Barack Obama Quotes

#1. My finely honed political instincts tell me that almost nobody believes that they should be paying higher taxes.

Barack Obama

#2. This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.

Barack Obama

#3. I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.

Barack Obama

#4. In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri - where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions.

Barack Obama

#5. 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.

Barack Obama

#6. I want to express our grieve and condolences to the families of two hostages: one American, Dr. Warren Weinstein and an Italian Giovanni LaPorto who were tragically killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation.

Barack Obama

#7. Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow.

Barack Obama

#8. I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.

Barack Obama

#9. Acts of sacrifice and decency without regard to what's in it for you create a ripple effect. Ones that lift up families and communities, that spread opportunity.

Barack Obama

#10. I would say to people is, that investigation, as it has already been stated, is a marathon and not a sprint. But it is one of great concern to the American people. And so we're committed to keeping people informed.

Barack Obama

#11. 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.

Barack Obama

#12. I'm measuring my actions against that inner voice that for me at least is audible, is active, it tells me where I think I'm on track and where I think I'm off track.

Barack Obama

#13. Iran's nuclear program ... there was going to be a time limit ...

Barack Obama

#14. Men have to take more responsibility. Men have to intervene

Barack Obama

#15. For the Palestinians, efforts to delegitimize Israel will end in failure ... Palestinian leaders will not achieve peace or prosperity if Hamas insists on a path of terror and rejection. And Palestinians will never realize their independence by denying the right of Israel to exist.

Barack Obama

#16. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation.

Barack Obama

#17. The Warren Court wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution ... I intend to succeed where they failed.

Barack Obama

#18. 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.

Barack Obama

#19. What I want all of you to know is that we are going to bring those who killed our fellow Americans to justice.

Barack Obama

#20. As she spoke, her voice never wavered; it was the voice of someone who has forced a larger meaning out of tragedy. Or

Barack Obama

#21. Our destiny is not written for us, but by us.

Barack Obama

#22. We have to acknowledge the progress we made, but understand that we still have a long way to go. That things are better, but still not good enough.

Barack Obama

#23. Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may make you feel like you're flying high at first, but it won't take long before you feel the impact.

Barack Obama

#24. In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity - it is a prerequisite.

Barack Obama

#25. It was unknowable then, but so much of the progress that would define the 20th century, on both sides of the Atlantic, came down to the battle for a slice of beach only 6 miles long and 2 miles wide.

Barack Obama

#26. I know that there are millions of Americans who are content with their health care coverage - they like their plan and, most importantly, they value their relationship with their doctor.

Barack Obama

#27. You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig.

Barack Obama

#28. Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula? I mean, they're charging a lot of money for this stuff.

Barack Obama

#29. To all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

Barack Obama

#30. When what you're doing doesn't work for 50 years, it's time to try something new.

Barack Obama

#31. I just miss - I miss being anonymous.

Barack Obama

#32. To be black was to be the beneficiary of a great inheritance, a special destiny, glorious burdens that only we were strong enough to bear.

Barack Obama

#33. Democracy cannot be imposed on any nation from the outside. Each society must search for its own path, and no path is perfect.

Barack Obama

#34. The world is complicated and full of grays, but there's still truth there to be found.

Barack Obama

#35. On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes
and I see many of them in the audience here today
our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.

Barack Obama

#36. What makes you a man is not the ability to make a child, it's the courage to raise one.

Barack Obama

#37. What I believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor, is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all - the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead.

Barack Obama

#38. I can't even get a credit card without three credit bureaus saying I'm good enough.

Barack Obama

#39. I miss Saturday morning, rolling out of bed, not shaving, getting into my car with my girls, driving to the supermarket, squeezing the fruit, getting my car washed, taking walks.

Barack Obama

#40. Justice needs to be served, what I think people of Baltimore want more than anything else is the truth. That's what people around the country expect.

Barack Obama

#41. The challenges posed by threats like terrorism, proliferation, and cyber attacks are not going away any time soon, and for our intelligence community to be effective over the long haul, we must maintain the trust of the American people and people around the world.

Barack Obama

#42. With respect to the Internet and emails, this does not apply to U.S. citizens and it does not apply to people living in the United States.

Barack Obama

#43. The memoir was a very personal book. I wrote it as a personal journey and search about who my father was and how my family had come together and come apart - sorting all that out, you know, issues of personal identity.

Barack Obama

#44. 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.

Barack Obama

#45. Politics in this country [USA] is always tough. It's always contentious, because this is a big country and a diverse country, and people have strong points of view, and we've got a great diversity of interests.

Barack Obama

#46. Not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes; tolerance and opportunity, human dignity and justice.

Barack Obama

#47. It is my strong belief that Israel has not just the right but the obligation to protect itself.

Barack Obama

#48. For the young people here: practicality is a good thing. There are times where compromise is necessary. That's part of wisdom. But it's also important to hang on to what you believe.

Barack Obama

#49. John McCain has not spoken about my Muslim faith.

Barack Obama

#50. You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.

Barack Obama

#51. Nothing in life that's worth anything is easy.

Barack Obama

#52. I don't know about Cricket but still I watch Cricket to see Sachin play..Not because I love his play, its because I want to know the reason why my country's production goes down by 5 percent when he is in batting

Barack Obama

#53. You know, in college, I smoked a little pot, did a little blow.

Barack Obama

#54. Senator Joe Biden is pretty clean and articulate for a white guy.

