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Now, As A Nation, We Don't Promise Equal Outcomes, But We Were Founded On The Idea Everybody Should Have An Equal Opportunity To Succeed. No Matter Who You Are, What You Look Like, Where You Come From, You Can Make It. That's An Essential Promise Of America. Where You Start Should Not Determine Where You End Up.

-Barack Obama

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Now, As A Nation,

Barack Obama

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Now, As A Nation, We Don't Promise Equal Outcomes, But We Were Founded On The Idea Everybody Should Have An Equal Opportunity To Succeed. No Matter Who You Are, What You Look Like, Where You Come From, You Can Make It. That's An Essential Promise Of America. Where You Start Should Not Determine Where You End Up.

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We Cannot Help But Believe That The Old Hatreds Shall Someday Pass; That The Lines Of Tribe Shall Soon Dissolve; That As The World Grows Smaller, Our Common Humanity Shall Reveal Itself.

Common Humanity

I Don't Think The Democrats Should Think In Narrow Tactical Terms About Mid-term Elections.

You Can't Entirely Compare Between The United States And Greece For A Range Of Reasons, Not Just Because Of The Size Of The Economy.

In Order For Us To Compete With China, We've Also Got To Make Sure, Though, That We're Taking - Taking Care Of Business Here At Home. If We Don't Have The Best Education System In The World, If We Don't Continue To Put Money Into Research And Technology That Will Allow Us To Create Great Businesses Here In The United States, That's How We Lose The Competition.

I Wonder, Sometimes, Whether Men And Women In Fact Are Capable Of Learning From History--whether We Progress From One Stage To The Next In An Upward Course Or Whether We Just Ride The Cycles Of Boom And Bust, War And Peace, Ascent And Decline.

We Need Fathers To Step Up, To Realize That Their Job Does Not End At Conception; That What Makes You A Man Is Not The Ability To Have A Child But The Courage To Raise One.

We Have To Find Ways In Which, Collectively, We Agree There's Some Things That Government Needs To Do To Help Protect Us, That In This Age Of Non-state Actors Who Can Amass Great Power, I Want My Government - And I Think The German People Should Want Their Government - To Be Able To Find Out If A Terrorist Organization Has Access To A Weapon Of Mass Destruction That Might Go Off In The Middle Of Berlin.

Mass Destruction

The Very Technologies That Empower Us To Do Great Good Can Also Be Used To Undermine Us And Inflict Great Harm.

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 Always Tell Young People In Particular: Do Not Say That Nothing's Changed When It Comes To Race In America, Unless You Lived Through Being A Black Man In The 1950s Or '60s Or '70s.

And If That Child Should Ever Get The Chance To Travel The World And Someone Should Ask Her Where Is She From, We Believe That She Should Always Be Able To Hold Her Head High With Pride In Her Voice When She Answers, "i Am An American." That Is The Course We Seek. That Is The Change We Are Calling For.

Today We Are Engaged In A Deadly Global Struggle For Those Who Would Intimidate, Torture, And Murder People For Exercising The Most Basic Freedoms. If We Are To Win This Struggle And Spread Those Freedoms, We Must Keep Our Own Moral Compass Pointed In A True Direction.

Operation Iraqi Freedom Is Over, And The Iraqi People Now Have Lead Responsibility For The Security Of Their Country

If You Look At Countries Like South Africa, Where You Had A Black Majority, There Have Been Efforts To Tax And Help That Black Majority, But It Hasn't Come In The Form Of A Formal Reparations Program.

Young People Recognize The Big Challenges That Are Coming Up.

Under My Plan Of A Cap-and-trade System, Electricity Rates Would Necessarily Skyrocket.

I Guarantee That There Is No Political Influence In Any Investigation Conducted By The Justice Department Or The Fbi, Not Just In This Case, But In Any Case, Full Stop, Period.

Guarantees That

Few Challenges Facing America And The World Are More Urgent Than Combating Climate Change. The Science Is Beyond Dispute And The Facts Are Clear.

