Barack Obama Quotes And Sayings

Through Every Victory And Every Setback, I've Insisted That Change Is Never Easy And Never Quick; That We Wouldn't Meet All Of Our Challenges In One Term, Or One Presidency, Or Even In One Lifetime.

A Lot Has Happened Over The Years. And While This Nation Has Been Tested By War, And It's Been Tested By Recession And All Manner Of Challenges - I Stand Before You Again Tonight, After Almost Two Terms As Your President, To Tell You I Am More Optimistic About The Future Of America Than Ever Before.

Yes, We've Still Got More Work To Do. More Work To Do For Every American Still In Need Of A Good Job Or A Raise, Paid Leave Or A Decent Retirement; For Every Child Who Needs A Sturdier Ladder Out Of Poverty Or A World-class Education; For Everyone Who Has Not Yet Felt The Progress Of These Past Seven And A Half Years.

America's Promises Do Not Come With A Price Tag. We Meet Our Commitments. We Bear Our Burdens. That's One Of The Reasons Why Almost Every Country On Earth Sees America As Stronger And More Respected Today Than They Did Eight Years Ago When I Took Office.

Eight Years Ago, You May Remember Hillary And I Were Rivals For The Democratic Nomination. We Battled For A Year And A Half. Let Me Tell You, It Was Tough, Because Hillary Was Tough. I Was Worn Out. She Was Doing Everything I Was Doing, But Just Like Ginger Rogers, It Was Backwards In Heels.

I'm No Longer Just A Candidate. I'm The President. I Know What It Means To Send Young Americans Into Battle, For I Have Held In My Arms The Mothers And Fathers Of Those Who Didn't Return. I've Shared The Pain Of Families Who've Lost Their Homes, And The Frustration Of Workers Who've Lost Their Jobs.

With The Changing Economy, No One Has Lifetime Employment. But Community Colleges Provide Lifetime Employability.

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.

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.

People Of Berlin - People Of The World - This Is Our Moment. This Is Our Time.

Over The Last 15 Months, We've Traveled To Every Corner Of The United States. I've Now Been In 57 States? I Think One Left To Go.

If You're Walking Down The Right Path And You're Willing To Keep Walking, Eventually You'll Make Progress.

My Family, Frankly, They Weren't Folks Who Went To Church Every Week. My Mother Was One Of The Most Spiritual People I Knew But She Didn't Raise Me In The Church, So I Came To My Christian Faith Later In Life And It Was Because The Precepts Of Jesus Christ Spoke To Me In Terms Of The Kind Of Life That I Would Want To Lead.

We Didn't Become The Most Prosperous Country In The World Just By Rewarding Greed And Recklessness. We Didn't Come This Far By Letting The Special Interests Run Wild. We Didn't Do It Just By Gambling And Chasing Paper Profits On Wall Street. We Built This Country By Making Things, By Producing Goods We Could Sell.

Now You Have A Choice: We Can Give More Tax Breaks To Corporations That Ship Jobs Overseas, Or We Can Start Rewarding Companies That Open New Plants And Train New Workers And Create New Jobs Here, In The United States Of America.

Our Higher Education System Is One Of The Things That Makes America Exceptional. There's No Place Else That Has The Assets We Do When It Comes To Higher Education. People From All Over The World Aspire To Come Here And Study Here. And That Is A Good Thing.

In A World Of Complex Threats, Our Security And Leadership Depends On All Elements Of Our Power - Including Strong And Principled Diplomacy.

No Party Has A Monopoly On Wisdom. No Democracy Works Without Compromise. But When Governor Romney And His Allies In Congress Tell Us We Can Somehow Lower Our Deficit By Spending Trillions More On New Tax Breaks For The Wealthy - Well, You Do The Math. I Refuse To Go Along With That. And As Long As I'm President, I Never Will.

Our Priority Is To Go After Isil. And So What We Have Said Is That We Are Not Engaging In A Military Action Against The Syrian Regime. We Are Going After Isil Facilities And Personnel Who Are Using Syria As A Safe Haven, In Service Of Our Strategy In Iraq.

