Barack Obama quotes
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“We as a country have to do some soul-searching.”
-- Barack Obama -
“Winston Churchill used to say that we, Americans, try every other option before we finally do the right thing. After everything else is exhausted we eventually do the right thing and I think that's true for Congress as well. And it's important for Americans to remember that politics has always been messy.”
-- Barack Obama -
“Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien - but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit. He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most - from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalized on our own streets. The Obama family offers our condolences to Robin’s family, his friends, and everyone who found their voice and their verse thanks to Robin Williams.”
-- Barack Obama -
“In Texas, we hold very dear to intrusions against our personal liberty. We fight very hard against that.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“It is now our generation's task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law - for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”
-- Barack Obama -
“To look at the issue of life and abortion, actually we're moving in that direction where most Americans oppose most abortions.”
-- Barack Obama -
“We're going to have to invest in the American people again, in tax cuts for the middle class, in health care for all Americans, and college for every young person who wants to go. In businesses that can create the new energy economy of the future. In policies that will lift wages and will grow our middle class. These are the policies I have fought for my entire career.”
-- Barack Obama -
“Our founders made it extraordinarily difficult to amend the Constitution.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“The notion that we can control the flow of information is obsolete.”
-- Barack Obama -
“If the Court finds that there is not a state interest in discriminating and showing moral disapproval of homosexuality then we can't stop equal marriage rights.”
-- Barack Obama -
“One of my strengths is I have a pretty even temperament. I don't get too high when it's high and I don't get too low when it's low. And what I found during the course of the presidency, and I suppose this is true in life, is that investments and work that you make back here sometimes take a little longer than the 24-hour news cycle to bear fruit.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“I wouldn't be the man I am today without the woman who agreed to marry me 20 years ago”
-- Barack ObamaSource : Song: Those I've Loved, Album: Carolina, 2009
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“The number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it's less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of thousands. And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing.”
-- Barack Obama -
“Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy.”
-- Barack Obama -
“The most frustrated and most stymied it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws. Even in the face of repeated mass killings.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“The best judge of whether or not a country is going to develop is how it treats its women”
-- Barack Obama -
“Black children, white children, Latino children. America is becoming more diverse, it's becoming more tolerant as a consequence there's more interactions between groups. There are going be tensions that arise.”
-- Barack Obama -
“For the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change.”
-- Barack Obama -
“There was never a promise that race relations in America would be entirely resolved during my presidency or anybody's presidency. I mean, this has been a running thread - and - and fault line in American life and American politics since its founding.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.”
-- Barack Obama -
“Civility also requires relearning how to disagree without being disagreeable. Surely you can question my policies without questioning my faith or, for that matter, my citizenship.”
-- Barack Obama -
“So here's what I want you to know, and here's what I want all our men and women in uniform to know: Because of you, we are ending these wars in a way that will make America stronger and the world more secure. Because of you.”
-- Barack Obama -
“People don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. They know we can do better.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people, and do our best to help them find their own grace. That's what I strive to do, that's what I pray to do every day.”
-- Barack Obama -
“The United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam.”
-- Barack Obama -
“What is certainly true is that the United States has to have a presence to promote the values that we care about.”
-- Barack Obama -
“If you're looking for the safe choice, you shouldn't be supporting a black guy named Barack Obama to be the next leader of the free world.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“Having the United Kingdom in the European Union gives us much greater confidence about the strength of the transatlantic union and is part of the cornerstone of institutions built after World War II that has made the world safer and more prosperous.”
-- Barack Obama -
“A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, 'Huh. It works. It makes sense.'”
-- Barack Obama -
“Everybody deserves fair treatment, equal treatment in the eyes of the law and the state. And that includes gays, lesbians, transgender persons. I am not a fan of discrimination and bullying of anybody on the basis of race, on the basis of religion, on the basis of sexual orientation or gender. This is actually part and parcel of the agenda that's also going to be front and centre, and that is how are we treating women and girls.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“The more we can encourage entrepreneurship, particularly for young people, the more they have hope. That requires some reforms in these [African] governments: rooting out corruption, increased transparency and how government operates, making sure that regulations are not designed just to advantage elites, but are allowing people who have a good idea to get out there and get things done.”
-- Barack Obama -
“We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.”
-- Barack Obama -
“Every major world religion has identified marriage as between a man and a woman.”
-- Barack Obama -
“I think it is important for Europe to understand that even though I am president and George Bush is not president, Al Qaeda is still a threat.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“Instead of giving in to cynicism and division, let's move forward with the confidence and optimism and unity that define us as a people.”
-- Barack Obama -
“And we have done more in the two and a half years that I've been in here than the previous 43 Presidents to uphold that principle, whether it's ending 'don't ask, don't tell,' making sure that gay and lesbian partners can visit each other in hospitals, making sure that federal benefits can be provided to same-sex couples.”