The Bush Administration's Failure To Be Consistently Involved In Helping Israel Achieve Peace With The Palestinians Has Been Both Wrong For Our Friendship With Israel, As Well As Badly Damaging To Our Standing In The Arab World.

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.

For Half Of The World's Population, Roughly Three Billion People Around The World Living On Less Than Two Dollars A Day, An Election Is At Best A Means, Not An End; A Starting Point, Not Deliverance. These People Are Looking Less For An "electocracy" Than For The Basic Elements That For Most Of Us Define A Decent Life--food, Shelter, Electricity, Basic Health Care, Education For Their Children, And The Ability To Make Their Way Through Life Without Having To Endure Corruption, Violence, Or Arbitrary Power.

We Are Not At War Against Islam.

I'm Inspired By My Own Children, How Full They Make My Heart. They Make Me Want To Work To Make The World A Little Bit Better. And They Make Me Want To Be A Better Man.

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.

I'm A Big Believer In Tolerance. I Think That Religion At It's Best Comes With A Big Dose Of Doubt.

If, Technologically, It Is Possible To Make An Impenetrable Device Or System Where The Encryption Is So Strong That There's No Key - There's No Door At All - Then How Do We Apprehend The Child Pornographer? How Do We Solve Or Disrupt A Terrorist Plot?

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.

America Is An Unlikely Place - A Country Built On Defiance Of The Odds; On A Belief In The Impossible. And I Remind You Of This Because As You Set Out To Live Your Own Stories Of Success And Achievement, It's Now Your Turn To Help Keep It This Way.

No One Built This Country On Their Own. This Nation Is Great Because We Built It Together.

Of Course, There's Been A Real Debate About Where To Invest And Where To Cut, And I'm Committed To Working With Members Of Both Parties To Cut Our Deficits And Debt. But We Can't Simply Cut Our Way To Prosperity.

Assault Weapons Ban Reintroduced.

Assault Weapons

My Advice To African Leaders Is To Make Sure That If, In Fact, China Is Putting In Roads And Bridges, Number One, That They Are Hiring African Workers; Number Two, That The Roads Don't Just Lead From The Mine To The Port To Shanghai.

Empowering Women Isn’t Just The Right Thing To Do - It’s The Smart Thing To Do.

Throughout History, The Arts And Humanities Have Helped Men And Women Around The Globe Grapple With The Most Challenging Questions And Come To Know The Most Basic Truths. In Our Increasingly Interconnected World, The Arts Play An Important Role In Both Shaping The Character That Defines Us And Reminding Us Of Our Shared Humanity. This Month, We Celebrate Our Nation's Arts And Humanities, And We Recommit To Ensuring All Americans Can Access And Experience Them.

You Know, My Faith Is One That Admits Some Doubt.

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

Rather, My Perceptions About How We Solve Problems In Health Care Or Education Span Across A Whole Range Of Areas. And I Want To Try To Capture That Complexity.

America, Now Is Not The Time For Small Plans.

The Internet And Twitter And All These Things Are Very Powerful, But It Also Means Sometimes That Instead Of Having A Dialogue We Just Start Calling Folks - Calling Each Other Names. And That's True On The Left Or The Right.

The United States Believes That Every Nation Should Respect International Law, Including In The South China Sea.

There Is No Individual Salvation Without Collective Salvation

We Do Not Believe That In This Country, Freedom Is Reserved For The Lucky, Or Happiness For The Few.

...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).

We, The People, Still Believe That Our Obligations As Americans Are Not Just To Ourselves, But To All Posterity. We Will Respond To The Threat Of Climate Change, Knowing That The Failure To Do So Would Betray Our Children And Future Generations. Some May Still Deny The Overwhelming Judgment Of Science, But None Can Avoid The Devastating Impact Of Raging Fires And Crippling Drought And More Powerful Storms.

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

The World Thanks You For Sharing Nelson Mandela With Us.

When You're A Candidate And You Say Something That Is Inaccurate Or Controversial, It Has Less Impact Than It Does When You're President Of The United States. Everybody Around The World's Paying Attention. Markets Move. National Security Issues Require A Level Of Precision In Order To Make Sure That You Don't Make Mistakes.

Everybody Acknowledges That The Current Path We're On Is Unsustainable, Not Just For The People Who Don't Have Health Insurance But For Those Who Do.

In Missouri, It's A 50/50 State, So I'm Kind Of Used To Half The State Being Mad At Me.

When It Comes To Our Military, What We Have To Think About Is Not, You Know Just Budgets, We've Got To Think About Capabilities.

There Are Certain People In Our Popular Culture That Just Capture People's Imaginations. And In Death, They Become Even Larger. Now, I Have To Admit That It's Also Fed By A 24/7 Media That Is Insatiable.

The Biggest Problems With Iran In The Region Are Not Due To The Size Of Their Resources, But Due To The Fact That They've Been More Effective In Supporting Proxies And Stirring Up Dissension And Conflict In The Region Than America Or Our Allies Have Been In Stopping Those Activities.

I Think It's Very Important To Remember That So Much Of The Work That Gets Done Between Countries Is Not Done At The Level Of Presidents, But Is Done Within Various Agencies, Whether It's Law Enforcement Or Economic Ministries. And When They Establish Relationships And Systems Of Communications And Shared Projects And Shared Visions, Those Structures Continue Even After Any Particular President Is Gone. It Builds Trust And Understanding Between Countries That Are Critically Important.

When I Turn Over The Keys To The President-elect, America Will Be Much Stronger Than It Was When I Came Into Office.

So, Let Us Summon A New Spirit Of Patriotism, Of Responsibility, Where Each Of Us Resolves To Pitch In And Work Harder And Look Over Not Only Ourselves, But Each Other.

When Times Change, So Must We.

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.

Since I've Been In The Senate, Is That My Work With People Like Tom Coburn On Opening Up Transparency In Government, Making Sure That Every Dollar The Federal Government Spends That's Out There - That That's All Posted On A Searchable Database On The Internet.

It Was Basic Research In The Photoelectric Field-in The Photoelectric Effect That Would One Day Lead To Solar Panels. It Was Basic Research In Physics That Would Eventually Produce The Cat Scan. The Calculations Of Today's Gps Satellites Are Based On The Equations That Einstein Put To Paper More Than A Century Ago.

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

If Fake News That's Being Released By Some Foreign Government Is Almost Identical To Reports That Are Being Issued Through Partisan News Venues, Then It's Not Surprising That That Foreign Propaganda Will Have A Greater Effect, Because It Doesn't Seem That Far-fetched Compared To Some Of The Other Stuff That Folks Are Hearing From Domestic Propagandists.

Buy Health Insurance, Or Go To Jail.

My Father's Voice Had Nevertheless Remained Untainted, Inspiring, Rebuking, Granting Or Withholding Approval. 'you Do Not Work Hard Enough, Barry. You Must Help In Your People's Struggle. Wake Up, Black Man!

And What Would Help Minority Workers Are The Same Things That Would Help White Workers: The Opportunity To Earn A Living Wage, The Education And Training That Lead To Such Jobs, Labor Laws And Tax Laws That Restore Some Balance To The Distribution Of The Nation's Wealth.

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.

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.

Non-islamic, Non-foreign-motivated Terrorist Actions Have Killed At Least As Many Americans On American Soil As Those Who Were Promoted By Jihadists. But What We Have Also Seen Is Isil Evolve, Because Of The Sophistication Of Their Social Media, To A Point Where They May Be Inspiring More Attacks - Even If They're Self-initiated, Even If They Don't Involve Complex Planning - Than We Would Have Seen Some Time Ago.

I Love Listening To These Guys Give Us Lectures About Debt And Deficits. I Inherited A Trillion-dollar Deficit. ... This Notion That Somehow We Caused The Deficits Is Just Wrong. It's Just Not True. ... If They Start Trying To Give You A Bunch Of Facts And Figures Suggesting That It's True, What They're Not Telling You Is They Baked All This Stuff Into The Cake With Those Tax Cuts And A Prescription Drug Plan That They Didn't Pay For And The Wars.

