Background Image

...

Writing Has Been An Important Exercise To Clarify What I Believe, What I See, What I Care About, What My Deepest Values Are. The Process Of Converting A Jumble Of Thoughts Into Coherent Sentences Makes You Ask Tougher Questions.

-Barack Obama

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Writing Has Been An

Barack Obama

...

Writing Has Been An Important Exercise To Clarify What I Believe, What I See, What I Care About, What My Deepest Values Are. The Process Of Converting A Jumble Of Thoughts Into Coherent Sentences Makes You Ask Tougher Questions.

Views: 65023

Topic

More From Barack Obama

... I Just Want To Remind The Owners And The Players: You Guys Make Money Because You Have A Whole Bunch Of Fans Out There Who Are Working Really Hard. They Buy Tickets. They're Watching On Tv. Ya'll Should Be Able To Figure This Out. Get This Done.

The American People Are Not Expecting Miracles. I Think If You Talk To The Average Person Right Now That They Would Say, 'well, Look, You Know Well, We're Having A Tough Time Right Now. We've Had Tough Times Before.' 'and You Know, We Don't Expect A New President Can Snap His Fingers And Suddenly Everything Is Gonna Be Okay. But What We Do Expect Is That The Guy Is Gonna Be Straight With Us. We Do Expect That He's Gonna Be Working Really Hard For Us.'

If We Fall Into The Trap Of Painting All Muslims With A Broad Brush And Imply That We Are At War With An Entire Religion, Then We Are Doing The Terrorists' Work For Them.

I Can't Even Get A Credit Card Without Three Credit Bureaus Saying I'm Good Enough.

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?'

The Best Education I Received Was Working With People In The Community On A Grassroots Basis. Because What It Taught Me Was That Ordinary People, When They Are Working Together Can Do Extraordinary Things.

Working Together

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.

All Of Us - We Should Do Everything We Can To Make Sure This Country Lives Up To Our Children's Expectations.

I Don`t Know If Donald Trump`s Ever Been To An Actual Polling Place, But, You Know, He Doesn`t Even Worry If What He Says Is True. This Is Just About Him Worried That He`s Losing.

You Can Question Somebody's Views And Their Judgment Without Questioning Their Motives Or Patriotism.

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.

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

Even On Health Care What You've Seen Is A Lot Of Stories Surfacing Lately About People Who Said, "well, I Voted For [donald] Trump But I Don't Think He's Really Gonna Take Away My Health Care."

Don't Let Your Failures Define You.

It Is My Judgment That Had I Spent The First Two Years Trying To Get A Single-payer System, All Those Folks Who Now Have Health Insurance That Didn't Have It Would Still Be Uninsured. And Those Are Millions Of People Whose Lives Are Impacted Right Now.

I Take The Constitution Very Seriously. The Biggest Problems That We're Facing Right Now Have To Do With [the President] Trying To Bring More And More Power Into The Executive Branch And Not Go Through Congress At All. And That's What I Intend To Reverse When I'm President Of The United States Of America.

One Of The Things You Learn As President Is, As Powerful As This Office Is, You Have Limited Bandwidth. And The Time Goes By Really Quickly And You're Constantly Making Choices, And There Are Pressures On You From All Different Directions - Pressures On Your Attention, Not Just Pressures From Different Constituencies. And So You Have To Be Pretty Focused About Where Can You Have The Biggest, Quickest Impact.

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

We Do Not Benefit From A Relationship With China Or Any Other Country In Which We Put Our Values And Our Ideals Aside.

I Think The Turks' Willingness To Take Seriously Action On The Borders To Stop The Flow Of Foreign Fighters Joining Isil Is Significant.

I Think The Greek People, Although It Is Difficult And Challenging And The Politics Of It I Know Are Not Good, Should Appreciate The Fact That In This Global Economy, The Greek Economy Was Going To Have To Go Through Some Structural Reforms.

Israel Has Legitimate Concerns About Its Security Relative To Iran. I Mean, You Have A Large Country With A Significant Military That Has Proclaimed That Israel Shouldn't Exist, That Has Denied The Holocaust, That Has Financed Hezbollah, And As A Consequence, There Are Missiles That Are Pointed Towards Tel Aviv. There Are Very Good Reasons Why Israelis Are Nervous About Iran's Position In The World Generally.

