US President Barack Obama on Tuesday night gave an emotional farewell speech to Americans. His speech reviewed his legacy as he encouraged supporters demoralized by the election of Republican Donald Trump to be optimistic about the future of the country. Here are some top 10 quotes from his farewell speech:
- I will be there beside you as a citizen for all my remaining days.
- The work of democracy has always been hard, contentious and sometimes bloody. For every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back. But the long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion, a constant widening of our founding creed to embrace all, and not just some.
- Russia or China cannot match our (American) influence around the world unless we give up what we stand for.
- I reject discrimination against Muslim Americans. America wasn’t weakened by the presence of newcomers; they embraced this nation’s creed and it was strengthened
- No foreign terrorist organisation has managed to carry out an attack on US soil in the last eight years.
- Change only happens when ordinary people become engaged and come together.
- Yes we can, Yes we did, Yes we can
- I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring change, but in yours.
- You were the change. You answered people’s hopes, and because of you, by almost every measure, America is a better, stronger place than it was when we started.
- Democracy does not require uniformity. Our founders quarrelled and compromised, and expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity – the idea that for all our outward differences, we are all in this together; that we rise or fall as one. (NAN)