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

There Are Places I Want To Visit Where If I'm Wearing A Baseball Cap And Some Sunglasses I Think I Can Get Away With And Mingle In A Crowd.

Nobody Is Listening To Your Telephone Calls.

America's Strong Bonds With Israel Are Well Known - This Bond Is Unbreakable.

Turns Out I'm Really Good At Killing People. Didn't Know That Was Gonna Be A Strong Suit Of Mine.

The Reforms We Seek Would Bring Greater Competition, Choice, Savings And Inefficiencies To Our Health Care System.

As For Israel, Our Friendship Is Rooted Deeply In A Shared History And Shared Values. Our Commitment To Israel's Security Is Unshakeable. And We Will Stand Against Attempts To Single It Out For Criticism In International Forums.

If You Work Hard. And Are Responsible. You Should Be Rewarded.

In Ancient Times And In Our Times, Muslim Communities Have Been At The Forefront Of Innovation And Education.

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.

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

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

African American

I Invigorated The Grassroots In The Republican Party As Well As The Democratic Party.

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.

We Could Come Together, Democrats And Republicans, To Find Practical, Commonsense Solutions To Health Care, To Education, To Energy Issues, Because Although I'm A Proud Democrat, I'm A Prouder American. And I Think All Of Us Believe, Regardless Of Our Party Affiliations, That This Is A Critical Time, Where We've Got To Solve Big Problems.

You Like Pie? I Like Pie.

Oftentimes, Misunderstandings And Antagonism Surfaces Most Strongly When Economic Times Are Tough. And That's Not Surprising. If Everybody Is Working And Feeling Good And Making Money And Buying A New House And A Big Screen Tv, You're Less Worried About What Other Folks Are Doing.

I Think What Grows The Economy Is When You Get That Tax Credit That We Put In Place For Your Kids Going To College. I Think That Grows The Economy. I Think What Grows The Economy Is When We Make Sure Small Businesses Are Getting A Tax Credit For Hiring Veterans Who Fought For Our Country. That Grows Our Economy.

To Young People: You Have To Stay Encouraged.

I Know There Are Problems That I Say To Myself, If Maybe I Was A Little More Gifted I Might Have Been Able To Solve. But That's Not Because I Believe What I Did Was A Mistake. It's That Maybe It Required The Talents Of A Lincoln.

The Boarded-up Homes, The Decaying Storefronts, The Aging Church Rolls, Kids From Unknown Families Who Swaggered Down The Streets - Loud Congregations Of Teenage Boys, Teenage Girls Feeding Potato Chips To Crying Toddlers, The Discarded Wrappers Tumbling Down The Block - All Of It Whispered Painful Truths.

We Believe That No Matter Where You Live - Whether A Village In Punjab Or The Bylanes Of Chandni Chowk, An Old Section Of Kolkata Or A New High-rise In Bangalore - Every Person Deserves The Same Chance To Live In Security And Dignity, To Get An Education, To Find Work, And To Give Their Children A Better Future.

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?

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.

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.

The Public School System Is Not About Educating Black Children. Never Has Been. Inner-city Schools Are About Social Control. Period. They’re Operated As Holding Pens—miniature Jails, Really. It’s Only When Black Children Start Breaking Out Of Their Pens And Bothering White People That Society Even Pays Any Attention To The Issue Of Whether These Children Are Being Educated.

We Should Never Hesitate To Use Military Force, And I Will Not, As President, In Order To Keep The American People Safe. But We Have To Use Our Military Wisely. And We Did Not Use Our Military Wisely In Iraq.

If You Only Think About Yourself - How Much Money Can I Make, What Can I Buy, How Nice Is My House, What Kind Of Fancy Car Do I Have? - Over The Long Term, I Think, You Get Bored. I Think Your Life Becomes Diminished. The Way To Live A Full Life Is To Think: What Can I Do For Others?

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

Now, Because He Knows That His Economic Theories Don't Work, He's Been Spending These Last Few Days Calling Me Every Name In The Book. Lately He's Called Me A Socialist For Wanting To Roll-back The Bush Tax Cuts For The Wealthiest Americans So We Can Finally Give Tax Relief To The Middle Class. I Don't Know What's Next. By The End Of The Week He'll Be Accusing Me Of Being A Secret Communist Because I Shared My Toys In Kindergarten. I Shared My Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwich.

