Stirring words from Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama's political hero, will provide the theme for the inauguration ceremonies as the historic handover of power takes place at noon on 20 January 2009.

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."

"Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them."

"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; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed