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Jimmy Carter's farewell address before leaving the White House

Listen to Jimmy Carter’s farewell address as he gave it on Jan. 14, 1981, days before leaving the White House.

Jimmy Carter's farewell address before leaving the White House

Listen to Jimmy Carter’s farewell address as he gave it on Jan. 14, 1981, days before leaving the White House.

I've just been talking about forces of potential destruction that mankind has developed and how we might control them. It's equally important that we remember the beneficial forces that we have evolved over the ages and how to hold fast to them. one of those constructive forces is the enhancement of individual human freedoms through the strengthening of democracy and the fight against deprivation, torture, terrorism, and the persecution of people throughout the world. The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color or nation or language. Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice. They are the patriots of this cars. I believe with all my heart that America must always stand for these basic human rights at home and abroad. That is both our history and our destiny. America did not invent human rights in a very real sense. It's the other way around human rights invented America. I was with the first nation in the history of the world to be founded explicitly on such an idea. Our social and political progress has been based on one fundamental principle. The value and importance of the individual. The fundamental force that unites us is not kinship or place of origin or religious preference. The love of liberty is a common blood that flows in our american veins. The battle for human rights at home and abroad is far from over. We should never be surprised nor discouraged because the impact of our efforts has had and will always have varied results. Rather, we should take pride that the ideals which gave birth to our nation, still inspire the hopes of oppressed people around the world.
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Jimmy Carter's farewell address before leaving the White House

Listen to Jimmy Carter’s farewell address as he gave it on Jan. 14, 1981, days before leaving the White House.

Listen to Jimmy Carter’s farewell address as he gave it on Jan. 14, 1981, days before leaving the White House.“America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it’s the other way around. Human rights invented America.”Video: The Carter Center

Listen to Jimmy Carter’s farewell address as he gave it on Jan. 14, 1981, days before leaving the White House.

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“America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it’s the other way around. Human rights invented America.”

Video: The Carter Center