-- Barack Obama -
“The fear among economists across the political spectrum was that we were rapidly plummeting toward a second Great Depression. So in the weeks and months that followed, we undertook a series of difficult steps to prevent that outcome. And we were forced to take those steps, largely without the help of an opposition party, which, unfortunately, after having presided over the decision-making that had led to the crisis, decided to hand it over to others to solve.”
-- Barack Obama -
“We can't have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“Reversing structural problems in our economy that have been building up for two decades, that's going to take time. It's going to take more than a year, it's going to take more than two years, it's going to take more than one term. It probably takes more than one president.”
-- Barack Obama -
“We all knew this. We all knew that it would take more time than any of us want to dig ourselves out of this hole created by this economic crisis.”
-- Barack Obama -
“I'm willing to work with anyone of either party who has a good idea and the commitment to see through. And we should all expect you to hold us accountable for our progress or our failure to deliver.”
-- Barack Obama -
“My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“What we want is for people to know that you can get affordable health care and most young Americans, they're not covered and the truth is they can get coverage all for what it costs to pay your cell phone bill.”
-- Barack Obama -
“The day I'm inaugurated, this country looks at itself differently and the world looks at America differently. If you believe that we've got to heal America and we've got to repair our standing in the world, then I think my supporters believe that I am a messenger who can deliver that message around the world in a way that no other candidate can do.”
-- Barack Obama -
“The cyber world is sort of the Wild, Wild West, and to some degree, we're asked to be the sheriff.”
-- Barack Obama -
“another tradition to politics, a tradition (of politics) that stretched from the days of the country’s founding to the glory of the civil rights movement, a tradition based on the simple idea that we have a stake in one another, and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and that if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“The United States often finds itself in a situation where if it goes in militarily then it is criticized for going in militarily, and if it doesn't go in militarily, then people say, why aren't you doing something militarily?”
-- Barack Obama -
“One voice can change a room, and if one voice can change a room, then it can change a city, and if it can change a city, it can change a state, and if it change a state, it can change a nation, and if it can change a nation, it can change the world. Your voice can change the world.”
-- Barack Obama -
“It [is] that courage that Africa most desperately needs.”
-- Barack Obama -
“Two-thirds of Americans believe that, after a baby's heart is beating and they can feel pain, that they need some protection.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“We think of faith as a source of comfort and understanding but find our expressions of faith sowing division; we believe ourselves to be a tolerant people even as racial, religious, and cultural tensions roil the landscape. And instead of resolving these tensions or mediating these conflicts, our politics fans them, exploits them,and drives us further apart.”
-- Barack Obama -
“My view is that discrimination against anyone at the ballot box is wrong and should have the full enforcement of the federal government.”
-- Barack Obama -
“The American story has never been about things coming easy. It has been about rising to the moment when the moment is hard. About rejecting panicked division for purposeful unity. About seeing a mountaintop from the deepest valley. That is why we remember that some of the most famous words ever spoken by an American came from a president who took office in a time of turmoil: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
-- Barack ObamaSource : First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1933 See Francis Bacon 7; Montaigne 4; Thoreau 16; Wellington 3
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“The changes in thinking about same-sex marriage have come slowly at first and then in rapid course. If such change is possible in this area, is it also possible in the vexed and sordid realm of race relations?”
-- Barack Obama -
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“It's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”
-- Barack Obama -
“I'm really excited about the prospect of a woman president of the United States.”
-- Barack ObamaSource : Source: blogs.indiewire.com
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“You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.”
-- Barack Obama -
“I've been involved in the intelligence side of the federal government for a long time. We all know that we have to have a balance between security to protect the American people and liberty. We take an oath to protect and defend the constitution and the American people.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up”
-- Barack Obama -
“I think it's really important to enlarge the issue behind abortion. I have been serving for over two decades and I have seen year in and year out largely the Republicans voting against women's contraception, family planning.”
-- Barack Obama -
“The best anti-poverty program is a world-class education.”
-- Barack Obama -
“We wouldn't even be where we are had it not been that 70% of Hispanics voted for President Obama, voted Democratic in the last election. That caused an epiphany in the Senate, that's for sure. So all of a sudden we have already passed comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate. That's a big victory.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“Hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. Hope is the belief that destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by the men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be.”
-- Barack ObamaSource : Iowa Caucus Victory Speech, delivered 3 January 2008, Des Moines, Iowa
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“One of the things that you learn, having been in this [President's] office for four years, is the old adage of Abraham Lincoln's. That with public opinion there's nothing you can't do and without public opinion there's very little you can get done.”