Empathy Is A Quality Of Character That Can Change The World.

For The Sake Of Our Security, Our Economy And Our Planet, We Must Have The Courage And Commitment To Change.

There Are Things I Cannot Say.

Try To Be As Honest As Possible.

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.

He [barack Obama] Talked About A Crisises And He Was Blaming The Republicans On This Crisises. It's Like Me Blaming My Wife For My Drinking. I Don't Se How This Is The Republicans Fault.

I Don't Believe We Can Get Very Far, With Leaders Who Write Off Half The Nation As A Bunch Of Victims Who Never Take Responsibility For Their Own Lives.

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

[america] Will Stand Steadfast With Israel In Pursuit Of Security And A Lasting Peace.

Presidential Elections Always Turn On Personalities, They Turn On How Campaigns Are Run, They Turn On Natural Desires For Change.

A Low-carbon, Clean Energy Economy Can Be An Engine Of Growth For Decades To Come.

The Countries Who Out-educate Us Today Will Out-compete Us Tomorrow.

It's Time To Recognize That Under The Equal Protection Clause Of The United States [constitution], Same-sex Couples Should Have The Same Rights As Anybody Else.

All I Care About Is Making Sure That I Leave Behind An America That Is Stronger, More Prosperous, More Stable, More Secure Than It Was When I Came Into Office And That's Going To Continue To Drive Me.

Our Journey Is Not Complete Until We Find A Better Way To Welcome The Striving, Hopeful Immigrants Who Still See America As A Land Of Opportunity, Until Bright Young Students And Engineers Are Enlisted In Our Workforce Rather Than Expelled From Our Country.

What We Have To Do Moving Forward Is To Make Sure That Small Businesses That Account For Most Of The Job Growth In Our Economy Are Getting The Kind Of Financing That They Need.

Sometimes Slow, Steady Effort Is Rewarded With Justice That Arrives Like A Thunderbolt.

We May Not Be Able To Stop Evil In The World, But How We Treat One Another Is Entirely Up To Us.

The Strongest Democracies Flourish From Frequent And Lively Debate, But They Endure When People Of Every Background And Belief Find A Way To Set Aside Smaller Differences In Service Of A Greater Purpose.

I Think It's Fair To Say That [donald Trump] And I Are Sort Of Opposites In Some Ways.

Let's Make Two Things Clear: Isil Is Not "islamic." No Religion Condones The Killing Of Innocents, And The Vast Majority Of Isil's Victims Have Been Muslim. And Isil Is Certainly Not A State.

I Can Make A Firm Pledge, Under My Plan, No Family Making Less Than $250,000 A Year Will See Any Form Of Tax Increase. Not Your Income Tax, Not Your Payroll Tax, Not Your Capital Gains Taxes, Not Any Of Your Taxes.

Let's Face It, I Like Stanford Grads. I'd Always Hear About This Campus, And Everybody Is Riding Bikes, And People Hopping Into Fountains.

I'm Not Sure We Have The Right Strategy In Afghanistan. Let Me Think This Over For A Few Months.

We Can Seize This Future Together Because We Are Not As Divided As Our Politics Suggests.

Futures Together

The Russians Can't Change Us Or Significantly Weaken Us. They Are A Smaller Country. They Are A Weaker Country. Their Economy Doesn't Produce Anything That Anybody Wants To Buy, Except Oil And Gas And Arms. They Don't Innovate. But They Can Impact Us If We Lose Track Of Who We Are.

What Americans Expect From Washington Is Action That Matches The Urgency They Feel In Their Daily Lives.

On This Day, We Gather Because We Have Chosen Hope Over Fear, Unity Of Purpose Over Conflict And Discord.

Even Those Who Claim The Bible's Inerrancy Make Distinctions Between Scriptural Edicts, Sensing That Some Passages - The Ten Commandments, Say, Or A Belief In Christ's Divinity - Are Central To Christian Faith, While Others Are More Culturally Specific And May Be Modified To Accommodate Modern Life.

