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I Found During The Course Of My Political Career On The National Scene There's A Point Where The Vanity Burns Away And You've Had Your Fill Of Your Name In The Papers, Or Big Adoring Crowds, Or The Exercise Of Power. And For Me That Happened Fairly Quickly. And Then You Are Really Focused On: What Am I Going To Get Done With This Strange Privilege That's Been Granted To Me? How Do I Make Myself Worthy Of It?

-Barack Obama

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I Found During The

Barack Obama

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I Found During The Course Of My Political Career On The National Scene There's A Point Where The Vanity Burns Away And You've Had Your Fill Of Your Name In The Papers, Or Big Adoring Crowds, Or The Exercise Of Power. And For Me That Happened Fairly Quickly. And Then You Are Really Focused On: What Am I Going To Get Done With This Strange Privilege That's Been Granted To Me? How Do I Make Myself Worthy Of It?

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Reading Makes All Other Learning Possible. We Have To Get Books Into Our Children's Hands Early And Often.

We All Know A Lot Of People Who Died In 9/11, The World Trade Center. A Lot Of Money Funding That Mission Is Directly Tied - From The 9/11 Commission, Directly Tied To Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas.

Did I Recognize That There Was Anger Or Frustration In The American Population? Of Course I Did. First Of All, We Had To Fight Back From The Worst Recession Since The Great Depression, And I Can Guarantee You If Your Housing Values Have Crashed And You've Lost Most Of Your Pension And You've Lost Your Job, You're Going To Be Pretty Angry.

There May Be No Greater Tribute To Steve Jobs' Success Than The Fact That Much Of The World Learned Of His Passing On A Device He Invented.

I'm Not Denouncing The Church, And I'm Not Interested In People Who Want Me To Denounce The Church. It's Not A Church Worthy Of Denouncing.

We're Still Fighting To Make Sure That Basic Anti-discrimination Laws Are Enforced, Not Just At The Federal Level, By The Way, But Throughout Government And Throughout The Private Sector? And Those Are Fights That We Can Win Because - And This Is Where I Do Believe America Has Changed - The Majority, Not By Any Means 100 Percent, But The Majority Of Americans Believe In The Idea Of Nondiscrimination.

Islam Has Always Been A Part Of America’s Story.... And Since Our Founding, American Muslims Have Enriched The United States.

My Job Is Not To Represent Washington To You, But To Represent You To Washington.

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.

Winter Came And The City [chicago] Turned Monochrome -- Black Trees Against Gray Sky Above White Earth. Night Now Fell In Midafternoon, Especially When The Snowstorms Rolled In, Boundless Prairie Storms That Set The Sky Close To The Ground, The City Lights Reflected Against The Clouds

I Want To Reduce America's Deficit By Cutting Spending That We Don't Need But Also By Asking The Wealthy To Do A Little Bit More So That We Can Invest In Things Like Research And Technology That Are The Key To A 21st Century Economy.

I Feel Good When I'm Engaged In What I Think Are The Core Issues Of The Society, And Those Core Issues To Me Are What's Happening To Poor Folks In This Society.

99.9% Of Plumbers Make Less Than A Quarter Million Dollars A Year, And I'm Going To Give Joe A Break Whether He Wants It Or Not.

So Just To Be Clear, I'm Not Going To Sign Any Package That Somehow Prevents The Top Rate From Going Up For Folks At The Top 2 Percent.

That's The True Genius Of America: That America Can Change. Our Union Can Be Perfected. What We've Already Achieved Gives Us Hope For What We Can And Must Achieve Tomorrow.

I Learned To Slip Back And Forth Between My Black And White Worlds. One Of Those Tricks I Had Learned: People Were Satisfied So Long As You Were Courteous And Smiled And Made No Sudden Moves. They Were More Than Satisfied; They Were Relieved -- Such A Pleasant Surprise To Find A Well-mannered Young Black Man Who Didn't Seem Angry All The Time.

Black And White

Transparency And The Rule Of Law Will Be The Touchstones Of This Presidency.

The Genius Of Our Founders Is That They Designed A System Of Government That Can Be Changed. And We Should Take Heart, Because We’ve Changed This Country Before.

I Remember When I Was In Chicago And Data Started Coming Out That When Black Folks Walk Into An Auto Dealership, And Women, Too, To Some Degree, They Are Automatically Given Higher Quotes, Worse Deals. And This Was Just Documented Extensively Across Auto Dealerships Around The Country. There Was A Tax Being Imposed On Black Folks. By Collecting That Data, You Can Construct Policies To Combat That.

My Administration Will Be The Most Transparent In History

All Americans Should Be Deeply Troubled By The Fatal Shootings Of Alton Sterling In Baton Rouge, Louisiana And Philando Castile In Falcon Heights, Minnesota. We've Seen Such Tragedies Far Too Many Times, And Our Hearts Go Out To The Families And Communities Who've Suffered Such A Painful Loss.

