Background Image

...

I Think That We Are In A Position To Continue To Make Progress, But It's Gonna Require Us To Both Recognize What The Problems Are, Also Recognize The Progress We've Made. Last Point I'd Make On This, Since We're On Criminal Justice: During The Course Of My Presidency Crime Has Been The Lowest It's Been Probably Since The '60s.

-Barack Obama

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

I Think That We

Barack Obama

...

I Think That We Are In A Position To Continue To Make Progress, But It's Gonna Require Us To Both Recognize What The Problems Are, Also Recognize The Progress We've Made. Last Point I'd Make On This, Since We're On Criminal Justice: During The Course Of My Presidency Crime Has Been The Lowest It's Been Probably Since The '60s.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Barack Obama

I Will Eliminate Capital-gains Taxes For The Small Businesses And The Startups That Will Create The High-wage, High-tech Jobs Of Tomorrow

We Are Running Out Of Time

Running Out Of Time

We Have An Obligation And A Responsibility To Be Investing In Our Students And Our Schools.

And, As A Consequence Of The Pressure That We've Applied Over The Last Couple Of Weeks, We Have Syria -- For The First Time -- Acknowledging That It Has Chemical Weapons, Agreeing To Join The Convention That Prohibits The Use Of Chemical Weapons, And The Russians -- Their Primary Sponsors -- Saying That They Will Push Syria To Get All Of Their Chemical Weapons Out. The Distance That We've Traveled Over These Couple Of Weeks Is Remarkable.

The United States Does Not Have A Monopoly On Crazy People. It's Not The Only Country That Has Psychosis. And Yet We Kill Each Other In These Mass Shootings At Rates That Are Exponentially Higher Than Anyone Else. Well, What's The Difference? The Difference Is That These Guys Can Stack Up A Bunch Of Ammunition In Their Houses, And That's Sort Of Par For The Course.

Let's Say I'm On The Policy Wonk End Of The Spectrum. As Much As I Can Dive Into A Briefing Book And Really Work To Master Various Subjects That Come Before My Desk, I'm Still Not An Expert On A Huge Amount Of The Stuff That We Work On.

We're Going To Have To Come Together And Take Meaningful Action To Prevent More Tragedies Like This, Regardless Of The Politics.

Every Life Must Be Given The Chance To Realize Its Full Potential - That Every Life Matters.

I Think We Should All Hope For A Russia That Is Successful, Where Its People Are Employed And The Economy Is Growing And They Are Having Good Relationships With Their Neighbors.

Being Attentive To Inequality And Not Tone Deaf To It. But Offering Prescriptions That Are Actually Going To Help Folks In Communities That Feel Forgotten. That's Going To Be Our Most Important Strategy. And I Think We Can Successfully Do That.

My Second Piece Of Advice Is To Stay Global. As The World Continues To Change And We Become More Connected To Each Other, Globalization Will Bring Both Benefits And Disruptions To Our Lives. But Either Way, It's Here, And It's Not Going Away.

You Have To Exercise, Or At Some Point You'll Just Break Down.

These Days, The House Republicans Actually Give John Boehner A Harder Time Than They Give Me. Which Means Orange Really Is The New Black.

Ultimately Peer Pressure Can Lead People To Bully, But Peer Pressure Can Also Say Bullying Is Not Acceptable.

I Don't Want Ever To Be A President Who Is Comfortable And At Ease With Killing People.

If There's One Thing I Would Like To See, It'd Be For Us To Be Able To Price The Cost Of Carbon Emissions.

Carbon Emissions

There Are Problems That Just End Up Being Really Hard And By Definition The Only Problems That Come To My Desk Are The Ones That Nobody Else Can Solve.

And Above All, Children Need Our Unconditional Love - Whether They Succeed Or Make Mistakes; When Life Is Easy And When Life Is Tough.

Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg Never Gives Up And He Does Not Quit.

I Think Back To The Day I Drove Michelle And A Newborn Malia Home From The Hospital Nearly 11 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.

My Experience Is That Our Intelligence Officials Try To Do The Right Thing, But Even With Good Intentions, Sometimes They Make Mistakes. Sometimes They Can Be Overzealous.

Good Intentions

The Pyramids Are One Of Those Things That Live Up To The Hype. They're Elemental In Ways That Are Hard To Describe.

When Michelle And I Decided That I Would Run For President, It Was Because Of A Shared Belief In The Power Of Community And Connection, A Commitment To The Idea That We Are Our Brothers' Keepers.

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.

You Can't Just Listen To Rush Limbaugh And Get Things Done.

In Indonesia, I Had Spent Two Years At A Muslim School, Two Years At A Catholic School. In The Muslim School, The Teacher Wrote To Tell My Mother That I Made Faces During Koranic Studies.

Now, I've Lived Long Enough To Know That Race Relations Are Better Than They Were 10 Or 20 Or 30 Years Ago No Matter What Some Folks Say. You Can See It Not Just In Statistics, You See It In The Attitudes Of Young Americans Across The Political Spectrum. But We're Not Where We Need To Be. And All Of Us Have More Work To Do.

I Look Forward To Hosting An Iftar Dinner Celebrating Ramadan Here At The White House Later This Week, And Wish You A Blessed Month.

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 Shadow Of Crisis Has Passed, And The State Of The Union Is Strong.

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

Since 1981, After Our Nations Severed Diplomatic Relations, We've Worked Through A International Tribunal To Resolve Various Claims Between Our Countries. The United States And Iran Are Now Settling A Long-standing Iranian Government Claim Against The United States Government. Iran Will Be Returned Its Own Funds, Including Appropriate Interest But Much Less Than The Amount Iran Sought. With The Nuclear Deal Done, Prisoners Released, The Time Was Right To Resolve This Dispute As Well.

The Role Of Citizen In Our Democracy Does Not End With Your Vote.

I Thought Brittany Packnett, Who Was One Of The Ferguson Activists, Really Interesting, Smart Young Lady, Really Impressive - You Might Want To Talk With Her. So She Was One Of The Organizers Of The Ferguson Movement, Ended Up Joining Our Task Force. She Came In Here And She Just Knew Her Stuff.

Societies Held Together By Fear And Repression May Offer The Illusion Of Stability For A Time, But They Are Built Upon Fault Lines That Will Eventually Tear Asunder.

You Don't Need To See My Birth Certificate, Or My College Records, Or My Legal Writings, Or... Anything.

I Would Meet Directly With The Leadership In Iran.

The Promotion Of Human Rights Cannot Be About Exhortation Alone. At Times, It Must Be Coupled With Painstaking Diplomacy. I Know That Engagement With Repressive Regimes Lacks The Satisfying Purity Of Indignation. But I Also Know That Sanctions Without Outreach -- Condemnation Without Discussion -- Can Carry Forward Only A Crippling Status Quo. No Repressive Regime Can Move Down A New Path Unless It Has The Choice Of An Open Door.

Now Suddenly You Got Members Of Your [white House] Team Who Were 23, 24. They've Met Their Wives Here, Or Their Husbands Here.

Because Of The Civil Rights Movement, New Doors Of Opportunity And Education Swung Open For Everybody ... Not Just For Blacks And Whites, But Also Women And Latinos; And Asians And Native Americans; And Gay Americans And Americans With A Disability. They Swung Open For You, And They Swung Open For Me. And That's Why I'm Standing Here Today-because Of Those Efforts, Because Of That Legacy.

Native American

My Hope Would Be That, As We're Moving Through The World Right Now, We're Able To Get That Psychological Or Emotional Peace By Seeing Very Concretely Our Kids Doing Better And Being More Hopeful And Having Greater Opportunities.

I Have Been In Washington For A While Now, And Most Things Don't Surprise Me. The Fact That Twenty 6-year-olds Were Gunned Down In The Most Violent Fashion Possible And This Town Couldn't Do Anything About It Was Stunning To Me.

I Think It's Important Not To Start Drawing Parallels, For Example, Between Theresa May, A Fairly Traditional Conservative Politician, Who's Now Prime Minister And Le Pen In France. Those Aren't The Same And The Situation In Each Country Is Different.

I'm Less Interested In How We Label Ourselves. I'm More Interested In How We Treat Each Other. And If We're Treating Each Other Right, Then I Can Be African-american, I Can Be Multi-racial, I Can Be You Name It, What Matters Is, Am I Showing People Respect, Am I Caring For One, For Other People.

Losing The Pr Battles, Particularly About Healthcare, Translated Into Losing His Democratic Majorities In Congress, Beginning With A Republican Landslide In The Midterm Election Of 2010.

There Is A Reason Why George Washington Is Always One Of The Top Three Presidents, And It's Not Because Of His Prowess As A Military Leader; It's Not Because Of The Incredible Innovations In Policy That He Introduced. It's Because He Knew When It Was Time To Go.

I Believe There Are Too Many Children Who Need Loving Parents To Deny One Group Of People Adoption Rights. A Child Will Benefit From A Healthy, Loving Home, Whether The Parents Are Gay Or Not.

I Don't Want To Exaggerate; Having As Many African American Men As We've Had In The Criminal-justice System, And The Amount Of Time It Takes For The Damage Done By That To Wash Through Our Society And Our Communities, The Disadvantages Born Out Of Kids Being Undiagnosed With Mental-health Problems Early, Or Not Getting The Kind Of Exposure To Reading And Math When They're 4 Or 5 Or 6 Years Old, That Carries A Cost.

Peace Is Not Merely The Absence Of Visible Conflict.

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.

I Refuse To Give In To The Notion That The American People Can't Handle Complicated Information.

Our Focus On The Investigation Is Really Wide-ranging. And We Can't Limit It To Just One Point In Time.

Just As Black Anger Often Proved Counterproductive, So Have These White Resentments Distracted Attention From The Real Culprits Of The Middle Class Squeeze - A Corporate Culture Rife With Inside Dealing, Questionable Accounting Practices, And Short-term Greed.

A Nation That Can't Control Its Energy Sources Can't Control Its Future.

I Think It Was Not A Bad Idea To Wrap Barack Obama In The Mantle Of Teddy Roosevelt. He`s Been Assuming A Sort Of Progressive Mantle, And He Ticked Off Some Large And Systemic Problems That This Country Faces.

