“And here on Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit.”

“"And when we die,
All’s over that is ours; and life burns on
Through other lovers, other lips," said I
—"Heart of my heart, our heaven is now, is won!"
"We are earth’s best, that learnt her lesson here,
Life is our cry. We have kept the faith!" we said.”

“True happiness means forging a strong spirit that is undefeated, no matter how trying our circumstances.”

“Friends and fellow citizens, the story of our presence here is soon and easily told. We are here in the District of Columbia, here in the city of Washington, the most luminous point of American territory; a city recently transformed and made beautiful in its body and in its spirit; we are here in the place where the ablest and best men of the country are sent to devise the policy, enact the laws, and shape the destiny of the Republic; we are here, with the stately pillars and majestic dome of the Capitol of the nation looking down upon us; we are here, with the broad earth freshly adorned with the foliage and flowers of spring for our church, and all races, colors, and conditions of men for our congregation — in a word, we are here to express, as best we may, by appropriate forms and ceremonies, our grateful sense of the vast, high, and preeminent services rendered to ourselves, to our race, to our country, and to the whole world by Abraham Lincoln.”

“Tis strange how the heart can create
Or colour from itself its fate;
We make ourselves our own distress,
We are ourselves our happiness.”

“In ourselves
In our own honest hearts and chainless hands
Will be our safeguard:”

“As leaders of our respective countries, we are faced with the same challenge of forging greater unity and cohesiveness in our diverse societies, and I share your view that this requires leadership committed to the welfare and interests of all citizens and communities.”

“So we keep asking, over and over,
Until a handful of earth
Stops our mouths —
But is that an answer?”

“Because we want the same happiness
We keep carving the same wounds onto our hearts.
Forever, forever
So I won't forget you
I call you over and over again
Please don't cry any more
I won't leave you alone.”

“Hold your hands out over the earth as over a flame. To all who love her, who open to her the doors of their veins, she gives of her strength, sustaining them with her own measureless tremor of dark life. Touch the earth, love the earth, honour the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth’s and they are given to all, and they are the songs of birds at daybreak, Orion and the Bear, and dawn seen over ocean from the beach.”