Presidential inaugural address

Explore 217 quotes from Presidential inaugural address

How far have we come in man's long pilgrimage from darkness toward the light? Are we nearing the light—a day of freedom and of peace for all mankind? Or are the shadows of another night are closing in upon us?

Dwight D. Eisenhower

First Inaugural Address of Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Topic

Nature of progress Progress

Speaker

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Source

First Inaugural Address of Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1953 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eisenhower, Dwight D. "First Inaugural Address." 20 Jan. 1953, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

In our own lives, let each of us ask—not just what will government do for me, but what can I do for myself? In the challenges we face together, let each of us ask—not just how can government help, but how can I help?

Richard Nixon

Second Inaugural Address of Richard Nixon

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Topic

Citizen and state Civic duty American politics

Speaker

Richard Nixon

Source

Second Inaugural Address of Richard Nixon Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Nixon, Richard. "Second Inaugural Address." 20 Jan. 1973, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Whatsoever is of domestic concernment, unconnected with the other members of the Union or with foreign lands, belongs exclusively to the administration of the State governments. Whatsoever directly involves the rights and interests of the federative fraternity or of foreign powers is of the resort of this General Government. The duties of both are obvious in the general principle, though sometimes perplexed with difficulties in the detail.

John Quincy Adams

Inaugural Address of John Quincy Adams

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Topic

Federalism Subsidiarity American government Political theory

Speaker

John Quincy Adams

Source

Inaugural Address of John Quincy Adams Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1825 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Adams, John Quincy. "Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1825, House Chamber, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

We have been proud of our industrial achievements, but we have not hitherto stopped thoughtfully enough to count the human cost, the cost of lives snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and broken, the fearful physical and spiritual cost to the men and women and children upon whom the dead weight and burden of it all has fallen pitilessly the years through.

Woodrow Wilson

First Inaugural Address of Woodrow Wilson

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Topic

Downsides of progress Economic development American power

Speaker

Woodrow Wilson

Source

First Inaugural Address of Woodrow Wilson Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1913 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Wilson, Woodrow. "First Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1913, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

We find ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth. We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division, wanting unity. We see around us empty lives, wanting fulfillment. We see tasks that need doing, waiting for hands to do them.

Richard Nixon

First Inaugural Address of Richard Nixon

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Topic

American prosperity Political division

Speaker

Richard Nixon

Source

First Inaugural Address of Richard Nixon Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Nixon, Richard. "First Inaugural Address." 20 Jan. 1969, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Legitimate strife in business should not be superseded by an enforced concession to the demands of combinations that have the power to destroy, nor should the people to be served lose the benefit of cheapness which usually results from wholesome competition. These aggregations and combinations frequently constitute conspiracies against the interests of the people, and in all their phases they are unnatural and opposed to our American sense of fairness.

Grover Cleveland

Second Inaugural Address of Grover Cleveland

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Topic

Monopoly Business competition Corporate power

Speaker

Grover Cleveland

Source

Second Inaugural Address of Grover Cleveland Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1893 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Cleveland, Grover. "Second Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1893, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

The first half of this century has been marked by unprecedented and brutal attacks on the rights of man, and by the two most frightful wars in history. The supreme need of our time is for men to learn to live together in peace and harmony.

Harry Truman

Second Inaugural Address of Harry Truman

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Topic

20th century Authoritarianism International politics

Speaker

Harry Truman

Source

Second Inaugural Address of Harry Truman Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Truman, Harry S. "Second Inaugural Address." 20 Jan. 1949, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

We admit of no government by divine right, believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed.

William Henry Harrison

Inaugural Address of William Henry Harrison

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Topic

Political equality Equality Natural law Political theory

Speaker

William Henry Harrison

Source

Inaugural Address of William Henry Harrison Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1841 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Harrison, William Henry. "Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1841, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

This peace we seek cannot be born of fear alone: it must be rooted in the lives of nations. There must be justice, sensed and shared by all peoples, for, without justice the world can know only a tense and unstable truce.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Second Inaugural Address of Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Topic

Peace Political theory

Speaker

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Source

Second Inaugural Address of Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Eisenhower, Dwight D. "Second Inaugural Address." 21 Jan. 1957, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

It is a source of gratification and of encouragement to me to observe that the great result of this experiment upon the theory of human rights has at the close of that generation by which it was formed been crowned with success equal to the most sanguine expectations of its founders.

