Memorable Quotes From Obama's Inauguration Speech
BET.com recaps the president's most powerful lines.
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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