I Think That [donald Trump] Clearly Was Able To Tap Into A Lot Of Grievances. And He Has A Talent For Making A Connection With His Supporters That Overrode Some Of The Traditional Benchmarks Of How You'd Run A Campaign Or Conduct Yourself As A Presidential Candidate. What Will Be Interesting To See Is How That Plays Out During The Course Of His Presidency.

I Don't Think I Underestimated [vladimir Putin], But I Think That I Underestimated The Degree To Which, In This New Information Age, It Is Possible For Misinformation For Cyber Hacking And So Forth To Have An Impact On Our Open Societies, Our Open Systems, To Insinuate Themselves Into Our Democratic Practices In Ways That I Think Are Accelerating.

Jerusalem Will Remain The Capital Of Israel, And It Must Remain Undivided.

It Is That Promise That Has Always Set This Country Apart-that Through Hard Work And Sacrifice, Each Of Us Can Pursue Our Individual Dreams But Still Come Together As One American Family, To Ensure That The Next Generation Can Pursue Their Dreams As Well.

This Visit [to Singapore] Is An Occasion To Mark The 50th Anniversary Our Bilateral Relationship With Singapore, Which Is One Of Our Strongest And Most Reliable Partners In South-east Asia.

50th Anniversary

We Believed We Could Prepare Our Kids For A More Competitive World. And Today, Our Younger Students Have Earned The Highest Math And Reading Scores On Record. Our High School Graduation Rate Has Hit An All-time High. And More Americans Finish College Than Ever Before.

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.

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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.

The United States Was Founded On The Idea That All People Are Endowed With Inalienable Rights, And That Principle Has Allowed Us To Work To Perfect Our Union At Home While Standing As A Beacon Of Hope To The World. Today, That Principle Is Embodied In Agreements Americans Helped Forge - The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, The Geneva Conventions, And Treaties Against Torture And Genocide - And It Unites Us With People From Every Country And Culture.

It Is My Firm Belief That It Will Be In The Interests Of The United States, Especially Our Economic Interests, To Pursue Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

We Lose Ourselves When We Compromise The Very Ideals That We Fight To Defend. And We Honor Those Ideals By Upholding Them Not When It's Easy, But When It Is Hard.

The Greek People Have Gone Through Some Very Difficult Times And There's Still A Hard Road Ahead, But Despite Those Hardships, Greece Has Continued To Be A Reliable Ally, Has Shown True Compassion To Fellow Human Beings In Need. It's An Example Of The Greek Character.

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Right Now I Would Rank Norway As The Largest Country In The World, I Have Never Seen Anything Like It

That Is Why We Fight - In Hopes Of A Day When We No Longer Need To.

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Donald Trump Seems To Do A Good Job Mentioning His Own Name.

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A Change Is Brought About Because Ordinary People Do Extraordinary Things.

Which Passages Of Scripture Should Guide Our Public Policy? Should We Go With Leviticus, Which Suggests Slavery Is Ok And That Eating Shellfish Is An Abomination? Or We Could Go With Deuteronomy, Which Suggests Stoning Your Child If He Strays From The Faith?

But Shouldn't We Also Quit Marketing Murder As A Game?

You Don't 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 Don't Break It. Don't Break What Our Predecessors Spent Over Two Centuries Building. That's Not Being Faithful To What This Country's About.

If We're Going To Prevent Large Parts Of This Earth From Becoming Not Only Inhospitable But Uninhabitable In Our Lifetimes, We're Going To Have To Keep Some Fossil Fuels In The Ground Rather Than Burn Them And Release More Dangerous Pollution Into The Sky.

For The Sake Of Our Children And Our Future, We Must Do More To Combat Climate Change.

Is This Money Well Spent? This Is Taxpayer Money, It Is Going To Be Adding To The Deficit Short Term And If We Can't Justify It, Then We're Not Going To Spend Tens Or Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars, Just To Make Somebody Happy, If It's Not Good For The Economy.

I Kept Finding The Same Anguish, The Same Doubt; A Self-contempt That Neither Irony Nor Intellect Seemed Able To Deflect. Even Dubois’s Learning And Baldwin’s Love And Langston’s Humor Eventually Succumbed To Its Corrosive Force, Each Man Finally Forced To Doubt Art’s Redemptive Power, Each Man Finally Forced To Withdraw, One To Africa, One To Europe, One Deeper Into The Bowels Of Harlem, But All Of Them In The Same Weary Flight, All Of Them Exhausted, Bitter Men, The Devil At Their Heels.

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Affordable Care Act

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Family And Friends

I Think Part Of The Reason That I Have Been Successful, Though, Despite Maybe Not Always Fitting My Message Into The Pre-packaged Formulas, Is There Is This Whole Other Media Ecology Out There Of The Internet And Instagram And Memes And Talk Shows And Comedy, And I'm Pretty Good At That.

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My Strong Preference Has Always Been To Legislate When I Can Get Legislation Done.

I'm A Christian By Choice.

It Is Very Rare I Come To An Event Where I’m Like The Fifth Or Sixth Most Interesting Person.

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There Is Enormous Continuity Beneath The Day-to-day News That Makes America That Indispensable Nation When It Comes To Maintaining Order And Promoting Prosperity Around The World.

I Began Feeling The Way I Imagine An Actor Or Athlete Must Feel When, After Years Of Commitment To A Particular Dream...he Realizes That He's Gone Just About As Far As Talent Or Fortune Will Take Him. The Dream Will Not Happen, And He Now Faces The Choice Of Accepting This Fact Like A Grownup And Moving On To More Sensible Pursuits, Or Refusing The Truth And Ending Up Bitter, Quarrelsome, And Slightly Pathetic.

We Had To Get Out Of Chicago So Quick. Election Night Happens, Suddenly I'm Talking To Ben Bernanke And Hank Paulson And Trying To Figure Out Whether The World's Going To Fly Apart, And Michelle Is Trying To Figure Out Where The Girls Are Going To Go To School. And We Pack Up And Leave And Basically Our House In Chicago Just Became Like A Time Capsule. My Desk In My Home Office Still Had Stacks Of Articles And Bills And Stuff From 2008.

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The Fact Is That I'm Also Friendly With Tom Coburn, One Of The Most Conservative Republicans In The United States Senate, Who, During His Campaign, Once Said That It Might Be Appropriate To Apply The Death Penalty To Those Who Carried Out Abortions.

Health Care Got Done Because There Were A Lot Of People Out There Who Aren't Professional Politicians, But Are Citizens, Who Pushed For It Even When The Politics Was Hard.

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It Is This World, A World Where Cruise Ships Throw Away More Food In A Day Than Most Residents Of Port-au-prince See In A Year, Where White Folks' Greed Runs A World In Need, Apartheid In One Hemisphere, Apathy In Another Hemisphere...that's The World! On Which Hope Sits!

Our Enemies Are Fully Aware That They Can Use Oil As A Weapon Against America. And If We Don't Take This Threat As Seriously As The Bombs They Build Or The Guns They Buy, We Will Be Fighting The War On Terror With One Hand Tied Behind Our Back.

In The End, No Amount Of American Forces Can Solve The Political Differences That Lie At The Heart Of Somebody Else's Civil War.

All I Want To Do, If You've Already Got Health Care, Is Lower Your Costs.

We Know That Isil And Other Terrorist Groups Are Actively Encouraging People, Around The World And In Our Country, To Commit Terrible Acts Of Violence, Oftentimes As Lone-wolf Actors.

Terrorist Groups

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We're Not Going To Baby Sit A Civil War.

No Other Country In The World Does What We Do. On Every Issue, The World Turns To Us, Not Simply Because Of The Size Of Our Economy Or Our Military Might - But Because Of The Ideals We Stand For, And The Burdens We Bear To Advance Them.

The President And The Executive Branch Are Always Going To Have Greater Latitude And Greater Authority When It Comes To Protecting America Because Sometimes You Just Have To Respond Quickly And Not Everything That Is A Danger Can Be Publicized And Be Subject To Open Debate, But There Have To Be Some Guardrails.

We May Disagree About Gay Marriage, But Surely We Can Agree That It Is Unconscionable To Target Gays And Lesbians For Who They Are - Whether It's Here In The United States Or, As Hillary (clinton) Mentioned, More Extremely In Odious Laws That Are Being Proposed Most Recently In Uganda.

I'm Kind Of A Night Owl.

And As Husbands And Fathers And Brothers, We Have To Step Up - Because Every Girl’s Life Matters. Every Daughter Deserves The Same Chance As Our Sons. Every Woman Should Be Able To Go About Her Day - To Walk The Streets Or Ride The Bus - And Be Safe, And Be Treated With Respect And Dignity. She Deserves That.

No U.s. Soldier Ever Dies In Vain Because They're Carrying Out The Missions Of Their Commander In Chief. And We Honor All The Service That They've Provided. Our Troops Have Performed Brilliantly. The Question Is For The Next President, Are We Making Good Judgments About How To Keep America Safe Precisely Because Sending Our Military Into Battle Is Such An Enormous Step.

We've Endured Too Many Tragedies. And Each Time I Learn The News I React Not As A President, But As Anybody Else Would - As A Parent.

If I Did Not Love America, I Wouldn't Have Moved Here From Kenya.

I Have Much More Confidence In My Ability, Or Any President Or Any Leader's Ability, To Mobilize The American People Around A Multiyear, Multibillion-dollar Investment To Help Every Child In Poverty In This Country Than I Am In Being Able To Mobilize The Country Around Providing A Benefit Specific To African Americans As A Consequence Of Slavery And Jim Crow.

If You're Looking For The Safe Choice, You Shouldn't Be Supporting A Black Guy Named Barack Obama To Be The Next Leader Of The Free World.

In The Wake Of 9/11, My Meetings With Arab And Pakistani Americans, For Example, Have A More Urgent Quality, For The Stories Of Detentions And Fbi Questioning And Hard Stares From Neighbors Have Shaken Their Sense Of Security And Belonging. They Have Been Reminded That The History Of Immigration In This Country Has A Dark Underbelly; They Need Specific Reassurances That Their Citizenship Really Means Something, That America Has Learned The Right Lessons From The Japanese Internments During World War Ii, And That I Will Stand With Them Should The Political Winds Shift In An Ugly Direction.

National Legislation Will Prevent Other States' Flawed Concealed-weapons Laws From Threatening The Safety Of Illinois Residents.

It's Important To Make Sure That Governments Have Some Checks On What They Do, That People Can Oversee What's Being Done So The Government Doesn't Abuse It.

I Insist On The Dignity And God- Given Potential And Work Of Every Child, Regardless Of Race Or Gender Or Sexual Orientation Or What Zip Code They Were Born In.

If You Were President 50 Years Ago, The Tragedy In Syria Might Not Even Penetrate What The American People Were Thinking About On A Day To Day Basis. Today, They're Seeing Vivid Images Of A Child In The Aftermath Of A Bombing.

That We Are In The Midst Of Crisis Is Now Well Understood. Our Nation Is At War, Against A Far-reaching Network Of Violence And Hatred. Our Economy Is Badly Weakened, A Consequence Of Greed And Irresponsibility On The Part Of Some, But Also Our Collective Failure To Make Hard Choices And Prepare The Nation For A New Age. Homes Have Been Lost; Jobs Shed; Businesses Shuttered. Our Health Care Is Too Costly; Our Schools Fail Too Many; And Each Day Brings Further Evidence That The Ways We Use Energy Strengthen Our Adversaries And Threaten Our Planet.

I've Always Viewed The Paris Agreement As A Starting Point. If You Look At All The Commitments That Have Been Made By All The Countries, It's Still Not Sufficient To Deal With The Very Dangerous Situation We Face. What It Has Done Is That It Created An Architecture Whereby As Technology Improves, As We Find New Clean Sources Of Energy, As We Make Our Economies More Efficient, Then Gradually We Can Turn Up The Dial And Improve The Outcomes Of Paris.

I Believe When Women Succeed America Succeeds!

The American People Are A Non-ideological People. They Very Much Are Looking For Common-sense, Practical Solutions To The Problems That They Face. Oftentimes They've Got Contradictory Senses Of Various Issues And Policy Positions And I Don't Think That Either The Republican Party Or The Democratic Party Necessarily Capture Their Deepest Dreams When Those Parties Are Described In Caricature Or In Policy Terms.

...as Parents, We Have To Find The Time And The Energy To Step In And Help Our Children Love Reading. We Can Read To Them, Talk To Them About What They're Reading, And Make Time For This By Turning Off The Television Set Ourselves. Libraries Are A Critical Tool To Help Parents Do This.

Angela Merkel Has Been An Extraordinary Partner For Me And For The United States Throughout My Presidency.

I Think The American People, You Know, They're Going To Want That New Car Smell. They Want To Drive Something Off The Lot That Doesn't Have As Much Mileage As Me.

I Am Not Opposed To All Wars. I'm Opposed To Dumb Wars.

Think About It: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - These Countries Are Tiny Compared To The Soviet Union. They Don't Pose A Serious Threat To Us The Way The Soviet Union Posed A Threat To Us.

What I've Said To [my Team] Is, "look, We Ran Our Leg Of The Race And We Did A Darn Good Job."

Even When Our Heart Aches, We Summon The Strength That Maybe We Didn't Even Know We Had, And We Carry On; We Finish The Race.

But The Basic Principle That We’re Going To Have To See Some Of This Debt Written Down, That The Government Is Going To Have To Support Some Banks, That Others That Are Not Viable, Essentially That We’re Going To Have To Do Something With Those Assets.

Some May Still Deny The Overwhelming Judgment Of Science.

We Need To Teach Our Kids That It's Not Just The Winner Of The Super Bowl Who Deserves To Be Celebrated, But The Winner Of The Science Fair.

Ultimately, If You Think About All The Youth That Everybody Has Mentioned Here In Africa, If Everybody Is Raising Living Standards To The Point Where Everybody Has Got A Car And Everybody Has Got Air Conditioning, And Everybody Has Got A Big House, Well, The Planet Will Boil Over - Unless We Find New Ways Of Producing Energy.

We Need To Eradicate The Slander That Says A Black Youth With A Book Is Acting White.

We As A Country Have To Do Some Soul-searching.

The Easiest Way To Get 15 Minutes Of Fame Is To Be Rude To Somebody.

I Absolutely Think That When We Talk About Family, Faith, Community, I Think It's Important For Democrats To Be Able To Connect With Folks Where They Live.

Black Churches Minister To Social Needs Out Of Necessity.

I Don't Know What The Word Is In Austrian.

If You Don't Have Any Fresh Ideas, Then You Use Stale Tactics To Scare The Voters. If You Don't Have A Record To Run On, Then You Paint Your Opponent As Someone People Should Run From. You Make A Big Election About Small Things.

I Want To Thank The Greek People Publicly For Their Humanitarian Response To The Crisis Of So Many Migrants And Refugees Seeking Safety In Europe. Greeks, Especially On The Islands, Have Shown Extraordinary Compassion And They've Rightly Earned The Admiration Of The World.

For The World Has Changed, And We Must Change With It

In Europe, Where The Terrorist Threat Is Probably Greatest At The Moment, The Amount Of Information-sharing That's Been Taking Place, The Effectiveness Of Law Enforcement Across Borders Gives Us The Ability To Protect Ourselves While Still Being True To The Basic Precepts Of Our Liberal Democracies. I Hope That That Continues, And It Is Something That I Think We Should Be Worried About.

Obviously I'm Grayer, A Few More Wrinkles. One Of The Things I'm Proud About Is That I Think My Basic Character And Outlook Actually Have Not Changed Much. And People Who Are Closest To Me Will Tell You That The Guy Who Came Here Is The Same Guy Who's Leaving.

The Problem Is, That We've Got A Position, Often Times By The Nra That Says Any Regulation Whatsoever Is The Camel's Nose Under The Tent. And That, I Think, Is Not Where The American People Are At.

Now, I Swore An Oath To Uphold The Laws On The Books... Now, I Know Some People Want Me To Bypass Congress And Change The Laws On My Own... Believe Me, The Idea Of Doing Things On My Own Is Very Tempting. I Promise You. Not Just On Immigration Reform. But That's Not How - That's Not How Our System Works. That's Not How Our Democracy Functions. Thats Not How Our Constitution Is Written.

I Know The American People. I've Met A Lot Of Them. I've Met A Lot More Of Them Than Any Columnist Has, Or Any Talking Head On Tv Has. And They're Pretty Sophisticated.

If War Explodes In Sudan, It Could Have A Destabilizing Effect That Creates More Space For Terrorist Activity That Could Eventually Be Directed At Our Homeland.

We've Got To Identify New Strategies To Use Cleaner Energy, Because That Is A Recipe For Reducing The Overall Amount Of Pollution That's Out There.

I Wanna Thank The German People For The Incredible Partnership That Our Countries Have Been Able To Establish All These Years.

It Was A Creed Written Into The Founding Documents That Declared The Destiny Of A Nation. Yes We Can. It Was Whispered By Slaves And Abolitionists As They Blazed A Trail Towards Freedom Through The Darkest Of Nights. Yes We Can. It Was Sung By Immigrants As They Struck Out From Distant Shores And Pioneers Who Pushed Westward Against An Unforgiving Wilderness. Yes We Can.

No Job In America Should Go Unfilled Because Somebody Doesn't Have The Right Skills To Get That Job, Nobody. So, If There's A Job Open, We Should Train Those Folks Right Away So That They Can Do The Job.

On The Other Hand, It Is Also Undeniable That The Palestinian People - Muslims And Christians - Have Suffered In Pursuit Of A Homeland.

We Are Not At War With Islam. We Are At War With People Who Have Perverted Islam.

We Shouldn’t Have A Bunch Of Politicians, A Majority Of Whom Are Men, Making Health Care Decisions On Behalf Of Women.

...started By Missionaries In 1841, Punahou Academy Had Grown Into A Prestigious Prep School, An Incubator For Island Elites...it Hadn't Been Easy To Get Me In, My Grandparents Told Her (my Mother); There Was A Long Waiting List, And I Was Considered Only Because Of The Intervention Of Gramps' Boss, Who Was An Alumnus (my First Experience With Affirmative Action, It Seems, Had Little To Do With Race).

In Our Democracy And Our Civic Discourse, It Seems As If Folks Who Take Religion The Most Seriously Are Sometimes Also Those Who Are Suspicious Of Those Not Like Them.

I Have Always Had Extraordinarily Good Relations With Very Conservative Colleagues. And That's Not Because I Agree With Any Of Them Or Fudge On My Positions, But People Feel I Listen To Them And Give Them The Benefit Of The Doubt. I Assume The Best Of People. And That, I Think, Is An Attitude That Is Maybe Rare In Politics.

I'm Not The Strapping Young Muslim Socialist That I Used To Be.

Religious Freedom Doesn't Mean You Can Force Others To Live By Your Own Beliefs

I Actually Believe In Redistribution (of Wealth)

Redistribution Of Wealth

It's The Job, I Think, Of Leaders To Try To Address Peoples' Real Legitimate Concerns And Channel Them In The Most Constructive Ways Possible.

I Am Sorry That They Are Finding Themselves In This Situation Based On Assurances They Got From Me.

Since Taking Office, I've Made It Clear That The United States Was Prepared To Begin A New Chapter Of Engagement With The Islamic Republic Of Iran. We Offered The Iranian Government A Clear Choice. It Could Fulfill Its International Obligations And Realize Greater Security, Deeper Economic And Political Integration With The World, And A Better Future For All Iranians. Or It Could Continue To Flout Its Responsibilities And Face Even More Pressure And Isolation.

The Way We Have To Measure Progress Is Not, "is There Ever Going To Be An Incident Of Racism In The Country?" It's, "how Does The Majority Of Our Country Respond?"

I've Said Repeatedly That Where We See Terrorist Organizations Like Al-qaeda Or Isil, They Have Perverted And Distorted And Tried To Claim The Mantle Of Islam For An Excuse, For Basically Barbarism And Death. These Are People Who Kill Children, Kill Muslims, Take Sex Slaves - There's No Religious Rationale That Would Justify In Any Way Any Of The Things That They Do.

This Self-reflection, This Willingness To Examine Ourselves, To Make Corrections, To Do Better, That's Part Of What Makes Us Americans. It's Part Of What Sets Us Apart From Other Nations, The United States Is The Most Professional, Most Capable, Most Cutting-edge Intelligence Community In The World.

In An Age Where There's So Much Active Misinformation And Its Packaged Very Well And It Looks The Same When You See It On A Facebook Page Or You Turn On Your Television. Where Some Overzealousness On The Part Of, You Know, A U.s. Official Is Equated With Constant And Severe Repression Elsewhere.

I Am Willing To Work With Anybody Who Wants To Have A Serious Conversation About Our Fiscal Future. We're Not Going To Do This Under The Threat Of Blowing Up The Entire Economy. I Will Not Negotiate Over Congress' Responsibility To Pay The Bills That Have Already Been Racked Up. I Don't Know How I Can Be More Clear About This.

Islam Is Not Part Of The Problem In Combating Violent Extremism - It Is An Important Part Of Promoting Peace.

We've Now Got A Group Of Young People In This Country Who For All Practical Purposes Are American. They Grew Up Here. They've Gone To School Here. They Don't Know Anything Other Than Being American Kids. But Their Parents May Have Brought Them Here Without All The Proper Paperwork - Might Have Brought Them Here When They Were Three, Might Have Brought Them Here When They Were Five. And So, Lo And Behold, By The Time They Finish School, And They're Ready To Go To College, They Find Out They Can't Go To College And, In Fact, Their Status As Americans Are Threatened.

There's No Doubt That Probably At Least Once A Week, Maybe Once A Day, I Said, "ah, I Should Have Done That Better."

I Hope We Can All Agree That, Instead Of Continuing To Subsidize Yesterday's Energy Sources. We Need To Invest In Tomorrow's.

[two Of The Most Unpopular Presidential Candidates Selected By The Two Parties In History] Indicates That There Is A Lot Of Cynicism Out There. It Indicates That The Corrosive Nature Of Everything From Talk Radio To Fake News To Negative Advertising Has Made People Lack Confidence In A Lot Of Our Existing Institutions.

As The Wealthiest Nation On Earth, I Believe The United States Has A Moral Obligation To Lead The Fight Against Hunger And Malnutrition, And To Partner With Others.

Hunger And Poverty

I Can't Really Characterize Any Country, Except To Say That We Work Well With A Number Of Our Foreign Counterparts.

I Would Have To Investigate More Of Bill's Dancing Abilities, You Know, And Some Of This Other Stuff Before I Accurately Judge Whether He Was In Fact A Brother.

In Order For Us To Solve Many Big Problems Around The World, It Is In Our Interest To Work With Russia And Obtain Their Cooperation.

Around The World

Reading Is The Gateway Skill That Makes All Other Learning Possible

People Don't Expect Government To Solve All Their Problems. But They Sense, Deep In Their Bones, That With Just A Slight Change In Priorities, We Can Make Sure That Every Child In America Has A Decent Shot At Life, And That The Doors Of Opportunity Remain Open To All. They Know We Can Do Better.

I Found During The Course Of My Political Career On The National Scene There's A Point Where The Vanity Burns Away And You've Had Your Fill Of Your Name In The Papers, Or Big Adoring Crowds, Or The Exercise Of Power. And For Me That Happened Fairly Quickly. And Then You Are Really Focused On: What Am I Going To Get Done With This Strange Privilege That's Been Granted To Me? How Do I Make Myself Worthy Of It?

For Everywhere We Look, There Is Work To Be Done. The State Of Our Economy Calls For Action: Bold And Swift. And We Will Act Not Only To Create New Jobs But To Lay A New Foundation For Growth. We Will Build The Roads And Bridges, The Electric Grids And Digital Lines That Feed Our Commerce And Bind Us Together. We Will Restore Science To Its Rightful Place And Wield Technology's Wonders To Raise Health Care's Quality And Lower Its Costs.

One Of The Brightest Lights Of Our Time-a Brilliant Writer, A Fierce Friend, And A Truly Phenomenal Woman.

Our Friends At The Republican Convention Were More Than Happy To Talk About Everything They Think Is Wrong With America, But They Didn't Have Much To Say About How They'd Make It Right. They Want Your Vote, But They Don't Want You To Know Their Plan.

My Bible Tells Me That If We Train A Child In The Way He Should Go, When He Is Old He Will Not Turn From It. I Think Faith And Guidance Can Help Fortify A Young Woman's Sense Of Self, A Young Man's Sense Of Responsibility, And A Sense Of Reverence All Young People For The Act Of Sexual Intimacy.

Become A Teacher. Your Country Needs You.

We All Want The Greek People To Prosper, To Be Able To Provide A Good Life For Their Families And Their Children. That Would Be Good For Greece, That Would Be Good For The European Union, Good For The United States, And Ultimately, Good For The World.

The Quicker You Resolve The Problems With Banks And There's Transparency In That Process, The Faster They Recapitalize And Are Able To Make Investments.

There Is A Little Bit Of That Schoolyard Attitude Of, It's One Thing For A Guy Your Own Size To Mouth Off To You, But If There's A Little Guy, You Should Just Smack Him Around. And It's Probably Bad Advice In The Schoolyard. It's Certainly Not A Good Way To Run A Foreign Policy Because Even When You Are Dealing With A Non-peer, Militarily, War Is Complicated.

I Think My Most Important Advice Is To Understand What Are The Foundations Of A Healthy Democracy And How We Have To Engage In Citizenship Continuously, Not Just When Something Upsets Us; Not Just When There's An Election Or When An Issue Pops Up For A Few Weeks. It's Hard Work.

I Wouldn't Advise [people] To Be Silent.

Before I Even Came Into Office, I Said That Preventing Iran From Getting A Nuclear Weapon Was A Priority.

Some Banks Won’t Make It. Other Banks Are Going To Make Sure That We Strengthen. All Deposits Are Going To Be Safe For Ordinary People, But We’re Going To Have To Bring Out Some Of These Bad Assets.

If All It Took Was Someone Proclaiming I Believe Jesus Christ And That He Died For My Sins, And That Was All There Was To It, People Wouldn't Have To Keep Coming To Church, Would They.

One Of The Thing About Being President - That Can't Be Taught, You Have To Experience, Is - There Is The Sheer Weight Of Decision Making. And When I Make A Decision To Send 17,000 Young Americans To Afghanistan - You Can Understand That Intellectually. But Understanding What That Means For Those Families, For Those Young People - When You End Up Sitting At Your Desk, Signing - A Condolence Letter To One Of The Family Members Of A Fallen Hero - You're Reminded Each And Every Day, At Every Moment, That - The Decisions You Make Count.

The Worst Thing That Colonialism Did Was To Cloud Our View Of Our Past.

Unless You're One Of The First Americans, A Native American, You Came From Someplace Else. Somebody Brought You.

Native American

People Are Less Certain Of Their National Identities Or Their Place In The World. It Starts Looking Different And Disorienting. And There Is No Doubt That That Has Produced Populist Movements Both From The Left And From The Right In Many Countries In Europe.

I'm About To Embark On What May Be As Important As An Initiative As Anything I Do As President, Trying To Nudge The World In The Direction Of Doing Something Serious About Climate Change.

Historically - When You Look At How America Has Evolved, Typically We Make Progress On Race Relations In Fits And Starts. We Make Some Progress, And Then There's Maybe Some Slippage.

That's Silly Talk... Talk To My Wife. She'll Tell Me I Need To Learn To Just Put My Socks On The Hamper.

