Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)
Source: 2021, January, Presidential Inaugural Address (2021)
2022, June 2022, Remarks by President Biden at the Inaugural Ceremony of the Ninth Summit of the Americas
Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)
Source: 2021, January, Presidential Inaugural Address (2021)
Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States
First inaugural address (January 20, 1993), Washington, D.C.
1990s
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2008, A World that Stands as One (July 2008)
Context: People of Berlin — and people of the world — the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Speech following the Minnesota primary (3 June 2008) http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/03/obama.speech/index.html <br class="br">2008
Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)
2021, January, Presidential Inaugural Address (2021)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States
1940s, Fourth Inaugural Address (1945)
Context: We Americans of today, together with our allies, are passing through a period of supreme test. It is a test of our courage — of our resolve — of our wisdom — our essential democracy. If we meet that test — successfully and honorably — we shall perform a service of historic importance which men and women and children will honor throughout all time. As I stand here today, having taken the solemn oath of office in the presence of my fellow countrymen — in the presence of our God — I know that it is America's purpose that we shall not fail.
Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)
2021, January, Presidential Inaugural Address (2021)
Henno Martin (1910–1998) German geologist
(p. 221)
Sheltering Desert; Union Deutsche Verlangsgesellschaft Ulm (1958)
Context: All power operates on a narrow basis; it rests on a few chosen faculties, and always ruthlessly exploits the weak. But history has shown again and again that the weak of the present have become the strong of the future, whereas power of today has provided the ruins of tomorrow. Who can know today that attributes and capacities will be vital in a thousand years' time? Only the preservation of all our attributes, including our weaknesses, can carry us safely through into the uncertain future. But how can it be done? Certainly not by force which does not preserve but destroys. There is only one thing which preserves all things, including the weak, and that is love.
“Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.”
Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist
Let America Be America Again (1935)