Senator Dirksen, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President,President Johnson, Vice President Humphrey, my fellow Americans—andmy fellow citizens of the world community: I ask you to share with me today the majesty of this moment.In the orderly transfer of power, we celebrate the unity that keeps us free. | 1 |
| Each moment in history is a fleeting time, precious and unique.But some stand out as moments of beginning, in which courses are set thatshape decades or centuries. | 2 |
| This can be such a moment. | 3 |
| Forces now are converging that make possible, for the firsttime, the hope that many of man's deepest aspirations can at last be realized.The spiraling pace of change allows us to contemplate, within our own lifetime,advances that once would have taken centuries. | 4 |
| In throwing wide the horizons of space, we have discovered newhorizons on earth. | 5 |
| For the first time, because the people of the world want peace,and the leaders of the world are afraid of war, the times are on the sideof peace. | 6 |
| Eight years from now America will celebrate its 200th anniversaryas a nation. Within the lifetime of most people now living, mankind willcelebrate that great new year which comes only once in a thousand years—thebeginning of the third millennium. | 7 |
| What kind of nation we will be, what kind of world we will livein, whether we shape the future in the image of our hopes, is ours to determineby our actions and our choices. | 8 |
| The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker.This honor now beckons America—the chance to help lead the world atlast out of the valley of turmoil, and onto that high ground of peace thatman has dreamed of since the dawn of civilization. | 9 |
| If we succeed, generations to come will say of us now livingthat we mastered our moment, that we helped make the world safe for mankind. | 10 |
| This is our summons to greatness. | 11 |
| I believe the American people are ready to answer this call. | 12 |
| The second third of this century has been a time of proud achievement.We have made enormous strides in science and industry and agriculture. Wehave shared our wealth more broadly than ever. We have learned at last tomanage a modern economy to assure its continued growth. | 13 |
| We have given freedom new reach, and we have begun to make itspromise real for black as well as for white. | 14 |
| We see the hope of tomorrow in the youth of today. I know America'syouth. I believe in them. We can be proud that they are better educated,more committed, more passionately driven by conscience than any generationin our history. | 15 |
| No people has ever been so close to the achievement of a justand abundant society, or so possessed of the will to achieve it. Becauseour strengths are so great, we can afford to appraise our weaknesses withcandor and to approach them with hope. | 16 |
| Standing in this same place a third of a century ago, FranklinDelano Roosevelt addressed a Nation ravaged by depression and gripped infear. He could say in surveying the Nation's troubles: "They concern,thank God, only material things." | 17 |
| Our crisis today is the reverse. | 18 |
| We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit;reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucousdiscord on earth. | 19 |
| We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division,wanting unity. We see around us empty lives, wanting fulfillment. We seetasks that need doing, waiting for hands to do them. | 20 |
| To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit. | 21 |
| To find that answer, we need only look within ourselves. | 22 |
| When we listen to "the better angels of our nature,"we find that they celebrate the simple things, the basic things—suchas goodness, decency, love, kindness. | 23 |
| Greatness comes in simple trappings. | 24 |
| The simple things are the ones most needed today if we are tosurmount what divides us, and cement what unites us. | 25 |
| To lower our voices would be a simple thing. | 26 |
| In these difficult years, America has suffered from a feverof words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver;from angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic rhetoricthat postures instead of persuading. | 27 |
| We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at oneanother—until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heardas well as our voices. | 28 |
| For its part, government will listen. We will strive to listenin new ways—to the voices of quiet anguish, the voices that speak withoutwords, the voices of the heart—to the injured voices, the anxious voices,the voices that have despaired of being heard. | 29 |
| Those who have been left out, we will try to bring in. | 30 |
| Those left behind, we will help to catch up. | 31 |
| For all of our people, we will set as our goal the decent orderthat makes progress possible and our lives secure. | 32 |
| As we reach toward our hopes, our task is to build on what hasgone before—not turning away from the old, but turning toward the new. | 33 |
| In this past third of a century, government has passed morelaws, spent more money, initiated more programs, than in all our previoushistory. | 34 |
| In pursuing our goals of full employment, better housing, excellencein education; in rebuilding our cities and improving our rural areas; inprotecting our environment and enhancing the quality of life—in allthese and more, we will and must press urgently forward. | 35 |
| We shall plan now for the day when our wealth can be transferredfrom the destruction of war abroad to the urgent needs of our people athome. | 36 |
| The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep. | 37 |
| But we are approaching the limits of what government alone cando. | 38 |
| Our greatest need now is to reach beyond government, and toenlist the legions of the concerned and the committed. | 39 |
| What has to be done, has to be done by government and peopletogether or it will not be done at all. The lesson of past agony is thatwithout the people we can do nothing; with the people we can do everything. | 40 |
| To match the magnitude of our tasks, we need the energies ofour people—enlisted not only in grand enterprises, but more importantlyin those small, splendid efforts that make headlines in the neighborhoodnewspaper instead of the national journal. | 41 |
| With these, we can build a great cathedral of the spirit—eachof us raising it one stone at a time, as he reaches out to his neighbor,helping, caring, doing. | 42 |
| I do not offer a life of uninspiring ease. I do not call fora life of grim sacrifice. I ask you to join in a high adventure—oneas rich as humanity itself, and as exciting as the times we live in. | 43 |
| The essence of freedom is that each of us shares in the shapingof his own destiny. | 44 |
| Until he has been part of a cause larger than himself, no manis truly whole. | 45 |
| The way to fulfillment is in the use of our talents; we achievenobility in the spirit that inspires that use. | 46 |
| As we measure what can be done, we shall promise only what weknow we can produce, but as we chart our goals we shall be lifted by ourdreams. | 47 |
| No man can be fully free while his neighbor is not. To go forwardat all is to go forward together. | 48 |
| This means black and white together, as one nation, not two.The laws have caught up with our conscience. What remains is to give lifeto what is in the law: to ensure at last that as all are born equal in dignitybefore God, all are born equal in dignity before man. | 49 |
| As we learn to go forward together at home, let us also seekto go forward together with all mankind. | 50 |
| Let us take as our goal: where peace is unknown, make it welcome;where peace is fragile, make it strong; where peace is temporary, make itpermanent. | 51 |
| After a period of confrontation, we are entering an era of negotiation. | 52 |
| Let all nations know that during this administration our linesof communication will be open. | 53 |
| We seek an open world—open to ideas, open to the exchangeof goods and people—a world in which no people, great or small, willlive in angry isolation. | 54 |
| We cannot expect to make everyone our friend, but we can tryto make no one our enemy. | 55 |
| Those who would be our adversaries, we invite to a peacefulcompetition—not in conquering territory or extending dominion, butin enriching the life of man. | 56 |
| As we explore the reaches of space, let us go to the new worldstogether—not as new worlds to be conquered, but as a new adventureto be shared. | 57 |
| With those who are willing to join, let us cooperate to reducethe burden of arms, to strengthen the structure of peace, to lift up thepoor and the hungry. | 58 |
| But to all those who would be tempted by weakness, let us leaveno doubt that we will be as strong as we need to be for as long as we needto be. | 59 |
| Over the past twenty years, since I first came to this Capitalas a freshman Congressman, I have visited most of the nations of the world. | 60 |
| I have come to know the leaders of the world, and the greatforces, the hatreds, the fears that divide the world. | 61 |
| I know that peace does not come through wishing for it—thatthere is no substitute for days and even years of patient and prolongeddiplomacy. | 62 |
| I also know the people of the world. | 63 |
| I have seen the hunger of a homeless child, the pain of a manwounded in battle, the grief of a mother who has lost her son. I know thesehave no ideology, no race. | 64 |
| I know America. I know the heart of America is good. | 65 |
| I speak from my own heart, and the heart of my country, thedeep concern we have for those who suffer, and those who sorrow. | 66 |
| I have taken an oath today in the presence of God and my countrymento uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. To that oathI now add this sacred commitment: I shall consecrate my office, my energies,and all the wisdom I can summon, to the cause of peace among nations. | 67 |
| Let this message be heard by strong and weak alike: | 68 |
| The peace we seek to win is not victory over any other people,but the peace that comes "with healing in its wings"; with compassionfor those who have suffered; with understanding for those who have opposedus; with the opportunity for all the peoples of this earth to choose theirown destiny. | 69 |
| Only a few short weeks ago, we shared the glory of man's firstsight of the world as God sees it, as a single sphere reflecting light inthe darkness. | 70 |
| As the Apollo astronauts flew over the moon's gray surface onChristmas Eve, they spoke to us of the beauty of earth—and in thatvoice so clear across the lunar distance, we heard them invoke God's blessingon its goodness. | 71 |
| In that moment, their view from the moon moved poet ArchibaldMacLeish to write: | 72 |
| "To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautifulin that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders onthe earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold—brotherswho know now they are truly brothers." | 73 |
| In that moment of surpassing technological triumph, men turnedtheir thoughts toward home and humanity—seeing in that far perspectivethat man's destiny on earth is not divisible; telling us that however farwe reach into the cosmos, our destiny lies not in the stars but on Earthitself, in our own hands, in our own hearts. | 74 |
| We have endured a long night of the American spirit. But asour eyes catch the dimness of the first rays of dawn, let us not curse theremaining dark. Let us gather the light. | 75 |
| Our destiny offers, not the cup of despair, but the chaliceof opportunity. So let us seize it, not in fear, but in gladness—and,"riders on the earth together," let us go forward, firm in ourfaith, steadfast in our purpose, cautious of the dangers; but sustainedby our confidence in the will of God and the promise of man. | 76 |