Barack Obama Quotes

But we are so fond of life that we have no leisure to entertain the terror of death. It is a honeymoon with us all through, and none of the longest. Small blame to us if we give our whole hearts to this glowing bride of ours, to the appetities, to honour, to the hungry curiosity of the mind, to the pleasure of the eyes in nature, and the pride of our own nimble bodies.

Barack Obama

We dont believe in a small America. We believe in a big America -- a tolerant America, a just America, an equal America -- that values the service of every patriot.

Barack Obama

Whatever success I have achieved, whatever positions of leadership I have held have depended less on Ivy League degrees or SAT scores or GPAs, and have instead been due to that sense of connection and empathy - the special obligation I felt, as a black man like you, to help those who need it most, people who didnt have the opportunities that I had - because there but for the grace of God, go I - I might have been in their shoes. I might have been in prison. I might have been unemployed. I might not have been able to support a family. And that motivates me.

Barack Obama

You dont like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But dont break it. Dont break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. Thats not being faithful to what this countrys about.

Barack Obama

You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.

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

If somebody is different from you, thats not something you criticize, thats something that you appreciate.

Barack Obama

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones weve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

Barack Obama

Keep exploring. Keep dreaming. Keep asking why. Don’t settle for what you already know. Never stop believing in the power of your ideas, your imagination, your hard work to change the world.

Barack Obama

When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you dont really have to do anything, you just let them talk.

Barack Obama

Learning to stand in somebody elses shoes, to see through their eyes, thats how peace begins. And its up to you to make that happen. Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world.

Barack Obama

Don’t ever let anybody tell you that your efforts don’t matter or that your voice doesn’t count. Don’t ever believe that you can’t make a difference. You have.

Barack Obama

All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort -- a sustained effort -- to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.

Barack Obama

Mothers are the rocks of our families and a foundation in our communities. In gratitude for their generous love, patient counsel, and lifelong support, let us pay respect to the women who carry out the hard work of motherhood with skill and grace, and let us remember those mothers who, though no longer with us, inspire us still.

Barack Obama

We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it.

Barack Obama

If you only think about yourself - how much money can I make, what can I buy, how nice is my house, what kind of fancy car do I have? - over the long term, I think, you get bored. I think your life becomes diminished. The way to live a full life is to think: What can I do for others!

Barack Obama

Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail.

Barack Obama

Change is never easy, but always possible.

Barack Obama

The future must not belong to those who bully women. It must be shaped by girls who go to school and those who stand for a world where our daughters can live their dreams just like our sons.

Barack Obama

Hope is not blind optimism. Its not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. Its 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 Obama