“And the biggest irony of course was -- is that those who betrayed these values were themselves the children of immigrants. How quickly we forget. One generation passes, two generation passes, and suddenly we don’t remember where we came from. And we suggest that somehow there is “us” and there is “them,” not remembering we used to be “them.””

—  Barack Obama

2015, Naturalization Ceremony speech (December 2015)
Context: We celebrate this history, this heritage, as an immigrant nation. And we are strong enough to acknowledge, as painful as it may be, that we haven’t always lived up to our own ideals. We haven’t always lived up to these documents. [... ] We succumbed to fear. We betrayed not only our fellow Americans, but our deepest values. We betrayed these documents. It’s happened before. And the biggest irony of course was -- is that those who betrayed these values were themselves the children of immigrants. How quickly we forget. One generation passes, two generation passes, and suddenly we don’t remember where we came from. And we suggest that somehow there is “us” and there is “them,” not remembering we used to be “them.”

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 "And the biggest irony of course was -- is that those who betrayed these values were themselves the children of immigran…" by Barack Obama?
Barack Obama photo
Barack Obama 1158
44th President of the United States of America 1961

Related quotes

Vikas Swarup photo
Glenn Beck photo
Emil M. Cioran photo

“One of the biggest paradoxes of our world: memories vanish when we want to remember, but fix themselves permanently in the mind when we want to forget.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

Ronald Reagan photo
Alain de Botton photo
Richard Ford photo
Julian of Norwich photo
U.G. Krishnamurti photo
Lewis Pugh photo

“If we pass on an unsustainable environment to our children we have failed them.”

Lewis Pugh (1969) Environmental campaigner, maritime lawyer and endurance swimmer

Address to the House of Lords (19 November 2010)
Speaking & Features

Barack Obama photo

Related topics