You Know, Sometimes I'll Go To An 8th-grade Graduation And There's All That Pomp And Circumstance And Gowns And Flowers. And I Think To Myself, It's Just 8th Grade ... An 8th-grade Education Doesn't Cut It Today. Let's Give Them A Handshake And Tell Them To Get Their Butts Back In The Library!

People Are Whupped. I'm Whupped. My Wife Is Whupped. Unless It's Your Job To Be Curious, Who Really Has The Time To Sit And Ask Questions And Explore Issues?

What Reagan Ushered In Was A Skepticism Toward Government Solutions To Every Problem. I Don't Think That Has Changed

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

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.

[with Donald Trump] We Are Moving Into An Era Where A Lot Of People Get Their Information Through Tweets And Sound Bites And Some Headline That Comes Over Their Phone.

There Are Dangers That Globalization Increases Inequality. There Are Dangers That Because Capital Is Mobile And Workers Are Not, If We Are Not Providing Them Sufficient Protection, That They Can Be Left Behind In This Process. And That's What We Have To Focus On.

All People Should Be Treated Equally, Regardless Of Who They Are Or Who They Love.

We Are The Change We Have Been Waiting For.

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

Futures Together

I Think That People Are Concerned About The Breakdown Of The Family But They Also Don't Want To See Discrimination Against Gays And Lesbians Who They Work With And They Want To Be Able To Make Sure That Gays Can Visit Each Other In Hospitals And Be Able To Inherit Property.

Each Side Has Legitimate Aspirations - And That's Part Of What Makes Peace So Hard. And The Deadlock Will Only Be Broken When Each Side Learns To Stand In The Other's Shoes; Each Side Can See The World Through The Other's Eyes. That's What We Should Be Encouraging. That's What We Should Be Promoting.

If You Think That Running Your Economy Into The Ground And Having To Send Troops In In Order To Prop Up Your Only Ally Is Leadership, Then We've Got A Different Definition Of Leadership.

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.

The Only People Who Don't Want To Disclose The Truth Are The People With Something To Hide.

I Have Made It Clear That We Will Hunt Down Terrorists Who Threaten Our Country, Wherever They Are. That Means I Will Not Hesitate To Take Action Against Isil In Syria, As Well As Iraq. This Is A Core Principle Of My Presidency: If You Threaten America, You Will Find No Safe Haven.

In The Wealthiest Nation On Earth – No Illness Or Accident Should Lead To Any Family’s Financial Ruin.

I Am A Strong Believer In The Free Market. I Am A Strong Believer In Capitalism. But, I Am Also A Strong Believer That There Are Certain Common Goods - Our Air, Our Water, Making Sure That People Are Safe - That Require To Have Some Regulation.

For As Much As Government Can Do And Must Do, It Is Ultimately The Faith And Determination Of The American People Upon Which This Nation Relies. So Let Us Mark This Day With Remebrance, Of Who We Are And How Far We Have Traveled.

What We Have To Do Is Make Sure That Here In America, If You Work Hard, You Can Get Ahead. If You Worked Hard, Not Only Did You Have A Good Job, But You Also Had Decent Benefits, Decent Health Care. We've Got To Make Sure That We're Doing Everything We Can To Expand The Middle Class And People Who Are Working Hard Can Get Into The Middle Class.

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

I Believe In The Redemptive Death And Resurrection Of Jesus Christ.

And When It Comes To Developing The High Standards We Need, It's Time To Stop Working Against Our Teachers And Start Working With Them. Teachers Don't Go In To Education To Get Rich. They Don't Go In To Education Because They Don't Believe In Their Children. They Want Their Children To Succeed, But We've Got To Give Them The Tools. Invest In Early Childhood Education. Invest In Our Teachers And Our Children Will Succeed.

We Built This Country By Making Things, By Producing Goods We Could Sell.

I Think [ Unpopular Presidential Candidates ] Indicates, At Least On The Democratic Side, That We've Got More Work To Do To Strengthen Our Grassroots Networks.

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

Those Aren't The Kinds Of Folks Who Represent Our Core American Values.

American Values

A Child's Course In Life Should Be Determined Not By The Zip Code She's Born In, But By The Strength Of Her Work Ethic And The Scope Of Her Dreams.

One Of The Best Parts Of The Holiday Season Is Spending Time With The Special People In Your Life.