I Have The Authority To Address The Threat From Isil, But I Believe We Are Strongest As A Nation When The President And Congress Work Together. So I Welcome Congressional Support For This Effort In Order To Show The World That Americans Are United In Confronting This Danger.

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

The Amount Of Interaction, The Amount Of Understanding That Exists In Your Generation Among People Of Different Races And Different Creeds And Different Colors Is Unprecedented. And By The Way, That Goes - That Cuts Across Party Lines, That Cuts Across Partisan Lines.

Al Qaeda Is Still A Threat. We Cannot Pretend Somehow That Because Barack Hussein Obama Got Elected As President, Suddenly Everything Is Going To Be Ok.

It's Important To Know That The Vast Majority Of People Who Were Excited In 2008 Are Still Really Enthusiastic. We've Got More Volunteers Now Than Ever, And They're Engaged, They're Motivated, They're Not Paying Attention To The Ups And Downs Of Polls Or Washington.

To Ensure Prosperity Here At Home And Peace Abroad, We All Share The Belief We Have To Maintain The Strongest Military On The Planet.

A Brighter Future Is Ours To Write. Let’s Begin This New Chapter — together — and Let’s Start The Work Right Now.

Ten Thousand People Died, An Entire Town Destroyed.

To Me The Question Right Now Is: How Do I Close That First Three-quarters Of The Achievement Gap, Education Gap, Wealth Gap? What Gives Me The Best Chance To Do That? And I'm Pretty Darn Sure That If America Is A Just Society And Treating People Well Right Now, Irrespective Of Past Wrongs, That I'm Going To Close A Big Chunk Of That Gap. I've Seen It.

You Got Into These Small Towns In Pennsylvania And, Like A Lot Of Small Towns In The Midwest, The Jobs Have Been Gone Now For 25 Years And Nothing's Replaced Them. And They Fell Through The Clinton Administration, And The Bush Administration, And Each Successive Administration Has Said That Somehow These Communities Are Gonna Regenerate And They Have Not. And It's Not Surprising Then They Get Bitter, They Cling To Guns Or Religion Or Antipathy To People Who Aren't Like Them Or Anti-immigrant Sentiment Or Anti-trade Sentiment As A Way To Explain Their Frustrations.

What The American People Hope - What They Deserve - Is For All Of Us, Democrats And Republicans, To Work Through Our Differences; To Overcome The Numbing Weight Of Our Politics. For While The People Who Sent Us Here Have Different Backgrounds, Different Stories, Different Beliefs, The Anxieties They Face Are The Same. The Aspirations They Hold Are Shared: A Job That Pays The Bills; A Chance To Get Ahead; Most Of All, The Ability To Give Their Children A Better Life.

If We Have A Phased Redeployment Where We're As Careful Getting Out As We Were Careless Getting In, Then There's Not Reason Why We Shouldn't Be Able To Prevent The Wholesale Slaughter I Think Some People Have Suggested Might Occur.

We Created A Whole Lot Of Millionaires To Boot. Businesses Did Just Fine. And You Know There Are Plenty Of Patriotic, Successful Americans All Across The Country -- I Meet Them Every Day -- Who'd Be Willing To Make This Contribution Again Because They Understand There Is Such A Thing As The Common Good. They Understand That We're In This Thing Together.

E.u. Need To Be Nurtured And Cultivated And Protected And Fought For Because The Achievements That We've Seen On This Continent, In Contrast To A Divided Europe Of The Previous Century, Are Ones That Remind Us Of How Important It Is That We Work Together.

Working Together

We Have A Choice. We Can Shape Our Future, Or Let Events Shape It For Us. And If We Want To Succeed, We Can't Fall Back On The Stale Debates And Old Divides That Won't Move Us Forward.

Those Jeans Are Comfortable, And For Those Of You Who Want Your President To Look Great In His Tight Jeans, I'm Sorry I'm Not The Guy. It Just Doesn't Fit Me. I'm Not 20.

Here's The Truth: The Soviet Union Had Thousands Of Nuclear Weapons, And Iran Doesn't Have A Single One. But When The World Was On The Brink Of Nuclear Holocaust, Kennedy Talked To Khrushchev And He Got Those Missiles Out Of Cuba. Why Shouldn't We Have The Same Courage And The Confidence To Talk To Our Enemies? That's What Strong Countries Do, That's What Strong Presidents Do, That's What I'll Do When I'm President Of The United States Of America.

I Try Never To Get Too High When Things Are Going Well. I Try Never To Get Too Low When Things Are Going Poorly. I Try To Keep An Even Keel.

Most People Who Serve In Washington Have Been Trained Either As Lawyers Or As Political Operatives--professions That Tend To Place A Premium On Winning Arguments Rather Than Solving Problems.

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.

Any Strategy To Reduce Intergenerational Poverty Has To Be Centered On Work, Not Welfare--not Only Because Work Provides Independence And Income But Also Because Work Provides Order, Structure, Dignity, And Opportunities For Growth In People's Lives.

Do Something, Congress. Do Anything.

If You Want A Model For What Is Possible, If You Want To See How To Build A Peaceful And Prosperous And Dynamic Society, Then Look At Berlin And Look At Germany.

Together We Can Change Our Culture For The Better By Ending Violence Against Women And Girls, Artists Have A Unique Power To Change Minds And Attitudes And Get Us Thinking And Talking About What Matters, And All Of Us, In Our Lives, Have The Power To Set An Example. Join Our Campaign To Stop This Violence.

Arne Duncan Is Done More To Bring Our Educational System, Sometimes Kicking And Screaming, Into The 21st Century Than Anyone Else.

Today’s Decision Was A Victory For People All Across This Country Whose Lives Will Be More Secure.

I Don't Regret At All Saying That If I Saw Bashar Al-assad Using Chemical Weapons On His People That That Would Change My Assessments In Terms Of What We Were Or Were Not Willing To Do In Syria.

Cuba Is Actually One Where I Am More Optimistic Because Of The Unique Nature Of Cuba - 90 Miles Off Our Shore With A Massive Ex-patriot Population, Now Cuban-american Population That Still Have Deep Links To The Island. There I Am More Confident That Over Time That The Winds Of Commerce And Telecommunication And Travel Start Shifting The Nature Of That Regime. But That's A Small Country Which Has Almost A Unique Relationship To Us.

Now, As The World's Largest Economy And As The World's Second Largest Emitter, America Bears Our Responsibility To Address Climate Change, And We Intend To Meet That Responsibility.

The Problem Is That Young People Are Less Likely To Vote Than Older People. What Results Is A Situation In Which Sometimes The Elections Don't Fully Reflect The Views Of The American Population.

There Are Gonna Be A Core Set Of Values That Shouldn't Be Up For Debate. Should Be Our North Star.

Who Cares If It's A Campaign Strategy, And Who Are Other People To Say It's Ridiculous? I'm Not Gay, But I Strongly Support Gay Marriage. What If Someone Told You You Couldn't Marry The One You Love? I Think It's About Time! Let People Who Love Each Other That Are The Same Sex Get Married. They Deserve The Right To Be Happy Also.

You Didn't Elect Me To Tell You What You Wanted To Hear. You Elected Me To Tell You The Truth.

African American

I Want To Express Our Grieve And Condolences To The Families Of Two Hostages: One American, Dr. Warren Weinstein And An Italian Giovanni Laporto Who Were Tragically Killed In A U.s. Counterterrorism Operation.

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.

It Is Legitimate For The Turks To Try To Defend Themselves.

I Think We've Done A Pretty Good Job Staying In Touch With The American People. But At A Certain Point You Can't Help But Lose Some Feel For What's On The Ground Because You're Not On The Ground.

I Think I'm The Best President I've Ever Been Right Now. And I Think The Team That Is Operating Right Now Functions As Well As Any Team That I've Had. And So, You Know, There Is A Part Of You That Thinks, "man, We're Pretty Good At This Stuff Right Now." And You Hate To See That Talent Disperse.

I Am Here For My Mother And All The Americans Who Are Forced To Spend Time Arguing With Health Insurance Companies Instead Of Focusing On Getting Well. I Am Here For The Millions Of Lives That Will Be Touched And In Some Cases, Saved, By Health Insurance Reform. I Am Here For The Small Businesses Who Are Forced To Choose Between Health Care And Hiring. I Am Here For The Seniors Who Are Unable To Afford The Prescriptions They Need.

Part Of The Reason That Our Politics Seems So Tough Right Now And Facts And Science And Argument Does Not Seem To Be Winning The Day All The Time Is Because We're Hardwired Not To Always Think Clearly When We're Scared. And The Country's Scared.

My Hope Is That We Can Get A Republican-democratic Agreement On How We Strengthen Social Security As Well As Looking At Some Of These Other Major Expenditures That We Have That We've Got To Deal With To Make Sure That We're Not Just Leaving You Guys With A Mountain Of Debt.

We Don't Turn Back. We Leave No One Behind. We Pull Each Other Up. We Draw Strength From Our Victories, And We Learn From Our Mistakes, But We Keep Our Eyes Fixed On That Distant Horizon, But We Keep Our Eyes Fixed On That Distant Horizon, Knowing That Providence Is With Us, And That We Are Surely Blessed To Be Citizens Of The Greatest Nation On Earth.

I Haven't Been Sorting Through Each And Every Aspect Of This. Here's What I Know: Hillary Clinton Was An Outstanding Secretary Of State. She Would Never Intentionally Put America In Any Kind Of Jeopardy.' Mr. Wallace Pressed Further On The Jeopardy Angle, And Mr. Obama Responded Again: 'i Continue To Believe That She Has Not Jeopardized America's National Security. Now What I've Also Said Is That - And She Has Acknowledged - That There's A Carelessness, In Terms Of Managing Emails...'"

...i Believe Deeply That We Canot Solve The Challenges Of Your Time Unless We Solve Them Together - Unless We Perfect Our Union By Understanding That We May Have Differnt Stories, But We Hold Common Hopes; That We May Not Look The Same And We May Not Have Come From The Same Place, But We All Want To Move In The Same Direction - Towards A Better Future For Our Children And Our Grandchildren. This Belief Comes From My Unyielding Faith In The Decency And Generosity Of The American People.

I Think At A Certain Age I Became Conscious Of The Power Of Words. And It Was Fairly Late. I Was Kind Of A Goofball - But I Was Always Subconsciously Thinking About Issues.

I Do Have Confidence That We're Gonna Be Able To Get It Right. But It's Not Gonna Be Overnight. And There's No Silver Bullets To This. The Fact Of The Matter Is, Is That We Are Suffering From A Massive Hangover From A Binge Of Risk Taking.

I Think That We've Had An Economy That's Been Out Of Balance For Too Long. So The General Principle Of Raising Taxes On Higher Income Americans, Like Myself, And Providing Relief To Those Who Haven't Benefited As Much From This New Global Economy, I Think Is A Sound One.

Four Years Ago, I Promised To End The War In Iraq. We Did. I Promised To Refocus On The Terrorists Who Actually Attacked Us On 9/11. We Have. We've Blunted The Taliban's Momentum In Afghanistan, And In 2014, Our Longest War Will Be Over. A New Tower Rises Above The New York Skyline, Al Qaeda Is On The Path To Defeat, And Osama Bin Laden Is Dead.

Al Qaeda, The Taliban, A Whole Host Of Networks That Are Bent On Attacking America, Who Have A Distorted Ideology, Who Have Perverted The Faith Of Islam, And So We Have To Go After Them.

...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.

Reversing Structural Problems In Our Economy That Have Been Building Up For Two Decades, That Was Gonna Take Time. It Was Gonna Take More Than A Year. It Was Gonna Take More Than Two Years. It Was Gonna Take More Than One Term. Probably Takes More Than One President.

There's Been A Lot Of Talk About Body Cameras As A Silver Bullet Or A Solution. I Think The Task Force Concluded That There Is A Role For Technology To Play In Building Additional Trust And Accountability, But It's Not A Panacea, It Has To Be Embedded In A Broader Change In Culture And A Legal Framework That Ensures That People's Privacy Is Respected And That Not Only Police Officers But The Community Themselves Feel Comfortable With How Technologies Are Being Used.

I Know That Campaigns Can Seem Small, And Even Silly. Trivial Things Become Big Distractions. Serious Issues Become Sound Bites. And The Truth Gets Buried Under An Avalanche Of Money And Advertising. If You're Sick Of Hearing Me Approve This Message, Believe Me - So Am I.

One Voice Can Change A Room, And If One Voice Can Change A Room, Then It Can Change A City, And If It Can Change A City, It Can Change A State, And If It Change A State, It Can Change A Nation, And If It Can Change A Nation, It Can Change The World. Your Voice Can Change The World.

There Are Legitimate Concerns And Anxieties That The Forces Of Globalisation Are Leaving Too Many People Behind - And We Have To Take Those Concerns Seriously And Address Them. But The Answer Isn't To Turn Inward And Embrace Protectionism. We Can't Just Walk Away From Trade.

When I Touched My Hand Against The Western Wall And Placed My Prayer Between Its Ancient Stones, I Thought Of All The Centuries That The Children Of Israel Had Longed To Return To Their Ancient Homeland. When I Went To Sderot And Saw The Daily Struggle To Survive In The Eyes Of An Eight-year-old Boy Who Lost His Leg To A Hamas Rocket, And When I Walked Among The Hall Of Names At Yad Vashem, I Was Reminded Of The Existential Fear Of Israelis When A Modern Dictator Seeks Nuclear Weapons And Threatens To Wipe Israel Off The Face Of The Map - Face Of The Earth.

I'm Kind Of A Night Owl.

I Am Looking Forward To Getting Out Of The Bubble. I Am Glad That I'm Leaving This Place At A Relatively Young Age, At 55. So I Have The Opportunity For A Second Maybe Even A Third Act In A Way That I Think Would Be Tougher If I Were, You Know, The Age Of Some Presidents When They Left.

The Tea Party I Have Huge Disagreements With, Obviously. But I Give Them Credit For Having Activated Themselves. And They Made A Difference In Terms Of Moving The Republican Party, In Terms Of Moving The Country In A Particular Direction. It's A Direction I Disagreed With. But It Showed That, In Fact, You Get Involved, If Your Voice Is Heard It Has An Impact.

Simple Exchanges Can Break Down Walls Between Us, For When People Come Together And Speak To One Another And Share A Common Experience, Then Their Common Humanity Is Revealed. We Are Reminded That We're Joined Together By Our Pursuit Of A Life That's Productive And Purposeful, And When That Happens Mistrust Begins To Fade And Our Smaller Differences No Longer Overshadow The Things That We Share. And That's Where Progress Begins.

Common Humanity

I Think That The Important Point Is We've Got To Have A President Who Understands The Benefits Of Free Trade But Also Is Going To Enforce Unfair Trade Agreements And Is Going To Stand Up To Other Countries.

From Obama's Book, "the Audacity Of Hope:" "i Am Not Willing To Have The State Deny American Citizens A Civil Union That Confers Equivalent Rights On Such Basic Matters As Hospital Visitation Or Health Insurance Coverage Simply Because The People They Love Are Of The Same Sex - Nor Am I Willing To Accept A Reading Of The Bible That Considers An Obscure Line In Romans To Be More Defining Of Christianity Than The Sermon On The Mount."