Our Alliance With Our Nato Partners Has Been A Cornerstone Of U.s. Foreign Policy For Nearly 70 Years, In Good Times And In Bad And Through Presidents Of Both Parties Because The United States Has A Fundamental Interest In Europe's Stability And Security.

I Want To Make Sure That We, As A Nation, Stay Unified Because That's How We're Going To Achieve Our Missions.

We Seem To Have Trouble With [critical Thinking]. And Our Political System Doesn't Help.

In A Global Economy Where The Most Valuable Skill You Can Sell Is Your Knowledge, A Good Education Is No Longer Just A Pathway To Opportunity - It Is A Prerequisite.

In America, There's A Failure To Appreciate Europe's Leading Role In The World.

I Will Support Iraqis And Syrians Fighting To Reclaim Their Communities.

What We've Said To The Girls Is: 'if You Guys Ever Decide That You're Going To Get A Tattoo, Then Mommy And Me Will Get The Exact Same Tattoo, In The Same Place.' And We'll Go On Youtube And Show It Off As A Family Tattoo.

We're Going To Achieve Our Goal. We Are Going To Degrade And Ultimately Defeat Isil.

I'm A Strong Believer In Strong Encryption.

The American People Recognize That Their Careers Or Their Kids' Careers Are Going To Have To Be More Dynamic. That They Might Not Be Working At A Single Plant For 30 Years. That They Might Have To Change Careers. They Might Have To Get More Education. They Might Have To Retool Or Retrain. And I Think The American People Are Game For That.

When Any Kind Of Military Action Is Popular It's Because Either There's Been A Very Clear, Direct Threat To Us - 9/11 - Or An Administration Uses Various Hooks To Suggest That American Interests Were Directly Threatened - Like In Panama Or Grenada. And Sometimes, Those Hooks Are More Persuasive Than Others, But Typically, They're Not Put Before Congress.

[the Generation Engaged, Inspired, Worked For Change] That Generation, It's Coming. They're Not The Majority Yet But They're Gonna Be The Majority Soon.

Americans Have Always Pursued Our Dreams Within A Free Market That Has Been The Engine Of Our Progress. It's A Market That Has Created A Prosperity That Is The Envy Of The World, And Rewarded The Innovators And Risk-takers Who Have Made America A Beacon Of Science, And Technology, And Discovery. But The American Economy Has Worked In Large Part Because We Have Guided The Market's Invisible Hand With A Higher Principle - That America Prospers When All Americans Can Prosper. That Is Why We Have Put In Place Rules Of The Road To Make Competition Fair, And Open, And Honest.

I Wouldn't Consider Them Acts Of War, But I Would Consider Them Acts Of Property Damage, Commercial Theft That Are Serious.

If There's Even One Thing We Can Do - Even One Life We Can Save - We Have An Obligation To Try

I've Just Concluded That For Me Personally It Is Important For Me To Go Ahead And Affirm That I Think Same-sex Couples Should Be Able To Get Married.

With Respect To Some Of The Specific Legislation Or Initiatives That I've Made, It's True That Republicans Often Opposed These Things. Sometimes They Opposed Them Because I Proposed Them. Now That They Are Responsible For Governing, I Think They'll Find That Reversing Them Would Be Counterproductive.

Our Patience Is Not Infinite. We're Not Willing To Let This Go On Forever.

It's Not Just Enough To Change The Players. We've Gotta Change The Game.

Too Many Americans Who Struggle With Mental Health Illnesses Are Suffering In Silence Rather Than Seeking Help, And We Need To See To It That Men And Women Who Would Never Hesitate To Go See A Doctor If They Had A Broken Arm Or Came Down With The Flu, That They Have That Same Attitude When It Comes To Their Mental Health.

America Is A Land Of Big Dreamers And Big Hopes. It Is This Hope That Has Sustained Us Through Revolution And Civil War, Depression And World War, A Struggle For Civil And Social Rights And The Brink Of Nuclear Crisis. And It Is Because Our Dreamers Dreamed That We Have Emerged From Each Challenge More United, More Prosperous, And More Admired Than Before.

John F.kennedy Gave Probably The Greatest Inauguration Speech Ever That First Time, But I Guarantee You When He First Walked Out There He Was Thinking, "goodness Gracious This Is Big And I Better Be Up To The Task."

This Massacre In Orlando Is Therefore A Further Reminder Of How Easy It Is For Someone To Get Their Hands On A Weapon That Lets Them Shoot People In A School Or In A House Of Worship Or A Movie Theater Or In A Nightclub. And We Have To Decide If That's The Kind Of Country We Want To Be. And To Actively Do Nothing Is A Decision, As Well.

The Holy Koran Tells Us, 'o Mankind! We Have Created You Male And A Female; And We Have Made You Into Nations And Tribes So That You May Know One Another.'

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