People In Your Life

Long Before Being Nerdy Was Cool, There Was Leonard Nimoy.

Find Somebody To Be Successful For. Raise Their Hopes. Rise To Their Needs.

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

Black Children, White Children, Latino Children. America Is Becoming More Diverse, It's Becoming More Tolerant As A Consequence There's More Interactions Between Groups. There Are Going Be Tensions That Arise.

We Are Going To Trace More Effectively, How These Guns Are Ending Up On The Streets, To Unscrupulous Gun Dealers, Who Often Times Are Selling To Straw Purchasers. And Cracking Down On The Various Loopholes That Exist In Terms Of Background Checks For Children, The Mentally Ill.

On Every Continent, There Are Girls Who Will Go On To Change The World In Ways We Can Only Imagine, If Only We Allow Them The Freedom To Dream.

You Have To Be Involved During Midterm Elections, You Have To Care About What Happens At A School Board Level.

I Want People Around The World To Hear Me. To All Those Who Would Do Us Harm, No Act Of Terror Will Go Unpunished. It Will Not Dim The Light Of The Values That We Proudly Present To The Rest Of The World. No Act Of Violence Shakes The Resolve Of The United States Of America.

Who You Are And Who You Love Should Never Be A Fireable Offense

If Everybody Voted, Then It Would Completely Change The Political Map In This Country.

Sticking Your Head In The Sand Might Make You Feel Safer, But It’s Not Going To Protect You From The Coming Storm.

Our Planet Is Changing In Ways That Will Have Profound Impacts On All Of Humankind.

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

I Hope That This [hacking] Does Not Continue To Be Viewed Purely Through A Partisan Lens.i Think There Are Republicans As Well As Democrats Who Are Concerned About This.

I Can Say To The German People That The United States Has Been Good For Germany. Has Looked Out For Germany. Has Provided Security For Germany. Has Helped Rebuilt Germany. And Unify Germany.

In Reaffirming The Greatness Of Our Nation, We Understand That Greatness Is Never A Given. It Must Be Earned. Our Journey Has Never Been One Of Shortcuts Or Settling For Less. It Has Not Been The Path For The Faint-hearted, For Those Who Prefer Leisure Over Work, Or Seek Only The Pleasures Of Riches And Fame. Rather, It Has Been The Risk-takers, The Doers, The Makers Of Things -- Some Celebrated, But More Often Men And Women Obscure In Their Labor -- Who Have Carried Us Up The Long, Rugged Path Towards Prosperity And Freedom.

All I Can Say Is [kids] Have Turned Out To Be Terrific Young Women. We Were Concerned Mostly About Whether They'd Develop An Attitude, Right?

I'll Be The First Us President To Not Only Visit Kenya And Ethiopia, But Also To Address The Continent As A Whole, Building Off The African Summit That We Did Here Which Was Historic And Has, I Think, Deepened The Kinds Of Already Strong Relationships That We Have Across The Continent.

By Hook Or By Crook, We're Going To Make Sure That When I Leave This Office, That The Country Is More Prosperous, More People Have Opportunity, Kids Have A Better Education, We're More Competitive, Climate Change Is Being Taken More Seriously Than It Was.those Are Going To Be The Measures By Which I Look Back And Say Whether I've Been Successful As President.

I Will Continue To Believe That Israel's Security Is Paramount.

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.

Let Us Reach For The World That Ought To Be -- That Spark Of The Divine That Still Stirs Within Each Of Our Souls.

I Want To Make Sure America Has Got The Best Education System In The World. And We're Retaining Our Workers For The Jobs Of Tomorrow.

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

The Internet Didn't Get Invented On Its Own. Government Research Created The Internet So That All The Companies Could Make Money Off The Internet. The Point Is, Is That When We Succeed, We Succeed Because Of Our Individual Initiative, But Also Because We Do Things Together.

I Will Never Turn Medicare Into A Voucher. No American Should Ever Have To Spend Their Golden Years At The Mercy Of Insurance Companies. They Should Retire With The Care And Dignity They Have Earned.

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.

Let's Remember That Our Leadership Is Defined Not Just By Our Defence Against Threats, But By The Enormous Opportunities To Do Good And Promote Understanding.

Not Much Happens In Russian Federation Without Vladimir Putin.

Isis Is A Virulent, Nasty Organization That Has Gained A Foothold In Ungoverned Spaces Effectively In Syria And Parts Of Western Iraq. We Have To Take It Seriously. They've Shown In Paris What They Can Do In An Organized Fashion.

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.

I'd Like To Think That "president Obama Believed Deeply In This Democracy And The American People."

I Think That At A Certain Stage Those Early Ambitions Burn Away, Partly Because You Achieve Something, You Get Something Done, You Get Some Notoriety. And Then The Particularities Of Who You Are And What Your Deepest Commitments Are Begin Expressing Themselves. You're Not Just Chasing The Idea Of "me" Being Important, But You, Rather, Are Chasing A Particular Passion.

There's Some Bittersweet Feelings About Leaving The People Here [in The White House]. 'cause Even Though All The Team You Assemble, You Know, You're Going To Stay In Touch With 'em, It's Not The Same, You Know? The Band Kind Of Breaks Up.

When Individuals Get Crowbars And Start Prying Open Doors To Loot, They're Not Protesting. They're Not Making A Statement. They're Stealing. When They Burn Down A Building, They're Committing Arson.

America, We Are Better Than These Last Eight Years. We Are A Better Country Than This.

There's A Lot Of People Talking About Elitism And All Of That.yes, I Went To Princeton And Harvard, But The Lens Through Which I See The World Is The Lens That I Grew Up With. I Am The Product Of A Working Class Upbringing.

Tonight, More Americans Are Out Of Work And More Are Working Harder For Less. More Of You Have Lost Your Homes And Even More Are Watching Your Home Values Plummet. More Of You Have Cars You Can't Afford To Drive, Credit Card Bills You Can't Afford To Pay, And Tuition That's Beyond Your Reach.

People Need To Remember We Are The Governing Party Because We Have Diversity Of Opinion In Our Party. We're Not Pure. We Have Moderates And We Have More Progressives.

It Is Time To Leave Behind The Divisive Battles Of The Past. It Is Time To Move Forward As One Nation.

No Country Should Deny People Their Rights Because Of Who They Love, Which Is Why We Must Stand Up For The Rights Of Gays And Lesbians Everywhere.

I Actually Think, When You're Young, Ambitions Are Somewhat Common - You Want To Prove Yourself. It May Grow Out Of Different Life Experiences. You May Want To Prove That You Are Worthy Of The Admiration Of The Demanding Father. You May Want To Prove That You Are Worthy Of The Love Of An Absent Father.

I Honor, We Honor The Service Of John Mccain, And I Respect His Many Accomplishments, Even If He Chooses To Deny Mine. My Differences With Him Are Not Personal; They Are With The Policies He Has Proposed In This Campaign.

I Will Never Apologize For Saying That The Future Of Humanity And The Future Of The World Is Going To Be Defined By What We Have In Common As Opposed To Those Things That Separate Us And Ultimately Lead Us Into Conflict.

The Private Sector Is Doing Fine.

We Can't, You Know, Use Our Military To Make Sure The Planet Doesn't Get Warmer. And So That Kind Of Leadership, Of Being Able To Bring People Together, To Apply Practical Commonsense Solutions Based On Facts, Based On Science, Based On What Works You Know, That's Been The Approach I Have Taken Consistently As A Public Servant. That's The Kind Of Style That I Think We Need In The Presidency Right Now.

I Don't Think We Should Ever Accept The Idea That Someone Can Come Along And Take Away Our Safety And Our Freedom.

With The Magnitude Of The Challenges We Face Right Now, What We Need In Washington Are Not More Political Tactics, We Need More Good Ideas. We Don't Need More Point Scoring, We Need More Problem Solving.

I Am A Firm Believer That You Don't Do Anything Significant By Yourself. Again, Maybe There Are Exceptions. There's The Picasso Or The Mozart.

Insist That The First Question Each Of Us Asks Isn't "what's Good For Me?" But "what's Good For The Country My Children Will Inherit?

The Notion That Somehow As A Consequence Of Me Knowing Somebody Who Engaged In Detestable Acts 40 Years Ago, When I Was 8 Years Old, Somehow Reflects On Me And My Values Doesn't Make Much Sense.

That's Part Of What I Tried To Describe To My Team And Supporters After The Election, There Was A Lot Of Disappointment.