Isil Poses A Threat To The People Of Iraq And Syria, And The Broader Middle East - Including American Citizens, Personnel And Facilities. If Left Unchecked, These Terrorists Could Pose A Growing Threat Beyond That Region, Including To The United States.

Letting The Free Market Do Whatever It Wants. That's Not Been Historically How We Grow. We Have To Invest In Education, In Rebuilding Broadband Lines And Roads And Runways, And It's Important That We Bring Back American Manufacturing And Regulations To Prevent Consumers From Being Cheated.

If You're A Strong Man, You Should Not Feel Threatened By Strong Women.

We Are A People Of Improbable Hope.

We've Protected Thousands Of People In Libya; We Have Not Seen A Single U.s. Casualty; There's No Risks Of Additional Escalation. This Operation Is Limited In Time And In Scope.

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.

What You Saw Was The People Of New York Having A Debate, Talking Through These Issues. It Was Contentious. It Was Emotional. But Ultimately, They Made A Decision To Recognize Civil Marriage. And I Think That's Exactly How Things Should Work.

I Decided To Become A Community Organizer ... Change Won't Come From The Top, I Would Say. Change Will Come From A Mobilized Grass Roots.

Don’t Ever Let Anybody Tell You That Your Efforts Don’t Matter Or That Your Voice Doesn’t Count. Don’t Ever Believe That You Can’t Make A Difference. You Have.

America Must Always Lead On The World Stage.

I Don't Want To Make Decisions About What I'm Eating Or Wearing. Because I Have Too Many Other Decisions To Make.

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

Let's Not Only Provide A Jumpstart To The Economy And Immediately Or Save 3 Million Jobs, But Let's Also Put A Down Payment On Some Of The Structural Problems That We Have In Our Economy.

I'm Not Saying I'm Impervious To Criticism.

That Sort Of Lack Of Awareness On The Part Of An Activist About The Constraints Of Our Political System And The Constraints On This Office, I Think, Sometimes Would Leave Me To Mutter Under My Breath. Very Rarely Did I Lose It Publicly. Yeah, Usually I'd Just Smile.

Our Job As Americans Is To Restore That Basic Bargain That Says, If You Work Hard, If You're Willing To Meet Your Responsibilities, You Can Get Ahead. You Can Get Ahead. Doesn't Matter What You Look Like, Doesn't Matter Where You Come From. Our Middle Class, When It's Growing, When It's Thriving, When There Are Ladders Of Opportunity For People To Do A Little Bit Better Each Year And Then Make Sure That Their Kids Are Doing Even Better Than Them, That's The American Dream. That's What We Got To Fight For. That Has To Be The North Star That Guides Everything We Do.

Since I'm The President And Democrats Have Controlled The House And The Senate, It's Understandable That People Are Saying, You Know, 'what Have You Done?'

I'm Confident That America's Foreign Policy Rebalance To The Region Will Endure Beyond My Presidency Because It's In The National Interest Of The United States.

The Cold War Has Been Over For A Long Time. I'm Not Interested In Having Battles That, Frankly, Started Before I Was Born.

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.

Campaigning Is Different From Governing.

One Of The Things I Think We Have To Do Is Make Sure That College Is Affordable For Every Young Person In America. And I Also Think That We're Going To Have To Rebuild Our Infrastructure, Which Is Falling Behind, Our Roads, Our Bridges, But Also Broadband Lines That Reach Into Rural Communities. So There Are Some Things That We've Got To Do Structurally To Make Sure That We Can Compete In This Global Economy. We Can't Shortchange Those Things. We've Got To Eliminate Programs That Don't Work, And We've Got To Make Sure That The Programs That We Do Have Are More Efficient And Cost Less.

I Can Say Across Europe That Many Principles That Have Been Taken For Granted Here Around Free Speech, And Around Civil Liberties And An Independent Judiciary, And Fighting Corruption, Those Are Principles That, You Know, Not Perfectly But Generally, We Have Tried To Apply Not Just In Our Own Country But Also With Respect To Our Foreign Policy.

