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If We Neglect Or Abandon Those Who Are Suffering In Poverty ... Not Only Are We Depriving Ourselves Of Potential Opportunities For Markets And Economic Growth, But Ultimately That Despair May Turn To Violence That Turns On Us.

-Barack Obama

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If We Neglect Or

Barack Obama

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If We Neglect Or Abandon Those Who Are Suffering In Poverty ... Not Only Are We Depriving Ourselves Of Potential Opportunities For Markets And Economic Growth, But Ultimately That Despair May Turn To Violence That Turns On Us.

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I Believe That For All Our Imperfections, We Are Full Of Decency And Goodness, And That The Forces That Divide Us Are Not As Strong As Those That Unite Us.

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We Ask Our Men And Women In Uniform To Leave Their Families, Our Guardsmen And Reservists To Leave Their Jobs. We Ask You To Fight, To Sacrifice, To Risk Your Lives For Your Country. The Last Thing You Should Have To Do Is Fight For A Job When You Come Home.

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You Might Be Locked In A World Not Of Your Own Making, Her Eyes Said, But You Still Have A Claim On How It Is Shaped. You Still Have Responsibilities.

My Job Is Exhilarating. It's Challenging. I Find That The Governance Part Of It, The Decision Making Part Of It - Actually Comes - Comes Pretty Naturally. I Think I've Got A Great Team. I Think We're Making Good Decisions. The The Hardest Thing About The Job Is Staying Focused. Because There's So Many Demands And Decisions That Are Pressed Upon You.

Enforcement Priorities Developed By My Administration Are Not Affected By This Ruling. This Means That The People Who Might Have Benefited From The Expanded Deferred Action Policies, Long-term Residents Raising Children Who Are Americans Or Legal Residents, They Will Remain Low Priorities For Enforcement, As Long As You Have Not Committed A Crime, Our Limited Immigration Enforcement Resources Are Not Focused On You.

America Ranks 21st When It Comes To Math Education. We Rank 25th When It Comes To Science. We Used To Be Number One In The Proportion Of College Graduates. We Now Rank Ninth. And At An Age Where Knowledge, Skills, Are The Determinant Of How Successful We're Going To Be, Unless We Reverse That We're Going To Keep Slipping Behind Economically To A Lot Of Other Countries.

Let's Take The Money That We've Been Spending On War Over The Last Decade To Rebuild America, Roads, Bridges Schools. We Do Those Things, Not Only Is Your Future Going To Be Bright But America's Future Is Going To Bright As Well.

Ninety-eight Percent Of All American Companies Have Fewer Than 100 Employees. Over Half Of All Americans Work For A Small Business. Small Businesses Are The Backbone Of Our Nation’s Economy And We Must Protect This Great Resource.....helping American Small Business Is Part Of Our Movement For Change And The End Of Politics As Usual.

Today I Am Pledging To Cut The Deficit We Inherited In Half By The End Of My First Term In Office.

Broken Promises

I Might Have Arguments With The Size Of Reagan's Military Buildup, But Given The Soviet Invasion Of Afghanistan, Staying Ahead Of The Soviets Militarily Seemed A Sensible Thing To Do. Pride In Our Country, Respect For Our Armed Services, A Healthy Appreciation For The Dangers Beyond Our Borders, An Insistence That There Was No Easy Equivalence Between East And West--in All This I Had No Quarrel With Reagan. And When The Berlin Wall Came Tumbling Down, I Had To Give The Old Man His Due, Even If I Never Gave Him My Vote.

We Long For Unity, But Are Unwilling To Pay The Price. But Of Course, True Unity Cannot Be So Easily Won. It Starts With A Change In Attitudes - A Broadening Of Our Minds, And A Broadening Of Our Hearts.

Inequality Also Distorts Our Democracy. It Gives An Outsized Voice To The Few Who Can Afford High-priced Lobbyists And Unlimited Campaign Contributions, And Runs The Risk Of Selling Out Our Democracy To The Highest Bidder. And It Leaves Everyone Else Rightly Suspicious That The System In Washington Is Rigged Against Them - That Our Elected Representatives Aren't Looking Out For The Interests Of Most Americans.

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The Point I Was Making Was Not That Grandmother Harbors Any Racial Animosity. She Doesn't. But She Is A Typical White Person.