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#55. 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.

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#56. A lot of the issues that I see, it is not an either-or situation.

Barack Obama

#57. I think that dealing with guns is one way to handle the violent-crime issues that we have in this country.

Barack Obama

#58. If a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms, that doesn't make them Kobe Bryant.

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#59. One of the great strengths of the United States is ... we have a very large Christian population - we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.

Barack Obama

#60. As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol.

Barack Obama

#61. But another thing I know is this - we can't steer ourselves out of this crisis by heading in the same, disastrous direction. We can't change direction with a new driver who wants to follow the same old map. And that's what this election is all about.

Barack Obama

#62. I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so.

Barack Obama

#63. The easiest way to save money is to waste less energy.

Barack Obama

#64. Effective immediately, we will only pursue phone calls that are two steps removed from a number associated with a terrorist organization instead of three.

Barack Obama

#65. I'm not sure we have the right strategy in Afghanistan. Let me think this over for a few months.

Barack Obama

#66. I think that the important point is we've got to have a president who understands the benefits of free trade but also is going to enforce unfair trade agreements and is going to stand up to other countries.

Barack Obama

#67. Our intelligence agencies will continue to gather information about the intentions of governments - as opposed to ordinary citizens - around the world, in the same way that the intelligence services of every other nation does. We will not apologize simply because our services may be more effective.

Barack Obama

#68. The alternative, no limits on Iran's nuclear program, no inspections, an Iran that's closer to a nuclear weapon, the risk of regional nuclear arms race, and the greater risk of war - all that would endanger our [American] security.

Barack Obama

#69. There are few things in life harder to find and more important to keep than love. Well, love and a birth certificate.

Barack Obama

#70. I will begin to remove our troops from Iraq immediately.

Barack Obama

#71. We do want people to know if in fact we learn of an incident that's focused on a particular city.If we learn of long-term planning, that's focused on a particular industry or infrastructure. And so we feel we have an obligation to let people know if we have information of a credible threat or not.

Barack Obama

#72. I have fought against spending. I have fought against special interests. I have fought for reform.

Barack Obama

#73. Jesus Christ is the LORD. I believe in that.

Barack Obama

#74. I'm not a particularly ideological person. There's things, some values I feel passionately about.

Barack Obama

#75. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.

Barack Obama

#76. We should never forget that God granted us the power to reason so that we would do His work here on Earth - so that we would use science to cure disease, and heal the sick, and save lives.

Barack Obama

#77. [American Citizenship] captures the enduring idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations

Barack Obama

#78. Surveys show our standing around the world is higher than when I was elected to this office, and when it comes to every important international issue, people of the world do not look to Beijing or Moscow to lead - they call us.

Barack Obama

#79. I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off ramps on this one.

Barack Obama

#80. When BP was not moving fast enough on claims, we told BP to set aside $20 billion in a fund - managed by an independent third party - to help all those whose lives have been turned upside down by the spill.

Barack Obama

#81. We've taken bold action at home by making historic investments in renewable energy, by putting our people to work increasing efficiency in our homes and buildings, and by pursuing comprehensive legislation to transform to a clean energy economy.

Barack Obama

#82. Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.

Barack Obama

#83. America is the student who defies the odds to become the first in a family to go to college - the citizen who defies the cynics and goes out there and votes - the young person who comes out of the shadows to demand the right to dream. That's what America is about.

Barack Obama

#84. To the extent that we've got a fiscal crisis right now, part of it is prompted by a bullheaded insistence on the part of the president, for example, that we should extend all of his tax cuts, make all of them permanent.

Barack Obama

#85. 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.

Barack Obama

#86. Nobody likes taxes. I would prefer that none of us had to pay taxes, including myself.

Barack Obama

#87. ALMOST A DECADE HAS passed since this book was first published. As

Barack Obama

#88. 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.

Barack Obama

#89. Essentially, Iran was sanctioned because of what had happened at Fordow, its unwillingness to comply with previous U.N. security resolutions about their nuclear program, and as part of the package of sanctions that was slapped on them, the issue of arms and ballistic missiles were included.

Barack Obama

#90. Iran has made vile comments, anti-Semitic comments, comments about the destruction of Israel. It is precisely for that reason that even before I became president, I said Iran could not have a nuclear weapon.

Barack Obama

#91. Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation

Barack Obama

#92. 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!

Barack Obama

#93. Iran ... has failed to take the opportunity to demonstrate that its nuclear program is peaceful ... time is not unlimited.

Barack Obama

#94. I wouldn't consider them acts of war, but I would consider them acts of property damage, commercial theft that are serious.

Barack Obama

#95. That is America. That is America. Those bonds of affection; that common creed. We don't fear the future; we shape it. We embrace it, as one people, stronger together than we are on our own.

Barack Obama

#96. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

Barack Obama

#97. As we speak, Iran has rolled back its nuclear program, shipped out its uranium stockpile, and the world has avoided another war.

Barack Obama

#98. Millions of us, myself included, go back generations in this country, with ancestors who put in the painstaking work to become citizens. So we don't like the notion that anyone might get a free pass to American citizenship.

Barack Obama

#99. The country deserves us to be willing to compromise on behalf of the greater good.

Barack Obama

#100. I said that America's role would be limited; that we would not put ground troops into Libya; that we would focus our unique capabilities on the front end of the operation, and that we would transfer responsibility to our allies and partners.

Barack Obama