Quotes from Barack Obama

he insisted that I move toward the center of people's lives

one of my main goals as First Lady is to never be photographed in a bathing suit.

AT DINNER ONE NIGHT, Malia asked me what I was going to do about tigers. "What do you mean, sweetie?" "Well, you know they're my favorite animal, right?

those basic human responses that normally govern our daily lives—honesty, empathy, courtesy, patience, goodwill—

I felt as if I had woken up to find a blue sun in the yellow sky, or heard animals speaking like men.

Let's be honest. Sometimes art is dangerous, though. And that's why governments sometimes get nervous about art. But one of the things I truly believe is if you try to suppress the arts, then I think you are suppressing the deepest dreams and aspirations of the people.

When you get rid of the estate tax," he said, "you're basically handing over command of the country's resources to people who didn't earn it. It's like choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the children of all the winners at the 2000 Games.

The thing about getting old Bare, is that you're the same person inside... you're trapped inside this doggone contraption but it's the same you.

I dropped to the ground and swept my hand across the smooth yellow tile. Oh, Father, I cried. There was no shame in your confusion. Just as there had been no shame in your father's before you. No shame in the fear, or in the fear of his father before him. There was only shame in the silence fear had produced. It was the silence that betrayed us.

elections alone don't produce a functioning democracy;

If I say I will do something, I must do it. Otherwise, how will people know that my word is true?

For all their talk about wanting politicians to get along, American voters rarely reward the opposition for cooperating with the governing party.

We are not as divided as it seems.

Between 1971 and 2001, while the median wage and salary income of the average worker showed literally no gain, the income of the top hundredth of a percent went up almost 500 percent.

So I ended my speech that night by quoting from Teddy's letter, hoping that his words would bolster the nation just as they had bolstered me. "What we face," he'd written, "is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country." According to poll data, my address to Congress boosted public support for the healthcare bill, at least temporarily.

Here's one thing I know for sure, though. I know that the day I raise my right hand and take the oath to be president of the United States, the world will start looking at America differently. I know that kids all around this country—Black kids, Hispanic kids, kids who don't fit in—they'll see themselves differently, too, their horizons lifted, their possibilities expanded. And that alone…that would be worth it.

When my tears were finally spent, I felt a calmness wash over me. I felt the circle finally close.

History cannot be a sword to justify injustice or a shield against progress. It must be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

the future was to stop drilling entirely; but that wasn't going to happen because at the end of the day we Americans loved our cheap gas and big cars more than we cared about the environment, except when a complete disaster was staring us in the face;

I wanted to think that she did look back, that she'd reveled in the memory of a long ago lover, or a perfect sun lit day in her youth when she'd experienced a bit of good fortune and the world had revealed itself to be big and full of promise.

Mobilizing public opinion, shaping working coalitions—that was the job. Whether I liked it or not, people were moved by emotion, not facts. To elicit the best rather than the worst of those emotions, to buttress those better angels of our nature with reason and sound policy, to perform while still speaking the truth—that was the bar I needed to clear.

I learned to respect the nuts and bolts of politics, the attention to detail required, the daily grind that might prove the difference between winning and losing. It confirmed, too, what I already new about myself: that whatever preferences I had for fair play, I didn't like to lose.

Beyond the fundamentals of repelling enemies and conquering territory, enforcing property rights and policing issues that property-holding white men deemed necessary to maintain order

I wanted to kiss Tom at that moment, but I kissed Michelle instead.