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I Don't Expect That The President-elect [donald Trump] Will Follow Exactly Our Blueprint Or Our Approach, But My Hope Is That He Does Not Simply Take A Real-politic Approach And Suggest That, You Know, If We Just Cut Some Deals With Russia, Even If It Hurts People Or Even If It Violates International Norms, Or Even If It Leaves Smaller Countries Vulnerable Or Creates Long-term Problems In Regions Like Syria, That We Just Do Whatever Is Convenient At The Time.

I've Made It Clear For Years That The Threat From Iran Is Grave.

As I Travel Around The World, It's Fascinating; European Leaders, Asian Leaders, They All Say To Me, America Is Actually Poised To Be The World Leader For Another Century - If We Can Fix Some Of This Political Dysfunction. ... We've Got A Lot Of National Security Challenges, But If We Get Our Economy Together, And If We Can Get Our Political System To Work Well, I Am Really Confident About Our Future.

Our Nation Honors Its Unbroken Line Of Fallen Heroes - And I See Many Of Them In The Audience Here Today.

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Robin Williams Was An Airman, A Doctor, A Genie, A Nanny, A President, A Professor, A Bangarang Peter Pan, And Everything In Between. But He Was One Of A Kind....he Arrived In Our Lives As An Alien But He Ended Up Touching Every Element Of The Human Spirit

The Us And Australia Have A Lot In Common. One Of The Things We Have In Common Is We Produce A Lot Of Carbon.

Citizenship Means Standing Up For The Lives That Gun Violence Steals From Us Each Day. I Have Seen The Courage Of Parents, Students, Pastors, And Police Officers All Over This Country Who Say 'we Are Not Afraid,' And I Intend To Keep Trying, With Or Without Congress, To Help Stop More Tragedies From Visiting Innocent Americans In Our Movie Theaters, Shopping Malls, Or Schools Like Sandy Hook.

Black Churches Minister To Social Needs Out Of Necessity.

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Native American

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Surround Yourself

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Working Together

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But You See, A Rich Country Like America Can Perhaps Afford To Be Stupid.

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I Will Call Not Just On Israel, But On The Palestinians, On The Arab States, And The International Community To Join Us In This Effort, Because The Burden Of Making Hard Choices Must Not Be Israel’s Alone.

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We Think About The Enormous Costs Of Homelessness, Or The Enormous Cost Of Hiv/aids, Over The Long Term, As People Visit Emergency Rooms, Etc. The More We Are Investing In That Ounce Of Prevention The Better Off We're Going To Be.

You Don't Know How It Would Have Turned Out If [kids] Would Grown Up In Chicago Instead, And A More Normal Environment.

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Later, I Would Realize That The Position Of Most Black Students In Predominantly White Colleges Was Already Too Tenuous, Our Identities Too Scrambled, To Admit To Ourselves That Our Black Pride Remained Incomplete. And To Admit Our Doubt And Confusion To Whites, To Open Up Our Psyches To General Examination By Those Who Had Caused So Much Of The Damage In The First Place, Seemed Ludicrous, Itself An Expression Of Self-hatred - For There Seemed No Reason To Expect That Whites Would Look At Our Private Struggles As A Mirror Into Their Own Souls, Rather Than Yet More Evidence Of Black Pathology.

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On Behalf Of The American People, Just Let Me Say That We Are Proud To Count Greece As One Of Our Closest Allies And One Of Our Greatest Friends.

I Think The Most Important Thing For The Public And The Press Is To Just Listen To What Donald Trump Says And Follow Up And Ask Questions About What Appear To Be Either Contradictory Or Uninformed Or Outright Wacky Ideas.

Another Tradition To Politics, A Tradition (of Politics) That Stretched From The Days Of The Country’s Founding To The Glory Of The Civil Rights Movement, A Tradition Based On The Simple Idea That We Have A Stake In One Another, And That What Binds Us Together Is Greater Than What Drives Us Apart, And That If Enough People Believe In The Truth Of That Proposition And Act On It, Then We Might Not Solve Every Problem, But We Can Get Something Meaningful Done.

Cutting Our Education Budget, That's Not A Smart Choice. That Will Not Help America Compete With China.