My First Job As Commander In Chief Is To Keep The American People Safe.

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

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.

Nothing Will Deter Us From Building The Future We Want For Our Children. What Greater Rejection Of Those Who Would Tear Down Our World Than Marshaling Our Best Efforts To Save It.

We Have Concerns Whenever We See People Who Have Large Stockpiles Of Weapons, Or Appear To Be In The Process Of Accumulating Weapons And Ammunition.

I See Donald Trump As A Phenomenon Of An Expression Of Certain Fears, Certain Resentments, That Have Been A Running Thread In American History.

Suppressing Ideas Never Succeeds In Making Them Go Away.

No Matter How Long It Takes, The United States Will Find And Bring To Justice The Terrorists Who Are Responsible For Kayla's Captivity And Death, Isil Is A Hateful And Abhorrent Terrorist Group Whose Actions Stand In Stark Contrast To The Spirit Of People Like Kayla.

We Must Begin By Acknowledging A Hard Truth. We Will Not Eradicate Violent Conflict In Our Lifetimes. There Will Be Times When Nations, Acting Individually Or In Concert, Will Find The Use Of Force Not Only Necessary But Morally Justified.

To Those Who Cling To Power Through Corruption And Deceit And The Silencing Of Dissent, Know That You Are On The Wrong Side Of History; But That We Will Extend A Hand If You Are Willing To Unclench Your Fist.

People Have To Recognize That It’s Going To Take Some Time For Trust To Be Built Not Only Between Democrats And Republicans, Between Congress And The White House, Between The House And The Senate. You Know, We’ve Had A Dysfunctional Political System For A While Now.

The Path Towards Sustainable Energy Sources Will Be Long And Sometimes Difficult. But America Cannot Resist This Transition, We Must Lead It.

Lobbyist Influence Comes From Access, Not Money.

Our Pride Is Based On A Very Simple Premise, Summed Up In A Declaration Made Over Two Hundred Years Ago.

Reverend Wright Has Been My Friend And Mentor For Over 20 Years.

What Matters Is How Well We Have Loved, And What Small Part We Have Played In Making The Lives Around Us Better.

If, In [federal Housing Administration] Application, Black Folks Were Excluded From It, Then You Have To Override That By Going After Those Discriminatory Practices.

The Interests We Share As Human Beings Are Far More Powerful Than The Forces That Drive Us Apart.

You Don't Like Dealing With Somebody Who Denies Horrible Things Happening To Your People Or Threatens Future Horrible Things To Your People.

The Problem With All These Tired Excuses For Inaction Is That It Suggests A Fundamental Lack Of Faith In American Business And American Ingenuity.

The Issue Of Climate Change Is One That We Ignore At Our Own Peril. There May Still Be Disputes About Exactly How Much We're Contributing To The Warming Of The Earth's Atmosphere And How Much Is Naturally Occurring, But What We Can Be Scientifically Certain Of Is That Our Continued Use Of Fossil Fuels Is Pushing Us To A Point Of No Return. And Unless We Free Ourselves From A Dependence On These Fossil Fuels And Chart A New Course On Energy In This Country, We Are Condemning Future Generations To Global Catastrophe.

Civility Also Requires Relearning How To Disagree Without Being Disagreeable. Surely You Can Question My Policies Without Questioning My Faith Or, For That Matter, My Citizenship.

I Am Somebody Who Usually Writes Out The Rough Draft In Longhand. Then I Type It Into The Computer, And That Is Where I Do My Editing. I Find That If I Write It On The Computer, I Go Too Quick. So I Like Getting That First Draft Out And Then Typing It In; You Are Less Self-conscious About It.

Everybody Knows Politics Is A Contact Sport.

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.

America, We Cannot Turn Back. Not With So Much Work To Be Done. Not With So Many Children To Educate, And So Many Veterans To Care For. Not With An Economy To Fix And Cities To Rebuild And Farms To Save. Not With So Many Families To Protect And So Many Lives To Mend. America, We Cannot Turn Back. We Cannot Walk Alone. At This Moment, In This Election, We Must Pledge Once More To March Into The Future. Let Us Keep That Promise - That American Promise - And In The Words Of Scripture Hold Firmly, Without Wavering, To The Hope That We Confess.

I've Said Consistently That I Always Reserve The Right, In Conjunction With A Broader International Effort, To Prevent Genocide Or Any Wholesale Slaughter Than Might Happen Inside Of Iraq Or Anyplace Else.

For All The Noise And Anger That Too Often Surrounds The Immigration Debate, America Has Nothing To Fear From Today's Immigrants. They Have Come Here For The Same Reason That Families Have Always Come Here-for The Hope That In America, They Could Build A Better Life For Themselves And Their Families. Like The Waves Of Immigrants That Came Before Them And The Hispanic Americans Whose Families Have Been Here For Generations, The Recent Arrival Of Latino Immigrants Will Only Enrich Our Country.

Who You Are, What You Are, Does Not Change After You Occupy The Oval Office. All It Does Is Magnify Who You Are. All It Does Is Shine A Spotlight On Who You Are.

