Speech Category: Vital Speeches

YOU’RE RIGHT WHERE YOU BELONG Don’t grow cynical. Don’t respond to ignorance by embracing a world view that suggests you must choose between your faith and your patriotism. Don’t believe that you have to choose between your best impulses and somehow embrace a world view that pits us against each other—or, even worse, glorifies violence. Understand your power to bring about change. Stay engaged in your community. Help move our country forward—your country forward.
Address by BARACK OBAMA, President, United States of America
Delivered to the Islamic Society of Baltimore, Baltimore, Md., Feb. 3, 2016

I WANT TO FOCUS ON OUR FUTURE You’re the reason why I have such incredible confidence in our future. Because I see your quiet, sturdy citizenship all the time. That’s the America I know. That’s the country we love. Clear-eyed. Big-hearted. Optimistic that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
Address by BARACK OBAMA, President, United States
Delivered as the State of the Union Speech to a Joint Session of Congress, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., Jan. 13, 2016

WE WILL PREVAIL Our success won’t depend on tough talk, or abandoning our values, or giving into fear. That’s what groups like ISIL are hoping for. Instead, we will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient and relentless, and by drawing upon every aspect of American power.
Address by BARACK OBAMA, President, United States of America
Delivered from Oval Office, the White House, Washington, D.C., Dec. 6, 2015

THIS IS NOT A CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS This is not a case of one civilization pitted against another. This is a battle between civilization itself and barbarism, between civilization and medieval and modern fascism both at the same time.
Address by JOHN KERRY, Secretary of State, United States of America
Delivered at a candle-lighting ceremony,
Paris, France, Nov. 16, 2015

THE CHALLENGES ARE COMPLICATED, LAYERED AND PAINFUL I imagine two lines. There’s the line of law enforcement and there’s a line of the communities we serve, especially communities of color in the hardest hit neighborhood in this great country of ours. And I actually feel those two lines arcing apart.
Address by JAMES B. COMEY, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Delivered at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference, Chicago, Ill., Oct. 26, 2015

HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND TO THESE TRENDS? We see the collapse of strongmen and fragile states breeding conflict, and driving innocent men, women and children across borders on an epic scale. Brutal networks of terror have stepped into the vacuum. Technologies that empower individuals are now also exploited by those who spread disinformation, or suppress dissent, or radicalize our youth. Global capital flows have powered growth and investment, but also increased risk of contagion, weakened the bargaining power of workers, and accelerated inequality.
Address by BARACK OBAMA, President, United States of America
Delivered at the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York City, N.Y., Sept. 28, 2015

IF CONGRESS KILLS THIS DEAL We will lose more than just constraints on Iran’s nuclear deal or the sanctions we have painstakingly built. We will have lost something more precious: America’s credibility as a leader of diplomacy. Address by BARACK OBAMA, President, United States of America Delivered at American University, Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2015

ENERGY POLICY IN THE AGE OF WISHFUL THINKING We’ve got a lot of money, a lot of smart professionals, a lot of government support. Washington, the city of 100 green rooms, is where people go on talk shows and speculate. But so far it’s not clear that there is a commercializable breakthrough. Address by MATTHEW WALD, Senior Director, Policy Analysis & Strategic Planning, Nuclear Energy Institute Delivered at the Nuclear Energy Institute, Washington, D.C., June 2, 2015

STAY TRUE TO THE MOST REAL, MOST SINCERE, MOST AUTHENTIC PARTS OF YOURSELVES The world won’t always see you in those caps and gowns. They won’t know how hard you worked and how much you sacrificed to make it to this day… They don’t know that part of you … no matter how far you rise in life, how hard you work to be a good person, a good parent, a good citizen—for some folks, it will never be enough. Commencement Address by MICHELLE OBAMA, First Lady, United States Delivered at Tuskegee University,
Tuskegee, Ala., May 9, 2015

PALLIATIVE CARE: THE GAP BETWEEN RHETORIC AND REALITY I do not accept the rigid imposition of a particular model of care, and a limited choice at the end of life which condemns some people to die in a way that is anathema to them, in order to satisfy the moral view of their doctor. Address by DR. RODNEY SYME, Vice President, Dying with Dignity NOT delivered as keynote address at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Conference, Cairns, Australia, May 26, 2015