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Jesus Lived A Life Of Peace, Love, Kindness And Forgiveness, During The Hustle And Bustle Of The Christmas Season, May We All Do Our Best To Follow His Example.

There’s No Black Male My Age, Who’s A Professional, Who Hasn’t Come Out Of A Restaurant And Is Waiting For Their Car And Somebody Didn’t Hand Them Their Car Keys.

I Know What The Counterterrorism Feels Like Because I Was There. But I Also Operated Within Limits. And Within The United States Government, We've Decided Long Ago That There Are Limits On What We're Going To Do In The War Against Terrorism.

Excuses Are Tools Of The Incompetent Used To Build Bridges To Nowhere And Monuments Of Nothingness

If You Hear What People Had To Say About Abraham Lincoln Or What They Had To Say About Fdr, Or What They Had To Say About Ronald Reagan When He First Came In And Was Trying To Change Our Approach To Government, That Elicited Huge Responses.

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Information Flow

We Have Proved That The True Strength Of Our Nation Comes Not From The Scale Of Our Wealth But From The Power Of Our Ideals - Opportunity, Democracy, Liberty And Hope.

Don't Just Buy A New Video Game, Make One. Don't Just Download The Latest App, Help Design It. Don't Just Play On Your Phone, Program It.

The Friendship That We Established Early On In Our Marriage ... That Carries You Through Tough Times. That And A Good Sense Of Humor.

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People Always - I Think Were Surprised About Me Connecting With Folks In Small Town Iowa. And The Reason I Did Was - First Of All, I Had The Benefit That At The Time Nobody Expected Me To Win. And So I Wasn't Viewed Through This Prism Of Fox News And Conservative Media Making Me Scary. At The Time, I Didn't Think Seem Scary, Other Than Just Having A Funny Name. I Seemed Young.

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I've Always Wanted To Come To Greece.

America Is Number One In Wind Power.

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I Have Become A Symbol Of The Possibility Of America Returning To Our Best Traditions.

I Just Want To Say That The Only Thing Less Popular Than Putting Money Into Banks Is Putting Money Into The Auto Industry.

We've Seen Those Results In Generations Of Muslim Immigrants - Farmers And Factory Workers, Helping To Lay The Railroads And Build Our Cities, The Muslim Innovators Who Helped Build Some Of Our Highest Skyscrapers And Who Helped Unlock The Secrets Of Our Universe.

If You Have A Family Member Who Maybe Is Undocumented, Then You Have An Even Greater Reason To Vote.

I've Been Involved In The Intelligence Side Of The Federal Government For A Long Time. We All Know That We Have To Have A Balance Between Security To Protect The American People And Liberty. We Take An Oath To Protect And Defend The Constitution And The American People.

We Have A Historic Opportunity To Prevent The Spread Of Nuclear Weapons In Iran, And To Do So Peacefully, With The International Community Firmly Behind Us. We Should Seize That Chance.

Now, Anybody Who Thinks That We Can Move This Economy Forward With Just A Few Folks At The Top Doing Well, Hoping That It's Going To Trickle Down To Working People Who Are Running Faster And Faster Just To Keep Up, You'll Never See It.

Our Objective Is Clear: We Will Degrade, And Ultimately Destroy, Isil Through A Comprehensive And Sustained Counter-terrorism Strategy.

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.

Donald Trump Is Like Hillary Clinton Said, A Man You Can Bait With A Tweet Is Not A Man You Can Trust With Nuclear Weapons. You Can`t Do It.

What Makes You A Man Is Not The Ability To Make A Child, It's The Courage To Raise One.

If 90 Percent Or 95 Percent Of Those - Chemical Stockpiles [in Syria] Were Eliminated, That's A Lot Of Chemical Weapons That Are Not Right Now In The Hands Of Isil Or Nusra Or, For That Matter, The Regime.

There's A Little Perspiration Involved In Bringing About Change Too.

One Of The Proudest Things Of My Three Years In Office Is Helping To Restore A Sense Of Respect For America Around The World.

Of Course I Have Got Concerns. Donald Trump And I Differ On A Whole Bunch Of Issues.

And We Can See The Positive Impacts Right Here At Solyndra. Less Than A Year Ago, We Were Standing On What Was An Empty Lot. But Through The Recovery Act, This Company Received A Loan To Expand Its Operations. This New Factory Is The Result Of Those Loans.

