1920s, Address at the Black Hills (1927)
“Agreements among nations. Strong institutions. Support for human rights. Investments in development. All these are vital ingredients in bringing about the evolution that President Kennedy spoke about. And yet, I do not believe that we will have the will, the determination, the staying power, to complete this work without something more — and that's the continued expansion of our moral imagination; an insistence that there's something irreducible that we all share.”
2009, Nobel Prize acceptance speech (December 2009)
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Barack Obama 1158
44th President of the United States of America 1961Related quotes
For some, he concluded, this vote may be hard. But we have a mission and a mandate to be on the right side of history.
Source: Quoted in Impeachment is Over, But Don’t Despair by Diallo Brooks, CounterPunch https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/07/impeachment-is-over-but-dont-despair/, (7 Feb 2020)
Talking about the Victoria University http://www.vu.ac.ug/news/sudhir-ruparelia-buys-victoria-university Purchase
p. 62 http://books.google.com/books?id=OqwtBujvOmgC&pg=PA62&dq=%22atheists+are+also+morally+obligated%22
2010s, God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales (2011)
“We think about time as something not to waste, not as something to invest.”
Part II, Chapter 7, MTQ: Material, Time, Quality, p. 93
2000s, How Life Imitates Chess (2007)
campaign speech at Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach, , quoted in [2012-09-08, Ashley, Parker, In Romney’s Hands, Pledge of Allegiance Is Framework for Criticism, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/us/politics/romney-uses-pledge-of-allegiance-to-criticize-obama.html, 2012-09-18]
quoting and paraphrasing the Pledge of Allegiance
regarding a draft of the Democratic Party's national platform replacing the phrase "God-given potential" with "talent and drive"
2012
Source: Quotes 1990s, 1995-1999, Powers and Prospects (1996), p. 56.
1960s, Civil Rights Bill signing speech (1964)
Verk, edited by Kletzkin, xi. 277f.
Source: Life Itself : A Memoir (2011), Ch. 55 : Go Gently
Context: "Kindness" covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.