Quotations by Barack Obama

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Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States

Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th President of the United States of America, and the first African American to be elected President of the United States. Obama was the junior United States Senator from Illinois from January 3, 2005, until his resignation on November 16, 2008, following his election to the presidency. Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He worked as a community organizer, and practiced as a civil rights attorney in Chicago before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, Obama was elected to the Senate in November 2004. Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. (Source: Wikipedia)

Quotations

President Barack Obama
  1. 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.'
  2. Americans... still believe in an America where anything's possible - they just don't think their leaders do.
  3. 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.
  4. Community colleges play an important role in helping people transition between careers by providing the retooling they need to take on a new career.
  5. 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.
  6. I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.
  7. I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.
  8. 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.
  9. I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
  10. I opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying.
  11. I think when you spread the wealth around it's good for everybody.
  12. 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.
  13. If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.
  14. If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.
  15. In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?
  16. Issues are never simple. One thing IÕm proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. John Kerry believes in an America where hard work is rewarded.
  20. Money is not the only answer, but it makes a difference.
  21. My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.
  22. 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.
  23. No one is pro-abortion.
  24. Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terrorism have reduced the pace of military transformation and have revealed our lack of preparation for defensive and stability operations. This Administration has overextended our military.
  25. Over the last 15 months, weÕve traveled to every corner of the United States. IÕve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.
  26. People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.
  27. Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow.
  28. The Bush Administration's failure to be consistently involved in helping Israel achieve peace with the Palestinians has been both wrong for our friendship with Israel, as well as badly damaging to our standing in the Arab world.
  29. The fact that my 15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer than 15 minutes is somewhat surprising to me and completely baffling to my wife.
  30. The thing about hip-hop today is it's smart, it's insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.
  31. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
  32. There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America - there's the United States of America.
  33. There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America.
  34. This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many.
  35. This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.
  36. 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.
  37. 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.
  38. We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That's not leadership. That's not going to happen.
  39. We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.
  40. We have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing in our students and our schools. We must make sure that people who have the grades, the desire and the will, but not the money, can still get the best education possible.
  41. We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued and they must be defeated.
  42. We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old - and that's the criterion by which I'll be selecting my judges.
  43. We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.
  44. 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.
  45. 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.
  46. We're not going to baby sit a civil war.
  47. What Washington needs is adult supervision.
  48. When we think of the major threats to our national security, the first to come to mind are nuclear proliferation, rogue states and global terrorism. But another kind of threat lurks beyond our shores, one from nature, not humans - an avian flu pandemic.
  49. Where the stakes are the highest, in the war on terror, we cannot possibly succeed without extraordinary international cooperation. Effective international police actions require the highest degree of intelligence sharing, planning and collaborative enforcement.
  50. Why can't I just eat my waffle?
  51. With the changing economy, no one has lifetime employment. But community colleges provide lifetime employability.
  52. You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt.

 

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