California Is Our Biggest Economy. California Is Our Biggest Agricultural Producer. So What Happens Here Matters To Every Working American.

[my Kids] Complained About Secret Service As They Became Teenagers, And Secret Service Has Done The Very Best Job They Could Accommodating Them, So It Hasn't Restricted Any Of Their Activities.

Our Goal Is To Have A Country That's Not Divided By Race.

I Do Not Talk To The Fbi Directors About Pending Investigations [on Hillary Clinton].

The Fact That We Are Here Today To Debate Raising America's Debt Limit Is A Sign Of Leadership Failure... It Is A Sign That We Now Depend On Ongoing Financial Assistance From Foreign Countries To Finance Our Government's Reckless Fiscal Policies.

When I Was A Kid, I Inhaled. Frequently. That Was The Point.

Politics Didn't Lead Me To Working People. Working People Led Me Into Politics.

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.

As Citizens, We Understand That It Is Not About What America May Do For Us. It's About What Can Be Done By Us, Together.

We Have An Obligation And A Responsibility To Be Investing In Our Students And Our Schools. We Must Make Sure That People Who Have The Grades, The Desire And The Will, But Not The Money, Can Still Get The Best Education Possible.

I Think The American People Recognize That The World Has Shrunk. That It's Interconnected. That You're Not Going To Put That Genie Back In The Bottle.

The Hard Truth Is Carbon Pollution Has Built Up In Our Atmosphere For Decades Now. And Even If We Americans Do Our Part, The Planet Will Slowly Keep Warming For Some Time To Come.

Let Us Each Of Us Now Embrace With Solemn Duty, And Awesome Joy, What Is Our Lasting Birthright. With Common Effort And Common Purpose, With Passion And Dedication, Let Us Answer The Call Of History And Carry Into An Uncertain Future That Precious Light Of Freedom.

There's No Way To Resolve Syria Without Iran Being Involved, Given Its Financing Of Assad And The Fact That Hezbollah Is Probably The Most Effective Fighting Force That Assad Can Count On.

I Think It Is Important For Europe To Understand That Even Though I Am President And George Bush Is Not President, Al Qaeda Is Still A Threat.

We Had A Farewell Dinner For Some Of My Senior Staff, And Generally Everybody Likes To Talk About How Cool I Was.

I've Been Talking About Things Like Reversing The Rise Of Inequality And Strengthening Social Mobility,since Before It Was Cool.

Their Foreign Policy Is So Disjointed, Confusing, And Chaotic That, Really, People Need To Reexamine Those Who Want To Be Involved In Every War.

I Do Think That You're Starting To See Young People Pay Attention To Some Longterm Issues That They Feel Washington Has Neglected.

Americans Should Tremble Before Suggesting That Any Fellow Citizen Lacks Patriotism.

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

We Can Lead This World And Make It Safer And More Secure For Our Children And Our Grandchildren, For Generations To Come.

Hostility And Hatred Are No Match For Justice; They Offer No Pathway To Peace.

My Hope Is That The President-elect [donald Trump] Coming In Takes A Similarly Constructive Approach, Finding Areas Where We Can Cooperate With Russia, Where Our Values And Interests Align. But That The President-elect Also Is Willing To Stand Up To Russia Where They Are Deviating From Our Values And International Norms.

If We Don't Reform How Healthcare Is Delivered In This Country, Then We Are Not Going To Be Able To Get A Handle On That Escalating Healthcare Costs.

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

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.

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.

When Your Team Loses, Everybody Gets Deflated. And It's Hard, And It's Challenging.

Nobody's Madder Than Me About The Website Not Working As Well As It Should, Which Means It's Going To Get Fixed.

I Think I Have A Pretty Good Take On Popular Culture That Maybe Makes Up For The Fact That I'm Not A Sound-bite Politician For The Nightly News.

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

I Came In With A Healthy Skepticism About These Programs. My Team Evaluated Them. We Scrubbed Them Thoroughly. We Actually Expanded Some Of The Oversight, Increased Some Of The Safeguards. But My Assessment, And My Team's Assessment Was That They Help Us Prevent Terrorist Attacks. In The Abstract, You Can Complain About 'big Brother' And How This Is A Potential Program Run Amok. But When You Actually Look At The Details, Then, I Think We've Struck The Right Balance.

We Will Not Engage In An Endless Process Of Negotiations.