Reinvigorating The Civil Rights Division Of The Justice Department, Making Sure That In Our Department Of Education, Where We See Evidence Of Black Boys Being Suspended At Substantially Higher Rates Than White Boys For The Same Behavior, In The Absence Of That Kind Of Rigorous Enforcement Of The Nondiscrimination Principle, Then The Long-standing Biases That I Believe Have Weakened, But Are Still Clearly Present In Our Society, Assert Themselves In Ways That Usually Disadvantage African Americans.

This Is Not Class Warfare. It’s Math.

Don't Get Cynical. Don't Ever Think You Can't Make A Difference.

I Don't Look At My Pension. It's Not As Big As Yours So It Doesn't Take As Long.

No Discrimination, That's What We're About As A Country.

If You Can Look Back And Say, "the Economy's Better. Our Security's Better. The Environment's Better. Our Kids' Education Is Better," If You Can Say That You've Made Things Better, Then Considering All The Challenges Out There, You Should Feel Good. But I'm The First To Acknowledge That I Did Not Crack The Code In Terms Of Reducing This Partisan Fever.

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.

Libraries Remind Us That Truth Isn't About Who Yells The Loudest, But Who Has The Right Information. Because Even As We're The Most Religious Of People, America's Innovative Genius Has Always Been Preserved Because We Also Have A Deep Faith In Facts.

I Bowled A 129... It Was Like The Special Olympics Or Something!

If You Want Some Additional Money For Your School, We'll Give It To You. But You've Got To Compete, Show Us That You're Going To Reform Your Education System So That Our Children Are Performing Better.

Degrade And Ultimately Destroy Isil

Counter Terrorism

I Think I'm Able To Reach A Lot Of Folks, Despite The Fact That The Conventional News Media Sometimes Says, "you Know, This Speech Is Too Long," Or "it's Too Complicated," Or "he Needs To Have Better Sound Bites," Or What Have You.

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

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.

Specifically, The Part Where In The Early 19th Century America Reconstituted The U.s. Marine Corps To Battle The Islamic Barbary Pirates, Though I Don't Think That's What Obama Meant.

"the Donald" Is Not Really A Plans Guy.

I Have Been Blessed By Having, And I Admittedly Am Biased, Some Of The Smartest, Hardest-working, And Good People In My Administration That I Think Any President Has Ever Had.

In America, We Want A Peaceful Planet. We Want People To Be Able To Enjoy Their Lives And Know They're Going To Have A Bright And Prosperous Future, Not Be At War. That's Our Purpose.

Prosperous Future

The More We Can Encourage Entrepreneurship, Particularly For Young People, The More They Have Hope. That Requires Some Reforms In These [african] Governments: Rooting Out Corruption, Increased Transparency And How Government Operates, Making Sure That Regulations Are Not Designed Just To Advantage Elites, But Are Allowing People Who Have A Good Idea To Get Out There And Get Things Done.

We Can Get This Done! Take A Vote, And Send Me That Bill.

I Agree With The Basic Principle That Anybody Who Wants To Serve In Our Armed Forces And Make Sacrifices On Our Behalf, On Behalf Of Our National Security, Anybody Should Be Able To Serve. And They Shouldn't Have To Lie About Who They Are In Order To Serve.

Gas Tax Holiday Is A Classic Washington Gimmick.

On The One Hand Information Is Moving Quick Or The Way In Which People Consume Information Is Changing So Fast. Clearly This Worked For [donald Trump], And It Gives Him A Direct Connection To A Lot Of The People That Voted For Him.

Members Of Congress On Both Sides Of The Aisle, Are Motivated By All Kinds Of Issues. They're Sincerely Interested In The Economy, In Terrorism, In Social Issues. But The One Overriding Thing They're Interested In Is Getting Reelected. And If They Think That It's Harder For Them To Get Reelected By Cooperating With Each Other, Then They Won't Cooperate.

"undecided," While Running For Re-election To State Senate In 1998, In Response To An Outlines Questionnaire Asking, "do You Favor Legalizing Same-sex Marriage?"

America Must Always Lead On The World Stage. If We Don't, No One Else Will. The Military That You Have Joined Is, And Always Will Be, The Backbone Of That Leadership. But U.s. Military Action Cannot Be The Only - Or Even Primary - Component Of Our Leadership In Every Instance. Just Because We Have The Best Hammer Does Not Mean That Every Problem Is A Nail.

Even As We Implement The Nuclear Deal And Welcome Our Americans Home, We Recognize That There Remain About Differences Between The United States And Iran. We Remain Steadfast In Opposing Iran's Destabilizing Behavior Elsewhere, Including Its Against Israel And Our Gulf Partners And Its Support For Violent Proxies In Places Like Syria And Yemen.

In The Past, There Have Been A Range Of Treaties That Divided Congress And Every Administration Was Able To Get Them Through.

To Look At Long Term Trends In Our Economy, In Our Society, In The International Sphere And Using My Best Judgment, Shape Policies That Will Serve The American People, Keep Them Safe, Keep Our Economy Growing, Put People Back To Work.

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.

You Can Choose A Future Where More Americans Have The Chance To Gain The Skills They Need To Compete, No Matter How Old They Are Or How Much Money They Have. Education Was The Gateway To Opportunity For Me. It Was The Gateway For Michelle. And Now More Than Ever, It Is The Gateway To A Middle-class Life.