Any Fool Can Have A Child. That Doesn't Make You A Father. It's The Courage To Raise A Child That Makes You A Father.

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

We Are Reminded That, In The Fleeting Time We Have On This Earth, What Matters Is Not Wealth, Or Status, Or Power, Or Fame, But Rather How Well We Have Loved And What Small Part We Have Played In Making The Lives Of Other People Better.

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.

Higher Education Cannot Be A Luxury Reserved Just For A Privileged Few. It Is An Economic Necessity For Every Family. And Every Family Should Be Able To Afford It.

Let Me Be Absolutely Clear. Israel Is A Strong Friend Of Israel's. It Will Be A Strong Friend Of Israel's Under A Mccain Administration. It Will Be A Strong Friend Of Israel's Under An Obama Administration. So That Policy Is Not Going To Change.

In A World Of Complex Threats, Our Security And Leadership Depends On All Elements Of Our Power - Including Strong And Principled Diplomacy.

Who Is Barack Obama? Contrary To The Rumors You Have Heard, I Was Not Born In A Manger. I Was Actually Born On Krypton And Sent Here By My Father Jor-el To Save The Planet Earth. Many Of You Know That I Got My Name, Barack, From My Father. What You May Not Know Is Barack Is Actually Swahili For 'that One.' And I Got My Middle Name From Somebody Who Obviously Didn't Think I'd Ever Run For President. If I Had To Name My Greatest Strength, I Guess It Would Be My Humility. Greatest Weakness, It's Possible That I'm A Little Too Awesome.

Yes To Trade, But Trade That Ensures That These Other Countries That Trade With Us Aren't Engaging In Child Labor.

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

From The Day I Took Office, I've Been Told That Addressing Our Larger Challenges Is Too Ambitious; Such An Effort Would Be Too Contentious. I've Been Told That Our Political System Is Too Gridlocked, And That We Should Just Put Things On Hold For A While. For Those Who Make These Claims, I Have One Simple Question: How Long Should We Wait? How Long Should America Put Its Future On Hold?

The Government Can't Solve Every Problem, But An Enlightened Government Can Make Sure That People Can Work Hard For Their Dreams And Achieve Them.

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.

Those Opposed To Abortion Cannot Simply Invoke God's Will-they Have To Explain Why Abortion Violates Some Principle That Is Accessible To People Of All Faiths.

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.

We Were Very Effective, And I Was Very Effective, In Shaping Public Opinion Around My Campaigns. But There Were Big Stretches, While Governing, Where Even Though We Were Doing The Right Thing, We Weren't Able To Mobilize Public Opinion Firmly Enough Behind Us To Weaken The Resolve Of The Republicans To Stop Opposing Us Or To Cooperate With Us. And There Were Times During My Presidency Where I Lost The Pr Battle.

This Is About Respect For Women, The Judgments That Women Make And Their Doctors About Their Reproductive Health. It's An Important Part Of Who Women Are, Their Reproductive Health.

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

What We Can Be Scientifically Certain Of Is That Our Continued Use Of Fossil Fuels Is Pushing Us To A Point Of No Return

It’s Not That I Want To Punish Your Success. I Want To Make Sure That Everybody Who Is Behind You, That They’ve Got A Chance For Success, Too. My Attitude Is That If The Economy’s Good For Folks From The Bottom Up, It’s Gonna Be Good For Everybody. I Think When You Spread The Wealth Around, It’s Good For Everybody.

We, The People, Still Believe That Every Citizen Deserves A Basic Measure Of Security And Dignity.

Being A Father Is Sometimes My Hardest But Always My Most Rewarding Job. Happy Father's Day To All The Dads Out There.

I Actually Believe In Redistribution (of Wealth)

Redistribution Of Wealth

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

When It Comes To The War In Iraq, The Time For Promises And Assurances For Waiting And For Patience Is Over. Too Many Lives Have Been Lost, Too Many Billions Of Dollars Have Been Spent For Us To Trust The President On Another Tired And Failed Policy That's Opposed By Generals And Experts, Democrats And Republicans, Americans And Many Of The Iraqis Themselves.

