Quotes from Barack Obama

every so often I needed a dose of her passion and integrity, both as a temperature check on my conscience and because she often had specific, creative

Take whatever question they give you, give 'em a quick line to make it seem like you answered it…and then talk about what you want to talk about.

my administration was deporting undocumented workers at an accelerating rate. This wasn't a result of any directive from me, but rather it stemmed from a 2008 congressional mandate that both expanded ICE's budget and increased collaboration between ICE and local law enforcement departments in an effort to deport more undocumented immigrants with criminal records.

You know things have hit a low point when our closest allies think we're worse on an issue than North Korea," Ben said, shaking his head.

That's why people become involved in organizing—because they think they'll get something out of it.

It is a fact that racial discrimination still exists in the United States and in South America.

In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed. --on a Kansas tornado that killed 12 people

Il y a des moments dans un combat électoral, comme dans la vie, où tous les chemins possible qui s'ouvraient à vous se ferment soudain, à l'exception d'un seul ; des moments où le large éventail de probabilités qui semblait se déployer se réduit à une seule issue, inévitable.

Meanwhile, the splintering of the media and the emergence of conservative outlets meant voters were no longer reliant on Walter Cronkite to tell them what was true; instead, they could hew to sources that reinforced, rather than challenged, their political preferences.

I looked at my wife. Her face was pensive ...

Madiba reminds that democracy is more than just elections.

The more interviews I did, the more I began to hear certain recurring themes.

Carl Sandburg poem come to life. There were inner-city kids jostling one another on a field trip, well-coiffed bankers working their flip phones, farmers in seed caps looking to widen the locks that allowed industrial barges to take their crops to market. You'd see Latina moms looking to fund a new day-care center and middle-aged biker crews, complete with muttonchops and leather jackets, trying to stop yet another legislative effort to make them wear helmets.

This prompted Reggie to ask me how the Ming dynasty finally ended. "Internal strife," I said. "Power struggles, corruption, peasants starving 'cause the rich got greedy or just didn't care…" "So, the usual," Reggie said. I nodded. "The usual.

He told me that I needed to smile more, to remember that this was a great adventure and that voters loved a happy warrior.

Republic for two terms

que cada uno puede reforzar su poder no a base de menoscabar a los demás, sino elevándolos.

arrebataba a la gente su iniciativa y erosionaba su amor propio. Cualquier estrategia para reducir la pobreza intergeneracional debe centrarse en el trabajo, no en la asistencia social, no sólo porque el trabajo da independencia e ingresos sino también porque el trabajo aporta orden, estructura, dignidad y oportunidades de crecimiento a la vida de las personas.

I had to ask strangers to join me and one another on real-life projects - fixing up a park, or removing asbestos from a housing project, or starting and after-school program.

Michelle backstage, beautiful in white, squeezing my hand, gazing lovingly into my eyes, and telling me "Just don't screw it up, buddy!

But the idea of America, the promise of America: this I clung to with a stubbornness that surprised even me. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal"—that was my America.

Over time, my staff and I became so resigned to this style of "he said / he said" coverage that we could joke about it. ("In dueling press conferences today, the debate over the shape of planet Earth heated up, with President Obama—who claims the Earth is round—coming under withering attack from Republicans who insist that the White House has covered up documents proving the Earth is flat.")

work provides independence and income but also because work provides order, structure, dignity, and opportunities for growth in people's lives.

The fuss of being president, the pomp, the press, the physical constraints - all that I could have done without. The actual work, though? The work, I loved. Even when it didn't love me back.