Memorable Quotes From Obama's Inauguration Speech

BET.com recaps the president's most powerful lines.

Bringing the People Together - Keep reading for highlights from President Obama's 2013 inaugural address. Click here for the entire transcript. — BET Staff   “What makes us exceptional — what makes us American — is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." (Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

1 / 11

Bringing the People Together - Keep reading for highlights from President Obama's 2013 inaugural address. Click here for the entire transcript. — BET Staff  “What makes us exceptional — what makes us American — is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." (Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

A Message of Unity - “Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.” (Photo: REUTERS/David McNew)

2 / 11

A Message of Unity - “Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.” (Photo: REUTERS/David McNew)

Celebration of Initiative and Enterprise - “Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society's ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, are constants in our character.” (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

3 / 11

Celebration of Initiative and Enterprise - “Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society's ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, are constants in our character.” (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

/content/dam/betcom/images/2013/01/National-01-16-01-31/012113-national-inauguration-obama-inaugural-address-speech.jpg

4 / 11

Limitless Possibilities - “A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America's possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it — so long as we seize it together.” (Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Reaching Higher - “We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher.” (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

5 / 11

Reaching Higher - “We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher.” (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

ADVERTISEMENT
A Stronger Nation - “We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other — through Medicare, and Medicaid, and social security — these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us.” (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

6 / 11

A Stronger Nation - “We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other — through Medicare, and Medicaid, and social security — these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us.” (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Our Common Creed - “We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice — not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.” (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

7 / 11

Our Common Creed - “We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice — not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.” (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

/content/dam/betcom/images/2013/01/National-01-16-01-31/012113-national-inauguration-2013-obama-speech-address.jpg

8 / 11

We the People - “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths — that all of us are created equal — is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on earth.” (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Photo By Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Our Generation's Task - “It is now our generation's task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”(Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)edle/Getty Images)

9 / 11

Our Generation's Task - “It is now our generation's task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”(Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)edle/Getty Images)

Built to Thrive - “Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.” (Photo: REUTERS/Eric Thayer)

10 / 11

Built to Thrive - “Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.” (Photo: REUTERS/Eric Thayer)

The Road Ahead - “Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.” (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

11 / 11

The Road Ahead - “Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.” (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)