What We Also Have To Recognize Is That The Deficit Levels That I'm Inheriting, Over A Trillion Dollars, Coming Out Of Last Year, That That Is Unsustainable. At A Certain Point, Other Countries Stop Buying Our Debt, At A Certain Point, We'd End Up Having To Raise Interest Rates, And It Would End Up Creating More Economic Chaos And Potentially Inflation.

The People There, The Community, The Lessons That I Learned -- They're All Based Right In This Few Square Miles Where We'll Now Be Able To Give Something Back And Bring The World Back Home After This Incredible Journey.

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.

This Is My Number One Priority. I've Got A Lot Of Things On My Plate. But My Top Priority Is To Defeat Isil And To Eliminate The Scourge Of This Barbaric Terrorism That's Been Taking Place Around The World. Groups Like Isil Can't Destroy Us. They Can't Defeat Us. They Don't Produce Anything. They're Not An Existential Threat To Us. It Is Very Important For Us To Not Respond With Fear.

The Globe Is Shrinking, The Information Age Is Bringing A Lot Of Changes. People Are Anxious About Their Future And Their Children's Futures.

If We’re Going To Have Arguments, Let’s Have Arguments — but Let’s Make Them Debates Worthy Of This Body And Worthy Of This Country.

We Are The Change We Have Been Waiting For.

Nobody Cares How Tough Your Upbringing Was. Nobody Cares If You Suffered Some Discrimination.

Nothing Is More Powerful Than The Black Church Experience. A Good Choir And A Good Sermon In The Black Church, It's Pretty Hard Not To Be Move And Be Transported.

I've Been Called Worse On The Basketball Court.

Basketball Court

Working Full-time Should Mean Enough To Support A Family.

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 Have Complete Confidence In The American People And Our Legal Traditions And The Prosecutors, The Tough Prosecutors From New York Who Specialize In Terrorism.

I Believe That The Best Measure Of Whether A Nation Is Going To Be Successful Is Whether They Are Tapping The Talents Of Their Women.

No Deal Means A Greater Chance Of More War In The Middle East.

We Are Greater Than The Sum Of Our Individual Ambitions

You've Got Audiences Cheering At The Prospect Of Somebody Dying Because They Don't Have Health Care And Booing A Service Member In Iraq Because They're Gay. That's Not Reflective Of Who We Are.

I Do Think That Saving The Economy Was A Pretty Big Deal. We Did A Lot Of Stuff Early That Ended Up Having An Impact. I Believe That The Work We've Done In Moving Our Energy Future In A Cleaner Direction Is Going To Stick Even If Some Of The Individual Steps That We Took Are Reversed By Future Administrations. I Think That It's Embedded Itself In The Economy.

I Think We Can Provide Common-sense Approaches To The Issue Of Illegal Guns That Are Ending Up On The Streets. We Can Make Sure That Criminals Don't Have Guns In Their Hands. We Can Make Certain That Those Who Are Mentally Deranged Are Not Getting A Hold Of Handguns. We Can Trace Guns That Have Been Used In Crimes To Unscrupulous Gun Dealers That May Be Selling To Straw Purchasers And Dumping Them On The Streets.

Filibuster Has Long Tradition, But Used To Harm Civil Rights.

We Must Build A World Free Of Unnecessary Barriers, Stereotypes, And Discrimination. ... Policies Must Be Developed, Attitudes Must Be Shaped, And Buildings And Organizations Must Be Designed To Ensure That Everyone Has A Chance To Get The Education They Need And Live Independently As Full Citizens In Their Communities.

I'm Especially Grateful That They're Here At A Time When The Rest Of Ireland Is Focused On The Final Round Of The Six Nations Rugby Tournament And The Last Match Of The Legendary Brian O'driscoll.

My Liberty Depends On You Being Free, Too.

There Is Enough Oil Out There For World Demand. It Is True That A Lot Of What's Driving Oil Prices Up Right Now Is Not The Lack Of Supply. There's Enough Supply.

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Juliet Marillier

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