I Don't Know The Facts Of When Joe Soptic's Wife Got Sick Or When She Died.

We Need Not Throw Away 200 Years Of American Jurisprudence While We Fight Terrorism. We Need Not Choose Between Our Most Deeply Held Values, And Keeping This Nation Safe.

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

Native American

[j]ust Because You Have An Individual Right Does Not Mean That The State Or Local Government Can't Constrain The Exercise Of That Right.

[people] Are Looking For Some Means Of Control And What That Means Is Is That The Politics In All Of Our Countries Is Gonna Require Us To Manage Technology And Global Integration And All These Demographic Shifts In A Way That Makes People Feel More Control, That Gives Them More Confidence In Their Future.

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.

In America, We Started The Public School System Very Early In The Century, And As A Consequence We Had More Skilled Workers Than Any Nation On Earth, Which Meant That We Were More Productive Than Any Nation On Earth.

I Reject Discrimination Against Muslim Americans - Who Are Just As Patriotic As We Are.

Of Course, There Is No Question That Libya - And The World - Will Be Better Off With Gaddafi Out Of Power. I, Along With Many Other World Leaders, Have Embraced That Goal, And Will Actively Pursue It Through Non-military Means. But Broadening Our Military Mission To Include Regime Change Would Be A Mistake.

To Avoid Being Mistaken For A Sellout, I Chose My Friends Carefully. The More Politically Active Black Students. The Foreign Students. The Chicanos. The Marxist Professors And Structural Feminists And Punk-rock Performance Poets.

Leather Jackets

If You Listen To The Rhetoric, It Is So Over-the-top And So Overheated, And Most Importantly, Is Not Acknowledging The Fact That There's Nothing Else [like Guns] In Our Lives That We Purchase Where We Don't Try To Make It A Little Safer If We Can.

I Think That Canada Is One Of The Most Impressive Countries In The World, The Way It Has Managed A Diverse Population, A Migrant Economy. The Natural Beauty Of Canada Is Extraordinary. Obviously There Is Enormous Kinship Between The United States And Canada, And The Ties That Bind Our Two Countries Together Are Things That Are Very Important To Us.

Young Men Need To Show Women The Respect They Deserve And Recognize Sexual Assault And To Do Their Part To Stop It.

Domestic Violence

I'm Told There's A Saying From Those Ancient Times, Kalos Kai Agathos, When Someone Or Something Is Good And Beautiful On The Outside, But Is Also Good And Noble On The Inside In Terms Of Character And In Terms Of Purpose. And I Think That's A Fine Description Of The Friendship That Exists Between The Greek People And The American People.

Going Back To The Discussion We Were Having About Immigration Reform, Some Of The Most Challenging Discussions I've Had Are With Activists Who Essentially Would Argue That Any Immigrant From Central America, Let's Say, Who Gets Here To This Country Should Be Allowed To Stay Because Their Country Is Dangerous, Their Country Is Poor, And The Opportunities For That Mom And That Kid Are Much Greater Here, And Why Would You Send Them Back?

I Was Able To Excite And Engage People Who Previously Hadn't Been Involved In Politics, And Part Of The Reason That I Was Able To Be Re-elected And Stay Relatively Popular In The United States Was Because Even When The Economy Was Bad Or We Had Problems, People Sensed That I Listened To Them And I Was On Their Side.

If You Like Your Doctor Or Health Care Provider, You Can Keep Them. If You Like Your Health Care Plan, You Can Keep That, Too.

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.

My Only Agenda For The Next Two Years Is The Same As The One I’ve Had Since The Day I Swore An Oath On The Steps Of This Capitol — to Do What I Believe Is Best For America.

Progressives Should Recognize Common Morality With Religion.

Whatever We Think Of The Past, We Must Not Be Prisoners To It.

It's Not Because John Mccain Doesn't Care. It's Because John Mccain Doesn't Get It.

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?

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.

One Thing I Will Not Compromise Over Is Whether Or Not Congress Should Pay The Tab For A Bill They've Already Racked Up. If Congress Refuses To Give The United States The Ability To Pay Its Bills On Time, The Consequences For The Entire Global Economy Could Be Catastrophic.

More People Are Realising That Isil's Not A Caliphate. It's A Crime Ring.

