“That is our generation’s task -- to make these words, these rights, these values of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness real for every American. Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life. It does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise path to happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time. For now decisions are upon us and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect. We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years and 40 years and 400 years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.”

—  Barack Obama

2013, Second Inaugural Address (January 2013)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 30, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "That is our generation’s task -- to make these words, these rights, these values of life and liberty and the pursuit of…" by Barack Obama?
Barack Obama photo
Barack Obama 1158
44th President of the United States of America 1961

Related quotes

Dan Savage photo
Robert E. Lee photo
Tibor R. Machan photo

“This right to life, this right to liberty, and this right to pursue one’s happiness is unabashedly individualistic, without in the slightest denying at the same time our thoroughly social nature. It’s only that our social relations, while vital to us all, must be chosen—that is what makes the crucial difference.”

Tibor R. Machan (1939–2016) Hungarian-American philosopher

“Collectivist Thinking Is Rife in the USA”, Strike The Root, March 1, 2004 http://www.strike-the-root.com/content/collectivist-thinking-rife-usa

Abraham Lincoln photo

“God created all men free, giving to each the same rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

In Richmond, Virginia (April 4, 1865), as quoted in Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln http://web.archive.org/web/20130517052731/http://mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=84&subjectID=3 (1996), by Don Edward Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher, editor, p. 257
1860s, Tour of Richmond (1865)
Context: In reference to you, colored people, let me say God has made you free. Although you have been deprived of your God-given rights by your so-called masters, you are now as free as I am, and if those that claim to be your superiors do not know that you are free, take the sword and bayonet and teach them that you are; for God created all men free, giving to each the same rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Mike Huckabee photo

“When our founding fathers put their signatures on the Declaration of Independence, those 56 brave people, most of whom by the way were clergymen, they said that we had certain inalienable rights given to us by our creator, and among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, life being one of them. I still believe that.”

Mike Huckabee (1955) Arkansas politician

Republican Presidential Debate, 2007-10-21, quoted in [The Republican Debate on Fox News Channel, 2007-10-21, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/us/politics/21debate-transcript.html?pagewanted=9, 2011-03-01]
asked his opinion on Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's position to do nothing to change the laws that keep abortion legal
Republican Debates

“About the last place any of us can expect to learn anything important about the realities we have to cope with in our wistful pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness is a classroom.”

Neil Postman (1931–2003) American writer and academic

Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969)
Context: About the last place any of us can expect to learn anything important about the realities we have to cope with in our wistful pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness is a classroom. If we decided that schools must do whatever is necessary to help students to learn the concepts and skills relevant to the nuclear space age, we wouldn't spend much time sitting inside of small boxes inside of boxes — even with all the fancy hardware being developed to jazz up the Trivia contest. It's probably true that most of what we all know we didn't learn in school anyway. Moreover, developments in electronic information processing make the school as it presently exists unnecessary... the "new education." Its purpose is to produce people who can cope effectively with change. To date, none of the new "educational technology" has that as its purpose. Remember Santayana's line: Fanaticism consists of redoubling efforts after having forgotten one's aim. The developments in "educational technology" are intended to do all of the old school stuff better... but that's not the aim of the new education.

Albert Einstein photo
Rick Riordan photo
Sharon Gannon photo
Elbridge G. Spaulding photo

Related topics