This Is The Moment When We Must Come Together To Save This Planet.

I Think There Are A Lot Of People Who Are Involved In The Tea Party Who Have Very Real And Sincere Concerns About Spending That's Out Of Control Or Generally Philosophically Believe That The Government Should Be Less Involved In Certain Aspects Of American Life Rather Than More Involved. And They Have Every Right And Obligation As Citizens To Be Involved And Engaged In This Process.

We Reject All Efforts To Denigrate The Religious Beliefs Of Others.

I'm Trying To Move An Aircraft Carrier Here, I'm Not Just Steering The Speedboat.

Aircraft Carriers

It Will Take Time To Eradicate A Cancer Like Isil. And Any Time We Take Military Action, There Are Risks Involved - Especially To The Servicemen And Women Who Carry Out These Missions. But I Want The American People To Understand How This Effort Will Be Different From The Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan. It Will Not Involve American Combat Troops Fighting On Foreign Soil.

Today, I Can Report That, As Promised, The Rest Of Our Troops In Iraq Will Come Home By The End Of The Year.

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.

Historically, When A Previous Us Administration Enters Into An Agreement, It Carries Forward Into The Future Administration.

There's No Reason Why Americans Should Die When Afghans Are Perfectly Capable Of Defending Their Own Country.

[fall Of The Berlin Wall] Is A Reminder That The Commitment Of The United States, To Europe Is Enduring And It's Rooted In The Values We Share; Our Commitment To Democracy, Our Commitment To Rule Of Law, Our Commitment To The Dignity Of All People In Our Own Countries And Around The World.

We Are Now At A Point Where Because We In Fact Have Been Successful At Stopping A Number Of Plots, A Threat Has Evolved. We Do See These Lone-wolf Actors. We Do See These Encouragements For Troubled Individuals To Pick Up A Gun And Act Out Of This Ideology.

We Are Not Going To Have A Situation Where Our Education Spending Goes Back To Its Lowest Level Since The Year 2000 Despite A Larger Population And More Kids To Educate. We Know That The Single Most Important Thing In Terms Of How Well We Can Compete Around The World Is The Quality Of Our Workforce. We Can't Do That To Our Kids.

As I Reflect Back On What's Worked For Me In This [presidential] Office It's Been That I've Gotten People Who Maybe Didn't Believe In The Process To Get Engaged. Ironically, I've Even Gotten The Other Side That Maybe Didn't Believe In The Process To Get Engaged.

Some People Only Speak Of Freedom Of Speech While They're Out Of Power. Once They're In Power, They're Ruthless In Suppressing The Rights Of Others.

Freedom Of Speech

I Believe We Can Seize This Future Together, Because We Are Not As Divided As Our Politics Suggests. [...] We Are Greater Than The Sum Of Our Individual Ambitions. [...] We Are And Forever Will Be The United States Of America. [...] We Will Continue Our Journey Forward And Remind The World Just Why It Is That We Live In The Greatest Nation On Earth.

I Think I Will Still Feel That Same Appreciation For What [winston] Churchill And Others Have Said Is The Worst Form Of Government Except All The Alternatives.

If We Think That We Can Secure Our Country By Just Talking Tough Without Acting Tough And Smart, Then We Will Misunderstand This Moment And Miss Its Opportunities. If We Think That We Can Use The Same Partisan Playbook Where We Just Challenge Our Opponent's Patriotism To Win An Election, Then The American People Will Lose. The Times Are Too Serious For This Kind Of Politics.

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.

The Number Of Americans Killed Since 9/11 By Terrorism, It's Less Than 100. If You Look At The Number That Have Been Killed By Gun Violence, It's In The Tens Of Thousands. And For Us Not To Be Able To Resolve That Issue Has Been Something That Is Distressing.

You Work With What You Got.

We Wouldn't Even Be Where We Are Had It Not Been That 70% Of Hispanics Voted For President Obama, Voted Democratic In The Last Election. That Caused An Epiphany In The Senate, That's For Sure. So All Of A Sudden We Have Already Passed Comprehensive Immigration Reform In The Senate. That's A Big Victory.

There Is Nothing Wrong With Our Country, There Is Something Wrong With Our Politics...when This Country Is Operating Off A Common Ground, Nobody Can Stop Us. But When We're Divided, Then We End Up Having A Whole Lot Of Self-inflicted Problems.