It Is Now Our Generation's Task To Carry On What Those Pioneers Began. For Our Journey Is Not Complete Until Our Wives, Our Mothers And Daughters Can Earn A Living Equal To Their Efforts. Our Journey Is Not Complete Until Our Gay Brothers And Sisters Are Treated Like Anyone Else Under The Law - For If We Are Truly Created Equal, Then Surely The Love We Commit To One Another Must Be Equal As Well.

Heaven Forbid We've Got A Problem Where We Could Have Prevented A Terrorist Attack Or Apprehended Someone Who Is Engaged In Dangerous Activity, But We Didn't Do So Simply Because Of Inaction In The Senate.

What Is True Is [bashar] Assad Got Rid Of His Chemical Weapons.

Chemical Weapons

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.

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

Change Doesn't Come From Washington. Change Comes To Washington

I'll Change The Posture Of Our Federal Government From Being One Of The Most Anti-science Administrations In American History To One That Embraces Science And Technology.

What Is Also True Is That Partly Because My Docket Was Really Full Here, So I Couldn't Be Both Chief Organizer Of The Democratic Party And Function As Commander-in-chief And President Of The United States. We Did Not Begin What I Think Needs To Happen Over The Long Haul, And That Is Rebuild The Democratic Party At The Ground Level.

I Think At Times Of Significant Stress People Are Going To Be Looking For Something And They Don't Always Know Exactly What It Is That They're Looking For And They May Opt For Change Even If They're Not Entirely Confident What That Change Will Bring.

So Here's What I Want You To Know, And Here's What I Want All Our Men And Women In Uniform To Know: Because Of You, We Are Ending These Wars In A Way That Will Make America Stronger And The World More Secure. Because Of You.

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.

Never Give Up On Your Dreams.

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

I Commended Angela [merkel] For Her Leadership Along With President Hollande In Working To Resolve The Conflict In Ukraine. We Continued To Stand With The People Of Ukraine And For The Basic Principle That Nations Have A Right To Determine Their Own Destiny And We Discussed The Importance Of Maintaining Sanctions Until Russia Fully Complies With The Minsk Agreement.

But What I Would Say To My Successor Is That It Is Important Not Just To Shoot But To Aim. And It Is Important, In This Seat, To Make Sure That You're Making Your Best Judgments Based On Data, Intelligence, The Information That's Coming From Your Commanders And Folks On The Ground And You're Not Being Swayed By Politics.

I Think That Dealing With Guns Is One Way To Handle The Violent-crime Issues That We Have In This Country.

I Do Think That I Am Generally Optimistic.

My Goal Is Not To Resolve Conflicts And Tensions In The Region Through More War. My Goal Is To Make Sure That, You Know, We Are Able To Negotiate A Deal That We Can Verify.

To Anyone Out There Who Has Ever Been Assaulted: You Will Never Be Alone. You Are Never Alone. We Have Your Back. I've Got Your Back.

Violence Against Women

I Think There Are A Whole Host Of Things That Are Civil Rights, And Then There Are Other Things - Such As Traditional Marriage - That, I Think, Express A Community's Concern And Regard For A Particular Institution.

Whenever I Write A Letter To A Family Who Has Lost A Loved One In Iraq, Or Read An Email From A Constituent Who Has Dropped Out Of College Because Her Student Aid Has Been Cut, I'm Reminded That The Actions Of Those In Power Have Enormous Consequences--a Price That They Themselves Almost Never Have To Pay.

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

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.

People Who Have Health Insurance Are Benefiting In All Sorts Of Ways That They May Not Be Aware Of, Everything From No Longer Having Lifetime Limits On The Claims That They Can Make To Seniors Getting Prescription Drug Discounts Under Medicare To Free Mammograms.

There Is No Individual Salvation Without Collective Salvation

If We Get To A Point Where People In This Country Feel More Affinity With A Leader Who Is An Adversary And View The United States And Our Way Of Life As A Threat To Him, Then We're Gonna Have Bigger Problems Than Just Cyber Hacking.

The Importance Of Making Sure That The Sense Of Accountability When, In Fact, Law Enforcement Is Involved In A Deadly Shooting Is Something That I Think Communities Across The Board Are Going To Need To Consider, We Have A Great Opportunity, Coming Out Of Some Great Conflict And Tragedy, To Really Transform How We Think About Community Law Enforcement Relations So That Everybody Feels Safer And Our Law Enforcement Officers Feel, Rather Than Being Embattled, Feel Fully Supported.