No, You Can't Deny Women Their Basic Rights And Pretend It's About Your 'religious Freedom'. If You Don't Like Birth Control, Don't Use It. Religious Freedom Doesn't Mean You Can Force Others To Live By Your Own Beliefs.

Make Away Out Of No Way

Because As Tough As Things Have Been, I Am Convinced You Are Tougher. I've Seen Your Passion And I've Seen Your Service... I've Seen A Generation Eager, Impatient Even, To Step Into The Rushing Waters Of History And Change Its Course.

When We Don't Pay Close Attention To The Decisions Made By Our Leaders, When We Fail To Educate Ourselves About The Major Issues Of The Day, When We Choose Not To Make Our Voices And Opinions Heard, That's When Democracy Breaks Down. That's When Power Is Abused. That's When The Most Extreme Voices In Our Society Fill The Void That We Leave. That's When Powerful Interests And Their Lobbyists Are Most Able To Buy Access And Influence In The Corridors Of Power - Because None Of Us Are There To Speak Up And Stop Them.

Take Off Your Bedroom Slippers, Put On Your Marching Shoes. Shake It Off. Stop Complaining, Stop Grumbling, Stop Crying. We Are Going To Press On. We’ve Got Work To Do.

I Was Never Great, But I Was A Good [basketball] Player, And I Could Play Seriously. Now I'm Like One Of These Old Guys Who's Running Around, And The Guys I Play With, Who Are All A Lot Younger, They Sort Of Pity Me And Sympathize With Me. They Tolerate Me, But We All Know That I'm The Weak Link On The Court. And I Don't Like Being The Weak Link.

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

Maybe You Could Be A Great Writer - Maybe Even Good Enough To Write A Book Or Articles In A Newspaper - But You Might Not Know It Until You Write That English Paper - That English Class Paper That's Assigned To You.

In Sectors Like Energy, I Haven't Been Arguing For More Spending Per Se; I've Been Arguing That It Doesn't Make Sense For Us To Spend $4 Billion Subsidizing An Oil Industry That's Mature And Very Profitable. We Should Be Using That Money To Finance Clean Energy Of The Future.

I Know That The Politics Around Trade Can Be Very Difficult - Especially In An Election Year.

Israel Is A True Friend. It Is Our Greatest Ally In The Region. And If Israel Is Attacked, America Will Stand With Israel. I've Made That Clear Throughout My Presidency.

I Will Never Forget That The Only Reason I'm Standing Here Today Is Because Somebody, Somewhere Stood Up For Me When It Was Risky. Stood Up When It Was Hard. Stood Up When It Wasn't Popular. And Because That Somebody Stood Up, A Few More Stood Up. And Then A Few Thousand Stood Up. And Then A Few Million Stood Up. And Standing Up, With Courage And Clear Purpose, They Somehow Managed To Change The World.

My Wife Has Been My Closest Friend, My Closest Advisor. And ... She's Not Somebody Who Looks To The Limelight, Or Even Is Wild About Me Being In Politics. And That's A Good Reality Check On Me. When I Go Home, She Wants Me To Be A Good Father And A Good Husband. And Everything Else Is Secondary To That.

And Let Me Say This As A Politician I Can Promise You This, Political Leaders Will Never Take Risks If The People Do Not Push Them To Take Some Risks. You Must Create The Change That You Want To See.

I Think Raising Wages, Investing In Infrastructure, Making Sure That People Have Access To Good Educations That Equip Them For The Jobs Of The Future. Those Are All Agenda Items That Would Help Alleviate Some Of Those Economic Pressures And Dislocations That People Are Experiencing. The Problem Was I Couldn't Convince The Republican Congress To Pass A Lot Of Them.

America Is Not The Crude Stereotype Of A Self-interested Empire. Given Our Interdependence, Any World Order That Elevates One Nation Or Group Of People Over Another Will Inevitably Fail.

Iran Has To Live Up To Its International Obligations. . . . The President Has Said That Our Patience Is Not Unlimited.

I'm Not Somebody Who Is Always Comfortable With Language That Implies I've Got A Monopoly On The Truth, Or That My Faith Is Automatically Transferable To Others.

I Have Made It A Top Priority For My Administration To Deepen Cooperation With Israel Across The Whole Spectrum Of Security Issues - Intelligence, Military, Technology.

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

The Fact Is Every Single Day In The Ordinary American People, America's Families Have To Make Decisions About Their Families And That Should Be Made By Them, Not By The Texas Or United States.

Reflecting On His Years In Prison, Nelson Mandela Wrote That There Were Dark Moments That Tested His Faith In Humanity, But He Refused To Give Up.

You Know, When I Made A Series Of Overtures To The Republicans, Going Over To Meet With Both Republican Caucuses, You Know, Putting Three Republicans In My Cabinet -- Something That Is Unprecedented -- Making Sure That They Were Invited Here To The White House To Talk About The Economic Recovery Plan, All Those Were Not Designed Simply To Get Some Short-term Votes. They Were Designed To Try To Build Up Some Trust Over Time. And I Think That, As I Continue To Make These Overtures, Over Time, Hopefully That Will Be Reciprocated.

Trending Author

Category