When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening, foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us. - Barack Obama
You can question somebody's views and their judgment without questioning their motives or patriotism. - Barack Obama
When I see Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity baying across the television screen, I find it hard to take them seriously. I assume that they must be saying what they do primarily to boost book sales or ratings, although I do wonder who would spend their precious evenings with such sourpusses. - Barack Obama
Over the last fifteen months we've traveled to every corner of the United States. I've now been to fifty-seven states. I think, one left to go. - Barack Obama
Abraham Lincoln and Millard Fillmore had the same title. They were both presidents of the United States, but their tenure in office and their legacy could not be more different. - Barack Obama
Even the smallest act of service, the simplest act of kindness, is a way to honor those we lost; a way to reclaim that spirit of unity that followed 9/11. - Barack Obama
A nation ringed by walls will only imprison itself. - Barack Obama
None of These Will Come Easy. - Barack Obama
My liberty depends on you being free, too. - Barack Obama
The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope. - Barack Obama
In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. - Barack Obama
A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things. - Barack Obama
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our Democracy; Tonight is your answer. - Barack Obama
Although the principle of equality has always been self-evident, it has never been self-executing. - Barack Obama
We are the change we have been waiting for. - Barack Obama
It may make your blood boil and your mind may not be changed, but the practice of listening to opposing views is essential for effective citizenship. It is essential for our democracy. - Barack Obama
Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it. - Barack Obama
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. - Barack Obama
Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. - Barack Obama
There's no such thing as a vote that doesn't matter. - Barack Obama
We too often let the material things serve as indicators that we're doing well, even though something inside us tells us that were not doing our best. That we are avoiding that which is hard, but also necessary. That we are shrinking from rather than vising to the challenges of the age. - Barack Obama
Acts of sacrifice and decency without regard to what's in it for you create ripple effects. Ones that lift up families and communities, that spread opportunity and boost our economy. - Barack Obama
In this new, hyper competitive age, none of us, none of us can afford to be complacent. - Barack Obama
That is the American story. People, just like you, following their passions, determined to meet the times on their own terms. They weren't doing it for the money. Their titles weren't fancy. But they changed the course of history and so can you. - Barack Obama
Politics has never been for the thin-skinned or the faint of heart, and if you enter the arena , you should expect to get roughed up. Moreover, Democracy in a nation of more than 300 million people is inherently difficult. - Barack Obama
The most important thing you need to do [in this job] is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you’re doing is thinking. - Barack Obama
We must talk and reach for common understandings, precisely because all of us are imperfect and can never act with the certainty that God is on our side; and yet at times we must act nonetheless, as if we are certain, protected from error only by providence. - Barack Obama
We will outstretch the hand if you unclench your fist. - Barack Obama
In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it. - Barack Obama
The elevation of appearance over substance, of celebrity over character, of short term gains over lasting achievement displays a poverty of ambition. It distracts you from what's truly important. - Barack Obama
I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class. - Barack Obama
When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening foreign entity, it ignores the fact that, in our democracy, government is us. - Barack Obama
I've got daughters. Nine years old and six years old. First of all, I'm gonna teach them about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them PUNISHED with a baby. - Barack Obama
We can't expect to solve problems if all we do is tear each other down. You can disagree with a certain policy without demonizing the person who espouses it. - Barack Obama
Let's be honest. Sometimes art is dangerous, though. And that's why governments sometimes get nervous about art. But one of the things I truly believe is if you try to suppress the arts, then I think you are suppressing the deepest dreams and aspirations of the people. - Barack Obama
I confess to wincing every so often at a poorly chosen word, a mangled sentence, an expression of emotion that seems indulgent or overly practiced. I have the urge to cut the book by fifty pages or so, possessed as I am with a keener appreciation for brevity. - Barack Obama
You can't rest on your laurels. Your own body of work is yet to come. - Barack Obama
Find somebody to be successful for. Raise their hopes. Think of their needs. - 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
There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America. - Barack Obama
Yes We Can! - Barack Obama
To all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. - Barack Obama
Our individualism has always been bound by a set of communal values, the glue upon which every healthy society depends. - Barack Obama
So, let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look over not only ourselves, but each other. - Barack Obama
Change we need - Barack Obama
All of us - we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations. - Barack Obama
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this. - Barack Obama
We cannot meet 21st Century challenges with a 20th Century bureaucracy. - Barack Obama
What I’ve realized is that life doesn’t count for much unless you’re willing to do your small part to leave our children — all of our children — a better world. Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father. - Barack Obama
At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better. - Barack Obama
Reading is important. If you know how to read then the whole world opens up to you - Barack Obama
What we should be asking is not whether we need a big government or small government, but how we can create a smarter and better government. - Barack Obama
We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. - Barack Obama
Let me tell your something. I'm from Chicago. I don't break. - Barack Obama
We are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. - Barack Obama