barack obama quotes
Barack Obama Quotes
In the past year or so, the quotes by Barack Obama on change have been a matter of discussion across the world. Here are some of the inspiring quotes by President Obama.
The 44th President of the United States of America, Mr. Barack Obama is known for his intellect, and most importantly for the 'change' he wants to bring about. He came into power when America was facing one of the biggest recession of all times. Assuring the common citizens about the future, and channelizing their efforts towards big dreams is the main thing that President Obama is trying to work on. It was pretty similar to what President Kalam of India tried to achieve in his 5-year term. All the quotes of President Obama have a strong base and foundation of reality.
Barack Obama Quotes on Change
The quotes of President Obama are divided in 3 categories in the following article―quotes about change, quotes about life in general, and some funny quotes. Here are some of his quotes about change.
- "YES WE CAN"
- "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
- "There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America."
- "We've gotta restore the American people's confidence in the ethics process by ensuring that political self-interest can no longer prevent politicians from enforcing ethics rules."
- "We have to acknowledge the progress we made, but understand that we still have a long way to go. That things are better, but still not good enough."
- "People are very hungry for something new. I think they are interested in being called to be a part of something larger than the sort of small, petty, slash-and-burn politics that we have been seeing over the last several years."
- "What Washington needs is adult supervision."
- "We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don't want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential."
- "We can't change the way Washington works unless we first change how Congress works."
- "Our goal is to have a country that's not divided by race."
- "It's not just enough to change the players. We've gotta change the game."
- "If we think that we can secure our country by just talking tough without acting tough and smart, then we will misunderstand this moment and miss its opportunities. If we think that we can use the same partisan playbook where we just challenge our opponent's patriotism to win an election, then the American people will lose. The times are too serious for this kind of politics."
- "[The] issues are never simple. One thing I'm proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues."
- "I don't want to pit Red America against Blue America. I want to be President of the United States of America."
- "All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster."
- "America is a land of big dreamers and big hopes. It is this hope that has sustained us through revolution and civil war, depression and world war, a struggle for civil and social rights and the brink of nuclear crisis. And it is because our dreamers dreamed that we have emerged from each challenge more united, more prosperous, and more admired than before."
- "It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today."
- "With the changing economy, no one has lifetime employment. But community colleges provide lifetime employability."
- "We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent."
- "Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential."
- "Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction."
- "We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued and they must be defeated."
- "To the extent that we've got a fiscal crisis right now, part of it is prompted by a bull-headed insistence on the part of the president, for example, that we should extend all of his tax cuts, make all of them permanent."
- "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America."
- "We're not going to baby-sit a civil war."
- "Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation - not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago."
- "Don't expect government to solve all their problems."
- "A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things."
- "In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it."
- "We don't ask you to believe in our ability to bring change, rather, we ask you to believe in yours."
- "Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change."
- "Today we're seeing that climate change is about more than a few unseasonably mild winters or hot summers. It's about the chain of natural catastrophes and devastating weather patterns that global warming is beginning to set off around the world.. the frequency and intensity of which are breaking records thousands of years old."
- "Instead of having a set of policies that are equipping people for the globalization of the economy, we have policies that are accelerating the most destructive trends of the global economy."
- "If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."
- "Hope - Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead."
- "My wife has been my closest friend, my closest advisor. And ... she's not somebody who looks to the limelight, or even is wild about me being in politics. And that's a good reality check on me. When I go home, she wants me to be a good father and a good husband. And everything else is secondary to that."
- "Whenever I write a letter to a family who has lost a loved one in Iraq , or read an email from a constituent who has dropped out of college because her student aid has been cut, I'm reminded that the actions of those in power have enormous consequences - a price that they themselves almost never have to pay."
- "Iraq is sort of a situation where you've got a guy who drove the bus into the ditch. You obviously have to get the bus out of the ditch, and that's not easy to do, although you probably should fire the driver."
- "My faith reminds me that we all are sinners."
- "Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. it's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere."
- "When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they're going, to care for their families while they're gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world."
- "I have seen, the desperation and disorder of the powerless: how it twists the lives of children on the streets of Jakarta or Nairobi in much the same way as it does the lives of children on Chicago's South Side."
- "We should be more modest in our belief that we can impose democracy on a country through military force. In the past, it has been movements for freedom from within tyrannical regimes that have led to flourishing democracies."
- "We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend. And we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it's easy, but when it is hard."
- "This notion that's peddled by the religious right - that they are oppressed is not true. Sometimes it's a cynical ploy to move their agenda ahead. The classic example being that somehow secularists are trying to eliminate Christmas, which strikes me as some kind of manufactured controversy."
- "The strongest democracies flourish from frequent and lively debate, but they endure when people of every background and belief find a way to set aside smaller differences in service of a greater purpose."
- "Running for the presidency is a profound decision. Decision no one should make on the basis of media hype or personal ambition alone. And so before I committed myself and my family to this race, I wanted to be sure that it was right for us and more importantly right for the country."
- "When I was growing up, basically the only black men on television were criminals or Flip Wilson dressed in drag as a character called Geraldine. But you rarely had black professionals portrayed in the culture."
- "I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible."
- "I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war."
- "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.'"
- "Three months is a lifetime in politics."
- "In the end, ... that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?"
- "I believe in evolution, scientific inquiry, and global warming; I believe in free speech, whether politically correct or politically incorrect, and I am suspicious of using government to impose anybody's religious beliefs -including my own- on non believers."
- "While we breathe, we will hope."
- "My little girls can break my heart. They can make me cry just looking at them eating their string beans."
- "It's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential."
- "If we aren't willing to pay a price for our values, then we should ask ourselves whether we truly believe in them at all."
- "I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."
- "I am not in favor of concealed weapons. I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations."
- "We have proved that the true strength of our nation comes not from the scale of our wealth but from the power of our ideals - opportunity, democracy, liberty and hope."
- "Instead of having a set of policies that are equipping people for the globalization of the economy, we have policies that are accelerating the most destructive trends of the global economy."
- "Money is not the only answer, but it makes a difference."
- "That my father looked nothing like the people around me -- that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk -- barely registered in my mind."
- "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. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren't rich, because in a generous America you don't have to be rich to achieve your potential."
- "Tiger (Woods) has acknowledged that he betrayed his family. That's a personal issue he's got to work out. I hope they've worked it out."
- "I didn't run for president so that the dreams of our daughters could be deferred or denied. I didn't run for president to see inequality and injustice persist in our time."
- "Most people who meet my wife quickly conclude that she is remarkable. They are right about this. She is smart, funny and thoroughly charming. Often, after hearing her speak at some function or working with her on a project, people will approach me and say something to the effect of, you know, I think the world of you, Barack, but your wife, wow!"
- "Contrary to the rumors you have heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the Planet Earth."
- "I'm so overexposed, I'm making Paris Hilton look like a recluse."
- "My first job is to say thank you to those who voted me. Those who didn't, I'm going to get your vote next time."
- "That's silly talk... Talk to my wife. She'll tell me I need to learn to just put my socks on the hamper."
- "I teach constitutional law, [and] I'm getting to the age now that I actually know some of the people that they are appointing to these courts."
- "Cynicism is a sorry kind of wisdom."