And I believe that we can guide this country and one another to a better place. You and I now stand in a city that formally incorporated in 1865, the last year of a war that nearly destroyed this whole country. We stand on the shoulders of optimistic women and men. Women and men who knew that optimism is not a lack of knowledge, but a source of courage. If I could go back into the past, it wouldn’t be out of a desire to live there.

Source: New York Times April 15, 2019 16:45 UTC