Quotes from Barack Obama

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do.

And yet I find myself returning again and again to my mother's simple principle—How would that make you feel?—as a guidepost for my politics.

Where once I'd felt the need to live up to his expectations, I now felt as if I had to make up for all his mistakes.

It was, of course, a sign of things to come, a larger, darker reality in which partisan affiliation and political expedience would threaten to blot out everything—your previous positions; your stated principles; even what your own senses, your eyes and ears, told you to be true.

That's what empathy does—it calls us all to task, the conservative and the liberal, the powerful and the powerless, the oppressed and the oppressor. We are all shaken out of our complacency. We are all forced beyond our limited vision.

Ours is not the first generation to understand the dire need for health reform. And I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.

Apparently, though, not everyone was sold on my prospects. Gibbs reported that when he stopped at a kiosk on Michigan Avenue to get a copy of Time, the Indian American vendor looked down at my picture and offered a two-word response: "Fuuuuck that.

Yeah, not bad. You're starting to listen. But it's still too abstract Ã¢â'¬Â¦ like you're taking a survey or something. If you want to organize people, you need to steer away from the peripheral stuff and go towards people's centers. The stuff that makes them tick. Otherwise, you'll never form the relationships you need to get them involved.

I were to travel back in time, I might urge the young man I was to set the books aside for a minute, open the windows, and let in some fresh air (my smoking habit was then in full bloom). I'd tell him to relax, go meet some people, and enjoy the pleasures that life reserves for those in their twenties. The few friends I had in New York tried to offer similar advice.

what became abundantly clear as soon as Sarah Palin stepped into the spotlight was that on just about every subject relevant to governing the country she had absolutely no idea what the hell she was talking about.

Well, amigo … you can talk all you want about saving the world, but this city tends to eat away at such noble sentiments.

What had Frank called college? An advanced degree in compromise.

Setiap strategi untuk mengurangi kemiskinan antargenerasi harus dipusatkan pada pekerjaan, bukan pada kesejahteraan--bukan hanya karena pekerjaan itu memberikan kebebasan dan pendapatan, melainkan juga karena pekerjaan itu mendatangkan kedisiplinan, struktur, harga diri, dan kesempatan untuk berkembang dalam kehidupan masyarakat.

how you could build power not by putting others down but by lifting them up.

I had given her a reassuring smile and patted her hand and told her not to worry, I wouldn't do anything stupid. It was usually an effective tactic, another one of those tricks I had learned: People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves.

In return, I gave him a sounding board for his frustrations.

The biggest deficit that we have in our society and in the world right now is an empathy deficit. We are in great need of people being able to stand in somebody else's shoes and see the world through their eyes.

Go read a book, she would say. Then come back and tell me something you learned.

But it's just that he is basically a very honest person. That makes him uncompromising sometimes.

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America."b

Lincoln, and those buried at Gettysburg, remind us that we should pursue our own absolute truths only if we acknowledge that there may be a terrible price to pay.

we better win this thing or the country is screwed.

Ketika kita terus menggunakan miliaran dolar untuk berbagai sistem senjata yang nilainya meragukan namun tidak mau menggunakan uang itu untuk melindungi pabrik-pabrik kimia yang sangat rapuh di pusat-pusat urban yang utama, menjadi semakin sulit bagi kita untuk meminta negara-negara lain menjaga pabrik-pabrik tenaga nuklir mereka.

Orang takkan pernah terlalu sibuk untuk memahami asalnya. --Nenek