Barack Obama

"Invest in our teachers, and our children will succeed."

- Barack Obama

"We are the change that we seek."

- Barack Obama

"In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."

- Barack Obama

"That’s the promise of tomorrow — that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it."

- 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

"No matter who you are or what you look like, how you started off, or how and who you love, America is a place where you can write your own destiny."

- Barack Obama

""Don't just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.""

- Barack Obama

""Cynicism has never won a war, or cured a disease, or started a business, or fed a young mind, or sent men into space. Cynicism is a choice. Hope is a better choice.""

- Barack Obama

"There are few things in life harder to find and more important to keep than love. Well, love and a birth certificate."

- 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

"That’s a great motto for all of us — find somebody to be successful for. Raise their hopes. Rise to their needs."

- Barack Obama

"It is you, the young and fearless at heart, the most diverse and educated generation in our history, who the nation is waiting to follow."

- Barack Obama

"Cynicism has never won a war, or cured a disease, or started a business, or fed a young mind, or sent men into space. Cynicism is a choice. Hope is a better choice."

- Barack Obama

"Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the 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."

- Barack Obama

"America’s nurses are the beating heart of our medical system."

- Barack Obama

"Reading is important. If you know how to read, then the whole world opens up to you."

- Barack Obama

"Young people recognize the big challenges that are coming up."

- Barack Obama

"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."

- Barack Obama

"If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."

- Barack Obama

"Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible."

- Barack Obama

"The cynics may be the loudest voices, but I promise you, they will accomplish the least."

- Barack Obama

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

- Barack Obama

"We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."

- Barack Obama

"The freedom which so many Americans have fought for and died for comes with responsibilities as well as rights. And among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism."

- Barack Obama

"If you were going to list the 100 most popular things that I have done as president, being married to Michelle Obama is number one."

- Barack Obama

"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."

- Barack Obama

"Our destiny is not written for us, it’s written by us."

- Barack Obama

"Whenever the world makes you cynical; whenever you seek true humility, and true selflessness — look to a veteran."

- Barack Obama

"Whenever the world makes you cynical, whenever you seek true humility and true selflessness, look to a veteran."

- Barack Obama

"The person you pass as you walk down the street might not be wearing our nation’s uniform today. But consider for a moment that a year or a decade or a generation ago, he or she might have been one of our fellow citizens who was willing to lay down their life for strangers like us."

- Barack Obama

"To anyone out there who’s hurting – it’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help. It’s a sign of strength."

- Barack Obama

"What is important is that we make sure to work together, that we understand our strength comes from unity and not division."

- Barack Obama

"The best education I received was working with people in the community on a grassroots basis. Because what it taught me was that ordinary people, when they are working together, can do extraordinary things."

- Barack Obama

"In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country, can change it."

- Barack Obama

"Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay."

- Barack Obama

"In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it."

- Barack Obama

"What makes you a man is not the ability to make a child, it’s the courage to raise one."

- 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

"The study of law can be disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative reality; a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power—and that all too often seeks to explain, to those who do not, the ultimate wisdom and justness of their condition. But that’s not all the law is. The law is also memory; the law also records a long-running conversation, a nation arguing with its conscience."

- Barack Obama

"Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new."

- Barack Obama

"Learn how to get stuff done."

- Barack Obama

"If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress."

- Barack Obama

"We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it."

- Barack Obama

"The future rewards those who press on."

- Barack Obama

"Nothing that’s worth anything is easy."

- Barack Obama

"I’m inspired by the love people have for their children. And I’m inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man."

- Barack Obama

"What makes you a man is not the ability to make a child; it’s the courage to raise one."

- Barack Obama

"The future rewards those who press on. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on."

- Barack Obama

""Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible.""

- Barack Obama

"“In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.”"

- Barack Obama

"“In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.”"

- Barack Obama

"“We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.”"

- Barack Obama

"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."

- Barack Obama

"Our destiny is not written for us, it’s written by us"

- Barack Obama

"For families across the country, today marks the beginning of a joyous time to reflect on the rich African-American culture and to remember the principles of unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith—principles that reflect our most cherished values as Americans."

- Barack Obama

"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."

- Barack Obama

"My mother taught me empathy — the basic concept of standing in somebody else’s shoes and looking through their eyes. If I did something messed up, she’d just say, ‘How would that make you feel if somebody did that to you?’"

- Barack Obama

"Above all, children need our unconditional love, whether they succeed or make mistakes; when life is easy and when life is tough."

- Barack Obama

"The future rewards those who press on. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on."

- Barack Obama

"The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on."

- 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

"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

"I’m inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man."

- Barack Obama

"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

"It9s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father."

- Barack Obama

"Don't just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table."

- Barack Obama

"A budget is more than just a series of numbers on a page. It is an embodiment of our values."

- Barack Obama

"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."

- Barack Obama

"Focus your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little life of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential."

- Barack Obama

"Reading is the gateway for children that makes all other learning possible."

- Barack Obama

"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"

- Barack Obama

"When all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free."

