lofty expectations for Obama's inaugural speech

"His task is to demonstrate great command and inspire great confidence and give people hope. And that's no easy challenge."

MEMORABLE RHETORIC

— "With malice toward none, with charity for all." - Abraham Lincoln, 1865

— "We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid. No weak nation that acts manfully and justly should ever have cause to fear us, and no strong power should ever be able to single us out as a subject for insolent aggression." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1905

— "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933

— "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." - John F. Kennedy, 1961

— "It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline." - Ronald Reagan, 1981

— "Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." - Bill Clinton, 1993

-sfchron article