama (2009). “The Inaugural Address, 2009: Together with Abraham Lincoln's First and Second Inaugural Addresses and The Gettysburg Address and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance”, p.11, Penguin

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are; but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, 'rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation', a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Struggle, Twilight

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961. The words in quotation marks are from the Bible, Romans 12:12.

  73 Copy quote

  Show source

• Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.

  John F. Kennedy

  Art, Stars, Ocean

  Inaugural Address, delivered 20 January 1961

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shrink neither.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Presidential, Given, Duty

  Theodore Roosevelt's address to the nation (March 4, 1905), as quoted in "Ten Memorable Inaugural Addresses", www.realclearpolitics.com. January 16, 2013.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

  Barack Obama

  Dust, America, Today

  First Presidential Inaugural Address, Delivered 20 January 2009

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

  John F. Kennedy

  Patriotic, Godly, Men

  Inaugural Address, delivered 20 January 1961

  66 Copy quote

  Show source

• On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

  Barack Obama

  Unity, Purpose, Conflict

  First Presidential Inaugural Address, Delivered 20 January 2009

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Fellow countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first...The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Office, Presidential, Progress

  Second Inaugural Address, delivered 4 March 1865

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do-for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and
  split asunder.

  John F. Kennedy

  Powerful, Odds, Challenges

  Inaugural Address, delivered 20 January 1961

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations

  Barack Obama

  Children, Knowing, Generations

  Second Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 21 January 2013, Washington, D.C.

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have duties to others, and duties to ourselves, and we cannot shirk either.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Shirk, Duty, Inaugural

  9 Copy quote

• In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Hands, Issues

  Abraham Lincoln (2011). “Lincoln on the Civil War: Selected Speeches”, p.44, Penguin

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• We will respond to the threat of climate change

  Barack Obama

  Climate, Threat, Inauguration

  Second Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 21 January 2013, Washington, D.C.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are provincials no longer. The tragic events of the 30 months of vital turmoil through which we have just passed have made us citizens of the world. There can be no turning back.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Months, Events, Citizens

  6 Copy quote

• We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers.

  Barack Obama

  Christian, Religion, Jew

  First Presidential Inaugural Address, Delivered 20 January 2009

  6 Copy quote

  Show source