- Barack Obama

"Folks who were willing to endure bullying and taunts, and stayed strong, and came to believe in themselves and who they were, and slowly made an entire country realize that love is love."

- Barack Obama

"Every single American — gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender — every single American deserves to be treated equally in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of our society. It’s a pretty simple proposition."

- Barack Obama

"Our destiny is not written for us, it's written by us"

- 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

"To anyone out there who’s hurting — it’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help. It’s a sign of strength."

- Barack Obama

"Yes, we can!"

- Barack Obama

"It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father."

- Barack Obama

"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."

- Barack Obama

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

- Barack Obama

"All those adults that you used to think were in charge and knew what they were doing? It turns out they don’t have all the answers. A lot of them aren’t even asking the right questions. So, if the world’s going to get better, it’s going to be up to you."

- Barack Obama

"I don’t think pot is more dangerous than alcohol."

- Barack Obama

"When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently. That was the point."

- Barack Obama

"I don’t think [pot] is more dangerous than alcohol."

- Barack Obama

"I think what you're seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they've got to be treated like every other American. And I think that principle will win out."

- 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

"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."

- Barack Obama

"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."

- Barack Obama

"Either you seize what may turn out to be the only chance you have, or you decide you’re willing to live with the knowledge that the chance has passed you by."

- Barack Obama

"The truth is, I’ve never been a big believer in destiny. I worry that it encourages resignation in the down-and-out and complacency among the powerful."

- Barack Obama

"I came to love the men and women I worked with: the single mom living on a ravaged block who somehow got all four children through college; the Irish priest who threw open the church doors every evening so that kids had an option other than gangs; the laid-off steelworker who went back to school to become a social worker. Their stories of hardship and their modest victories confirmed for me again and again the basic decency of people... Through them, I resolved the lingering questions of my racial identity. For it turned out there was no single way to be Black; just trying to be a good man was enough."

- Barack Obama

"It’s important for us to also understand that the phrase 'Black Lives Matter' simply refers to the notion that there’s a specific vulnerability for African Americans that needs to be addressed. It’s not meant to suggest that other lives don’t matter. It’s to suggest that other folks aren’t experiencing this particular vulnerability."

- Barack Obama

"Do we care to match the reality of America to its ideals?"

- Barack Obama

""If you were going to list the 100 most popular things that I have done as president, being married to Michelle Obama is number one.""

- Barack Obama

"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."

- Barack Obama

"Change is never easy, but always possible."

- Barack Obama

"My mother was the one constant thing in my life. When I think about my mom raising me alone when she was 20, and working and paying the bills, and, you know, trying to pursue your own dreams, I think is a feat that is unmatched."

- Barack Obama

"Each of us deserves the freedom to pursue our own version of happiness. No one deserves to be bullied."

- Barack Obama

"Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay. But we can honor their sacrifice, and we must."

- Barack Obama

"Our Constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift. But it’s really just a piece of parchment. It has no power on its own. We, the people, give it power. We, the people, give it meaning—with our participation, and with the choices that we make and the alliances that we forge."

- Barack Obama

"We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent."

- Barack Obama

"Don't let anyone tell you what you can't do. Follow your dreams and persist."

- Barack Obama

""America’s nurses are the beating heart of our medical system.""

- Barack Obama

"At the dawn of the 21st century, where knowledge is literally power, where it unlocks the gates of opportunity and success, we all have responsibilities as parents, as librarians, as educators, as politicians, and as citizens to instill in our children a love of reading so that we can give them a chance to fulfill their dreams."

- Barack Obama

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

- Barack Obama

"And so the world watches America—the only great power in history made up of people from every corner of the planet, comprising every race and faith and cultural practice—to see if our experiment in democracy can work. To see if we can do what no other nation has ever done. To see if we can actually live up to the meaning of our creed."

- Barack Obama

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

- Barack Obama

"Hope is the thing inside us that insists, despite all the 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."

- Barack Obama

"We did it, Joe."

- Barack Obama

"Don’t just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table."

- Barack Obama

"I think back to the day I drove Michelle and a newborn Malia home from the hospital nearly 13 years ago-crawling along, miles under the speed limit, feeling the weight of my daughter’s future resting in my hands. I think about the pledge I made to her that day: that I would give her what I never had-that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father. I knew that day that my own life wouldn’t count for much unless she had every opportunity in hers."

- Barack Obama

"We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges."

- Barack Obama

"Juneteenth has never been a celebration of victory or an acceptance of the way things are. It’s a celebration of progress. It’s an affirmation that despite the most painful parts of our history, change is possible—and there is still so much work to do."

- Barack Obama

"Where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can."

- Barack Obama

"Juneteenth has never been a celebration of victory or an acceptance of the way things are. It's a celebration of progress. It's an affirmation that despite the most painful parts of our history, change is possible—and there is still so much work to do."

- 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

""A budget is more than just a series of numbers on a page; it is an embodiment of our values.""

- Barack Obama

"It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father."

- Barack Obama