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

Learning To Stand In Somebody Else's Shoes, To See Through Their Eyes, That's How Peace Begins. And It's Up To You To Make That Happen. Empathy Is A Quality Of Character That Can Change The World.

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.

We've Got To Make Sure That We Rebuild The Infrastructure In America, Because We Used To Be - Have The Best Bridges, The Best Roads, The Best Airports. And Now, When You Go To China Or You Go To Europe, You See That They Are Outstripping Us In Terms Of Infrastructure. And If We Put People Back To Work, That Would Be Good Not Only In The Short Term, But It Would Also Lay The Foundation, The Framework For Long-term Economic And Job Growth.

My Little Girls Can Break My Heart. They Can Make Me Cry Just Looking At Them Eating Their String Beans.

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.

If You Look At How I've Tried To And How I'll Continue To Try To Govern, I'm Not Driven By Some Ideological Agenda. I'm A Pretty Practical Guy And I Just Want To Make Sure That Things Work.

If People Find That Controversial Then I Would Just Refer Them To The Sermon On The Mount.

Some Technologies Don't Pan Out; Some Companies Fail. But I Will Not Walk Away From The Promise Of Clean Energy. ... I Will Not Cede The Wind Or Solar Or Battery Industry To China Or Germany Because We Refuse To Make The Same Commitment Here.

The Criminal-justice System Is, Obviously, The Sole Source Of Racial Tension In This Country [usa] Or The Key Institution To Resolving The Opportunity Gap. It Is A Part Of The Broader Set Of Challenges That We Face In Creating A More Perfect Union.

My Goal Is To Maintain The International Norm On Banning Chemical Weapons. I Want That Enforcement To Be Real. I Want It To Be Serious. I Want People To Understand That Gassing Innocent People, Delivering Chemical Weapons Against Children Is Not Something We Do. It's Prohibited In Active Wars Between Countries. We Certainly Don't Do It Against Kids. And We've Got To Stand Up For That Principle.

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.

There Are Places And Moments In America Where This Nation’s Destiny Has Been Decided...selma Is Such A Place.

Scientists And Engineers Ought To Stand Side By Side With Athletes And Entertainers As Role Models.

We Won't Apologise For Our Way Of Life, Nor Will We Weaver In Its Defence, And For Those Who Seek To Advance Their Aims By Inducing Terror And Slaughtering Innocents, We Say To You Now That Our Spirit Is Stronger And Cannot Be Broken, You Cannot Outlast Us, And We Will Defeat You.

The President Does Not Have Power Under The Constitution To Unilaterally Authorize A Military Attack In A Situation That Does Not Involve Stopping An Actual Or Imminent Threat To The Nation. As Commander In Chief, The President Does Have A Duty To Protect And Defend The United States. In Instances Of Self-defense, The President Would Be Within His Constitutional Authority To Act Before Advising Congress Or Seeking Its Consent.

For Me And Michelle, This Visit Has Therefore Held Special Meaning. Throughout My Life, Including My Work As A Young Man On Behalf Of The Urban Poor, I Have Always Found Inspiration In The Life Of Gandhiji And In His Simple And Profound Lesson To Be The Change We Seek In The World. And Just As He Summoned Indians To Seek Their Destiny, He Influenced Champions Of Equality In My Own Country, Including A Young Martin Luther King

I Believe In American Exceptionalism, Just As I Suspect That The Brits Believe In British Exceptionalism And The Greeks Believe In Greek Exceptionalism.

That Bright Blue Ball Rising Over The Moon's Surface, Containing Everything We Hold Dear - The Laughter Of Children, A Quiet Sunset, All The Hopes And Dreams Of Posterity - That's What's At Stake. That's What We're Fighting For. And If We Remember That, I'm Absolutely Sure We'll Succeed.

I Get A Thick Book Full Of Death, Destruction, Strife, And Chaos. That's What I Take With My Morning Tea.

There's No Question That A Lot Of Americans On Both The Right And The Left Are Expressing Some Fears And Frustrations About The Dislocations Brought On By Globalisation. Many Of Those Frustrations Are Legitimate And They Need To Be Addressed.

We Can't In Any Way Criticize Or At Least Indict Or Impeach Administration [of Democratic Presidents] For Doing What They Did.