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.

I Don't Oppose All Wars. What I Am Opposed To Is A Dumb War. What I Am Opposed To Is A Rash War.

There's Not A Liberal America And A Conservative America - There's The United States Of America.

We, The People, Recognize That We Have Responsibilities As Well As Rights; That Our Destinies Are Bound Together; That A Freedom Which Only Asks What's In It For Me, A Freedom Without A Commitment To Others, A Freedom Without Love Or Charity Or Duty Or Patriotism, Is Unworthy Of Our Founding Ideals, And Those Who Died In Their Defense.

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.

We Need To Internalize This Idea Of Excellence. Not Many Folks Spend A Lot Of Time Trying To Be Excellent.

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'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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I Don't Care Whether You're Driving A Hybrid Or An Suv. If You're Headed For A Cliff, You Have To Change Direction. That's What The American People Called For In November, And That's What We Intend To Deliver.

Understand, Our Police Officers Put Their Lives On The Line For Us Every Single Day. They've Got A Tough Job To Do To Maintain Public Safety And Hold Accountable Those Who Break The Law.

One Of The Great Strengths Of The United States Is... We Have A Very Large Christian Population - We Do Not Consider Ourselves A Christian Nation Or A Jewish Nation Or A Muslim Nation. We Consider Ourselves A Nation Of Citizens Who Are Bound By Ideals And A Set Of Values.

What I Worry About Would Be That You Essentially Have Two Chambers, The House And The Senate, But You Have Simply, Majoritarian, Absolute Power On Either Side. And That's Just Not What The Founders Intended.

I Consider It Part Of My Responsibility As President Of The United States To Fight Against Negative Stereotypes Of Islam Wherever They Appear.

After A Century Of Striving, After A Year Of Debate, After A Historic Vote, Health Care Reform Is No Longer An Unmet Promise. It Is The Law Of The Land.

It Was Not A Religion That Attacked Us That September Day. It Was Al-qaeda. We Will Not Sacrifice The Liberties We Cherish Or Hunker Down Behind Walls Of Suspicion And Mistrust.

We've Persevered Because Of A Belief We Share With The Iraqi People - A Belief That Out Of The Ashes Of War, A New Beginning Could Be Born In This Cradle Of Civilization. Through This Remarkable Chapter In The History Of The United States And Iraq, We Have Met Our Responsibility. Now, It's Time To Turn The Page.

In The Absence Of Sound Oversight, Responsible Businesses Are Forced To Compete Against Unscrupulous And Underhanded Businesses, Who Are Unencumbered By Any Restrictions On Activities That Might Harm The Environment, Or Take Advantage Of Middle-class Families, Or Threaten To Bring Down The Entire Financial System.

There Is Probably A Perverse Pride In My Administration... That We Were Going To Do The Right Thing, Even If Short-term It Was Unpopular. And I Think Anybody Who's Occupied This Office Has To Remember That Success Is Determined By An Intersection In Policy And Politics And That You Can't Be Neglecting Of Marketing And P.r. And Public Opinion.

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.

Now, As A Nation, We Don't Promise Equal Outcomes, But We Were Founded On The Idea Everybody Should Have An Equal Opportunity To Succeed. No Matter Who You Are, What You Look Like, Where You Come From, You Can Make It. That's An Essential Promise Of America. Where You Start Should Not Determine Where You End Up.

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.

My Task Over The Last Two Years Hasn't Just Been To Stop The Bleeding. My Task Has Also Been To Try To Figure Out How Do We Address Some Of The Structural Problems In The Economy That Have Prevented More Googles From Being Created.

Cutting The Deficit By Gutting Our Investments In Innovation And Education Is Like Lightening An Overloaded Airplane By Removing Its Engine. It May Make You Feel Like You're Flying High At First, But It Won't Take Long Before You Feel The Impact.

I Miss Saturday Morning, Rolling Out Of Bed, Not Shaving, Getting Into My Car With My Girls, Driving To The Supermarket, Squeezing The Fruit, Getting My Car Washed, Taking Walks.

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.