There Is A Wonderful Book Called "gandhi's Truth," By Erik Erikson, The Psychologist. It Is A Great Book. And I Remember Reading That And Thinking About This Connection Between What We Think In Our Personal Lives And How That Manifests Itself In Our Politics. Those Are Two Books, Just Off The Top, That I Think Are Sort Of Representative Of Reading That I Did At That Time. I Never Get A Chance To Read Anymore.

America Does Not Presume To Know What Is Best For Everyone

The Interesting Thing About The African-american Experience In This Country Is That We Are Sort Of A Mongrel Of People. I Mean We're All Kind Of Mixed Up.

We've Taken Bold Action At Home By Making Historic Investments In Renewable Energy, By Putting Our People To Work Increasing Efficiency In Our Homes And Buildings, And By Pursuing Comprehensive Legislation To Transform To A Clean Energy Economy.

One Of The Great Things About Our Democracy Is It Expresses Itself In All Sorts Of Ways. And That Includes People Protesting. I've Been The Subject Of Protests During The Course Of My Eight Years And I Suspect That There's Not A President In Our History That At Some Point Hasn't Been Subject To These Protests.

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.

We Are Growing The Economy In Smart Ways And Rebuilding Our Infrastructure And Investing In Science And Development And That We Stay True To Those Values That Helped To Get Us Here.

Look, Americans Will Go For Leadership That Makes Sense. Our Job, You Know, As Public Officials, Is Not To Put Our Finger In The Air. Our Job Is To Listen, And Then Lead.

Our Country Was Born Out Of A Desire To Be Free. And Every Day Since, It's Been Protected By Our Men And Women In Uniform - People Who Believed So Deeply In America, They Were Willing To Give Their Lives For It.

When This Crisis Began, Crucial Decisions About What Would Happen To Some Of The World's Biggest Companies - Companies Employing Tens Of Thousands Of People And Holding Trillions Of Dollars In Assets - Took Place In Hurried Discussions In The Middle Of The Night. We Should Not Be Forced To Choose Between Allowing A Company To Fall Into A Rapid And Chaotic Dissolution Or Forcing Taxpayers To Foot The Bill.

Immigration Is Part Of The Reason Why Our Economy Is Stronger And Better Positioned Than Most Of Our Other Competitors, Is Because We've Got A Younger Population That's More Dynamic When It Comes To Trade.

Michelle Will Tell You That When We Get Together For Christmas Or Thanksgiving, It's Like A Little Mini-united Nations... I've Got Relatives Who Look Like Bernie Mac, And I've Got Relatives Who Look Like Margaret Thatcher... We've Got It All.

The World Is Complicated And Full Of Grays, But There's Still Truth There To Be Found.

Libraries Remind Us That Truth Isn't About Who Yells The Loudest But Who Has The Right Information.

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.

I Am Living Testimony To The Moral Force Of Non-violence. I Know There's Nothing Weak - Nothing Passive - Nothing Naïve - In The Creed And Lives Of Gandhi And King.

It's Up To [angela Merkel] Whether She Wants To Stand Again And Then Ultimately, It'll Be Up To The German People To Decide What The Future Holds. If I Were Here And I Were German And I Had A Vote, I Might Support Her.

America, Our Endless Blessings Bestow An Enduring Burden. But As Americans, We Welcome Our Responsibility To Lead.

I Have To Be Able To Implement A Policy That Doesn't Completely Erase Borders And Boundaries. Not Because I Think That Honduran Child Who's Gotten Here Is Less Worthy Of Love, Attention, Opportunity Than My Child, But Because I'm The President Of The United States Of America And I'm Not Speaking As A Religious Leader.

Mothers Are The Rocks Of Our Families And A Foundation In Our Communities. In Gratitude For Their Generous Love, Patient Counsel, And Lifelong Support, Let Us Pay Respect To The Women Who Carry Out The Hard Work Of Motherhood With Skill And Grace, And Let Us Remember Those Mothers Who, Though No Longer With Us, Inspire Us Still.

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Kamla Persad-Bissessar

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