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Dear Readers: Wishing you all a very happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Inauguration Day!

I thought it would be a good time to find some impactful quotes from presidential inaugural speeches and from King's "I Have a Dream" speech. I found quotes that inspire, unify and motivate audiences toward a shared vision for the nation. Comparing King's speech with specific inaugural addresses reveals common themes of leadership, resilience and building an even better future for all of us.

"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to climb up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day." -- Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech

"Let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions." -- Thomas Jefferson, March 4, 1801.

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds." -- Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865.

"Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither." -- Theodore Roosevelt, March 4, 1905.

"We have reached a higher degree of comfort and security than ever existed before in the history of the world." -- Herbert Hoover, March 4, 1929.

"This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, March 4, 1933.

"My fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." -- John F. Kennedy, Jan. 20, 1961.

"We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. How can we love our country and not love our countrymen; and loving them, reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they're sick, and provide opportunity to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just in theory?" -- Ronald Reagan, Jan. 20, 1981.

"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." -- Bill Clinton, Jan. 20, 1993.

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Annie Lane's second anthology -- "How Can I Forgive My Cheating Partner?" featuring favorite columns on marriage, infidelity, communication and reconciliation -- is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com.