John Quincy Adams

Inaugural Address of John Quincy Adams

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Topic

American experiment American democracy

Speaker

John Quincy Adams

Source

Inaugural Address of John Quincy Adams Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1825 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Adams, John Quincy. "Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1825, House Chamber, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

God has placed upon our head a diadem and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond definition or calculation. But we must not forget that we take these gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins of power and that the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all the people.

Benjamin Harrison

Inaugural Address of Benjamin Harrison

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Topic

God and America American prosperity Social mobility Equality of opportunity

Speaker

Benjamin Harrison

Source

Inaugural Address of Benjamin Harrison Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1889 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Harrison, Benjamin. "Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1889, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

We are approaching the limits of what government alone can do. Our greatest need now is to reach beyond government, and to enlist the legions of the concerned and the committed. What has to be done, has to be done by government and people together or it will not be done at all.

Richard Nixon

First Inaugural Address of Richard Nixon

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Topic

Political theory American politics

Speaker

Richard Nixon

Source

First Inaugural Address of Richard Nixon Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Nixon, Richard. "First Inaugural Address." 20 Jan. 1969, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

We have no disposition and we disclaim all right to meddle in disputes, whether internal or foreign, that may molest other countries, regarding them in their actual state as social communities, and preserving a strict neutrality in all their controversies.

Martin Van Buren

Inaugural Address of Martin van Buren

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Topic

Non-intervention Isolationism American foreign policy

Speaker

Martin Van Buren

Source

Inaugural Address of Martin van Buren Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1837 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Van Buren, Martin. "Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1837, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

I believe that involuntary servitude, as it exists in different States of this Confederacy, is recognized by the Constitution. I believe that it stands like any other admitted right, and that the States where it exists are entitled to efficient remedies to enforce the constitutional provisions.

Franklin Pierce

Inaugural Address of Franklin Pierce

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Topic

Pre-Civil War conflict Slavery American politics

Speaker

Franklin Pierce

Source

Inaugural Address of Franklin Pierce Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1853 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Pierce, Franklin. "Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1853, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

The striking incidents of your history, replete with instruction and furnishing abundant grounds for hopeful confidence, are comprised in a period comparatively brief. But if your past is limited, your future is boundless. Its obligations throng the unexplored pathway of advancement, and will be limitless as duration.

Franklin Pierce

Inaugural Address of Franklin Pierce

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Topic

American optimism American pride

Speaker

Franklin Pierce

Source

Inaugural Address of Franklin Pierce Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Statement Type

Prophecies and predictions

Language

English

Time

1853 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Pierce, Franklin. "Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1853, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

The last, perhaps the greatest, of the prominent sources of discord and disaster supposed to lurk in our political condition was the institution of domestic slavery.

Martin Van Buren

Inaugural Address of Martin van Buren

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Topic

Slavery

Speaker

Martin Van Buren

Source

Inaugural Address of Martin van Buren Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1837 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Van Buren, Martin. "Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1837, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Communism subjects the individual to arrest without lawful cause, punishment without trial, and forced labor as the chattel of the state. It decrees what information he shall receive, what art he shall produce, what leaders he shall follow, and what thoughts he shall think.

Harry Truman

Second Inaugural Address of Harry Truman

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Topic

Communism

Speaker

Harry Truman

Source

Second Inaugural Address of Harry Truman Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Truman, Harry S. "Second Inaugural Address." 20 Jan. 1949, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

A new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn. For in man's heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like the leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree.

George H.W. Bush

Inaugural Address of George H.W. Bush

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Topic

Cold War Soviet Union

Speaker

George H.W. Bush

Source

Inaugural Address of George H.W. Bush Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bush, George H. W. "Inaugural Address." 20 Jan. 1989, West Front, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

In all disputes between conflicting governments it is our interest not less than our duty to remain strictly neutral, while our geographical position, the genius of our institutions and our people, the advancing spirit of civilization, and, above all, the dictates of religion direct us to the cultivation of peaceful and friendly relations with all other powers.

Zachary Taylor

Inaugural Address of Zachary Taylor

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Topic

Non-intervention American foreign policy American politics

Speaker

Zachary Taylor

Source

Inaugural Address of Zachary Taylor Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1849 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Taylor, Zachary. "Inaugural Address." 5 Mar. 1849, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our fathers, who has so singularly favored the American people in every national trial, and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps.

William McKinley

First Inaugural Address of William McKinley

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Topic

God and America

Speaker

William McKinley

Source

First Inaugural Address of William McKinley Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

McKinley, William. "First Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1897, Front of original Senate Wing, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.