It was an ordinary day. Reading page after page of quotes that told of just about everything from imagination of artists to historic quotes from the State of the Union. Today I would like to share with you what at one time was known the "annual message" for most of the United State history which today is referred to as the State of the Union message. It all began as a largely straightforward report of all the events, foreign and domestic, that impacted the United States, and grew into a prime-time television event. Today, the President is invited by the Speaker of the House to give an address at the House of Representatives, where the President stands at the podium, flanked by the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. At one time it was a bit different. Washington and Adams gave speeches to Congress, but in 1800, Thomas Jefferson, believing the whole speech thing to be a bit monarchical, began a new tradition of simply sending a written address over to Capitol Hill. In 1913, Woodrow Wilson brought back the in-person speech, and it's been delivered as such ever since. (In 1981 lame duck Jimmy Carter delivered his speech only in writing). The State of the Union is usually more concerned with policies and political agendas than the florid words extolling the importance of freedom that fill most inaugural addresses. What follows are ten quotes from State of the Union addresses that speak to deeper wisdom beyond politics, and continue to echo down the halls of history. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
10 Historic Quotes from the State of the Union Address...
Knowledge is in every Country the surest basis of public happiness. -- George Washington in 1790 urging the pursuit of science in his first address.
The dogmas of the quiet post are inadequate to the story present...fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. -- Abraham Lincoln in 1862 on the imperative on winning the Civil War.
We may either fall greatly or succeed greatly; but we can not avoid the endeavor from which either great failure or great success must come. -- Theodore Roosevelt in 1902.
Social justice comes first. Law is the machinery from its realization and is vital only as it expresses and embodies it. Woodrow Wilson in 1913.
We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech...the second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way...The third is freedom from want...The fourth is freedom from fear. Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941.
The mere absence of war is not peace. The mere absence of recession is not growth. We have made a beginning -- but we have only begun. John F. Kennedy 1963
Very often the lack of jobs and money is not the case of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities. Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.
There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect. Ronald Reagan in 1986.
And to the children and young people...fix your vision on a new century --- your century, on dreams we cannot see, on the destiny that is yours and yours alone. George H.W. Bush in 1990.
Unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. Barack Obama in 2016.
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