-- Barack Obama -
“it’s important to make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds." - Barack Obama, 44th U.S. President”
-- Barack Obama -
“When individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot, they're not protesting. They're not making a statement. They're stealing. When they burn down a building, they're committing arson.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“The study of law can be disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative reality; a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power--and that all too often seeks to explain, to those who do not, the ultimate wisdom and justness of their condition. But that's not all the law is. The law is also memory; the law also records a long-running conversation, a nation arguing with its conscience.”
-- Barack Obama -
“Those opportunity gaps begin early, often at birth. And they compound over time, becoming harder and harder to bridge, making too many young men and women feel like, no matter how hard they try, they may never achieve their dreams.”
-- Barack Obama -
“But you see, a rich country like America can perhaps afford to be stupid.”
-- Barack Obama -
“What can I do to make sure that middle-class families are feeling more secure, that more young people are able to access opportunity, that we are safe, that we are working with our international partners to try to create more order at a time when there's a lot of chaos? How do we deal with terrorism in a way that's consistent with our values? As long as I stay focused on those north stars, then I tend not to get too rattled.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“There's nobody to guide through the process of becoming a man... to explain to them the meaning of manhood. And that's a recipe for disaster.”
-- Barack Obama -
“What we have done though is consistently looked for additional opportunities to get stuff done. Wherever we see a possibility of increasing wages, creating more jobs, making sure that more people are able to access opportunity, we're gonna seize it.”
-- Barack Obama -
“Each of us deserves the freedom to pursue our own version of happiness. No one deserves to be bullied.”
-- Barack ObamaSource : Twitter post from Oct 22, 2010
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“No, you can't deny women their basic rights and pretend it's about your 'religious freedom'. If you don't like birth control, don't use it. Religious freedom doesn't mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“I put forward a budget of what I called "middle-class economics" that continues to be fiscally prudent but makes necessary investments for us to continue the economic momentum and job growth.”
-- Barack Obama -
“Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns in to universal, rather than religion-specific, values... it requires that their proposals be subject to argument and amenable to reason. Now I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, to take one example, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.”
-- Barack Obama -
“The way we have to measure progress is not, "Is there ever going to be an incident of racism in the country?" It's, "How does the majority of our country respond?"”
-- Barack Obama -
“I think perhaps education doesn’t do us much good unless it is mixed with sweat.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“The other thing is going to be me being able to show not just the American people or the Israeli people but the world that, in fact, we have mechanisms in place that will prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.”
-- Barack Obama -
“the underlying struggle - between worlds of plenty and worlds of want; between the modern and the ancient; between those who embrace our teeming, colliding, irksome diversity, while still insisting on a set of values that binds us together, and those who would seek, under whatever flag or slogan or sacred text, a certainty and simplification that justifies cruelty toward those not like us...”
-- Barack Obama -
“Although Israel was founded based on the historic Jewish homeland and the need to have a Jewish homeland, Israeli democracy has been premised on everybody in the country being treated equally and fairly. And I think that that is what's best about Israeli democracy.”
-- Barack Obama -
“You got into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“One thing I don't like is when you disrespect the law.”
-- Barack Obama -
“In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity - it is a prerequisite.”
-- Barack Obama -
“We continue to believe that a two-state solution is the only way for the long-term security of Israel, if it wants to stay both a Jewish state and democratic.”
-- Barack Obama -
“Let's make two things clear: Isil is not "Islamic." No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of Isil's victims have been Muslim. And Isil is certainly not a state.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“We are not going to have a situation where our education spending goes back to its lowest level since the year 2000 despite a larger population and more kids to educate. We know that the single most important thing in terms of how well we can compete around the world is the quality of our workforce. We can't do that to our kids.”
-- Barack Obama -
“I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are. That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency: if you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.”
-- Barack Obama -
“I don't expect to get 100 percent of what I want, but what we can't do is go back to the kind of top-down economics that doesn't work.”
-- Barack Obama -
“Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“My job is to keep my eye on the ball and to stay focused on what can we get done every single day to advance the vision and values that brought me here.”
-- Barack Obama -
“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.”
-- Barack Obama -
“No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation.”
-- Barack Obama -
“It was unknowable then, but so much of the progress that would define the 20th century, on both sides of the Atlantic, came down to the battle for a slice of beach only 6 miles long and 2 miles wide.”
-- Barack Obama -
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“I think the most important thing is to take the long view on things. We live in such a 24/7, Twitter-fed, constant news cycle, and everything's a crisis, everything is terrible, everything is doomsday, everything is - if it doesn't get solved tomorrow, your presidency is going off the rails.”
-- Barack Obama -
“It should be the power of our vote, not the size of our bank accounts, that drives our democracy”
-- Barack Obama -
“I've been talking about things like reversing the rise of inequality and strengthening social mobility,since before it was cool.”
-- Barack Obama -
“I don't take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House.”
-- Barack Obama -
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