I Would Not Be Running For President If I Didn't Believe With All My Heart That This Is What The Vast Majority Of Americans Want For This Country. This Union May Never Be Perfect, But Generation After Generation Has Shown That It Can Always Be Perfected. And Today, Whenever I Find Myself Feeling Doubtful Or Cynical About This Possibility, What Gives Me The Most Hope Is The Next Generation - The Young People Whose Attitudes And Beliefs And Openness To Change Have Already Made History In This Election.

If Condoms And Potentially Microbicides Can Prevent Millions Of Deaths [from Aids], They Should Be Made More Widely Available. I Know That There Are Those Who, Out Of Sincere Religious Conviction, Oppose Such Measures. And With These Folks, I Must Respectfully But Unequivocally Disagree.

If It's On Facebook, It All Looks The Same.

On September 11th, 2001, In Our Time Of Grief, The American People Came Together. We Offered Our Neighbors A Hand And We Offered The Wounded Our Blood. We Reaffirmed Our Ties To Each Other And Our Love Of Community And Country. On That Day, No Matter Where We Came From, What God We Prayed To, Or What Race Or Ethnicity We Were, We Were United As One American Family.

Everyone On My Team Should Be Extraordinarily Proud Of What They Have Done.

We Want Our Children To Live In An America...that Isn't Threatened By The Destructive Power Of A Warming Planet.

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

We Understand The Concerns That People Have With Not Only Protecting Our Values, But Our Privacy Interests As Well. We Think That The Usa Freedom Act Was A Good Resolution Of That.

How You Staff, Particularly The Chief Of Staff, The National Security Adviser, Your White House Counsel, How You Set Up A Process In The System To Surface Information And Generate Options For A President, Understanding That Ultimately The President Is Going To Be The Final Decision-maker. That's Something That Has To Be Attended To Right Away.

Number One, It Is Important That We Fix The Legal Immigration System, Because Right Now We've Got A Backlog That Means Years For People To Apply Legally. And What's Worse Is, We Keep On Increasing The Fees, So That If You've Got A Hard Working Immigrant Family, They've Got To Hire A Lawyer; They've Got To Pay Thousands Of Dollars In Fees. They Just Can't Afford It. And It's Discriminatory Against People Who Have Good Character, We Should Want In This Country, But Don't Have The Money. So We've Got To Fix That.

Keeping Our Military Strong Means Keepin' Our Families Strong.

If Some Of These [republican] Folks Were Around When Columbus Set Sail, They Must Have Been Founding Members Of The 'flat Earth Society.' They Would Not Believe That The World Was Round.

I Would Not Advise People Who Feel Strongly Or Are Concerned About Some Of The Issues That Have Been Raised During The Course Of The [president Electing] Campaign.

Iran's Supreme Court Has Issued A Fatwa Against The Development Of Nuclear Weapons. President [hassan] Rouhani Has Indicated Iran Will Never Develop Nuclear Weapons. I've Made Clear That We Respect The Right Of The Iranian People To Access Peaceful Nuclear Energy In The Context Of Iran Meeting Its Obligations.

Lieutenant Al-kaseasbeh's Dedication, Courage And Service To His Country And Family Represent Universal Human Values That Stand In Opposition To The Cowardice And Depravity Of Isil, Which Has Been So Broadly Rejected Around The Globe.

What Makes Us Exceptional - What Makes Us American - Is Our Allegiance To An Idea Articulated In A Declaration Made More Than Two Centuries Ago: “we Hold These Truths To Be Self-evident, That All Men Are Created Equal; That They Are Endowed By Their Creator With Certain Unalienable Rights; That Among These Are Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness.”

Pursuit Of Happiness

The Future Must Not Belong To Those Who Bully Women. It Must Be Shaped By Girls Who Go To School And Those Who Stand For A World Where Our Daughters Can Live Their Dreams Just Like Our Sons.

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

Making Your Mark On The World Is Hard. If It Were Easy, Everybody Would Do It. But It's Not. It Takes Patience, It Takes Commitment, And It Comes With Plenty Of Failure Along The Way. The Real Test Is Not Whether You Avoid This Failure, Because You Won't. It's Whether You Let It Harden Or Shame You Into Inaction, Or Whether You Learn From It; Whether You Choose To Persevere.

Trending Author

Arthur C. Clarke

Christopher Meloni

Category