Barack Obama Quotes (181 Quotes)

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration... that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who's occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can't be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

You cannot deny that the influence of money and lobbying on this town has gotten progressively worse over the last several years.

In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

Mr. Bennett should immediately apologize to the nation for making a statement that clearly crossed the line.

without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace and earn the respect of the world.

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 encouraging thing is that in the aftermath of this fiasco everybody is outraged and the generosity of white suburban Republicans as well as black liberal Democrats indicates that the country wants better from its government and wants better from its politics, ... The burden is on us as Democrats, the burden is on me as a U.S. senator to help bridge that gap.

We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That's not leadership. That's not going to happen.

What I worry about would be that you essentially have two chambers, the House and the Senate, but you have simply, majoritarian, absolute power on either side. And that's just not what the founders intended.

It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was al-Qaeda. We will not sacrifice the liberties we cherish or hunker down behind walls of suspicion and mistrust.

You don't have to choose sides. Clearly, there were failures on the part of the state and local government as well, ... To speak the truth is incredibly powerful.

Only a handful of men and women leave an imprint on the conscience of a nation and on the history that they helped shape, ... John Johnson was one of these men.

But if you - if what - the reports are true, what they're saying is, is that as a consequence of us getting 30 million additional people health care, at the margins that's going to increase our costs, we knew that.

I don't take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House.

People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.

When we think of the major threats to our national security, the first to come to mind are nuclear proliferation, rogue states and global terrorism. But another kind of threat lurks beyond our shores, one from nature, not humans - an avian flu pandemic.

We didn't become the most prosperous country in the world just by rewarding greed and recklessness. We didn't come this far by letting the special interests run wild. We didn't do it just by gambling and chasing paper profits on Wall Street. We built this country by making things, by producing goods we could sell.

If we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, if we choose to keep a tax break for corporate jet owners, if we choose to keep tax breaks for oil and gas companies that are making hundreds of billions of dollars, then that means we've got to cut some kids off from getting a college scholarship.

Contrary to the claims of some of my critics and some of the editorial pages, I am an ardent believer in the free market.

I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.

And I will do everything that I can as long as I am President of the United States to remind the American people that we are one nation under God, and we may call that God different names but we remain one nation.

A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, 'Huh. It works. It makes sense.'

These are trips not initiated by me these are trips that other people think will be helpful. For every invitation I've accepted, I've turned down 100.

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.

We can't have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.

We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old - and that's the criterion by which I'll be selecting my judges.

As Americans, we can take enormous pride in the fact that courage has been inspired by our own struggle for freedom, by the tradition of democratic law secured by our forefathers and enshrined in our Constitution. It is a tradition that says all men are created equal under the law and that no one is above it.

It's a good reminder of the fact that highly rational people can be engaged in a highly irrational purpose, ... I'm reminded what Einstein said Our wisdom has not caught up with our technology.

I don't care whether you're driving a hybrid or an SUV. If you're headed for a cliff, you have to change direction. That's what the American people called for in November, and that's what we intend to deliver.

I hope we realize that the people of New Orleans weren't just abandoned during the hurricane. They were abandoned long agoto murder and mayhem in the streets, to substandard schools, to dilapidated housing, to inadequate health care, to a pervasive sense of hopelessness.

They are two Illinois companies who want to do business and expand, ... but they are having roadblocks.

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.

It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

The Bush Administration's failure to be consistently involved in helping Israel achieve peace with the Palestinians has been both wrong for our friendship with Israel, as well as badly damaging to our standing in the Arab world.

This is not one of those situations where I think you can just jawbone industry into making the investment, ... This is not something that the markets alone will correct. We will have to use the government as a market-maker.

The fact that you have now questioned my sincerity ... is regrettable but does not in any way diminish my deep respect for you nor my willingness to find a bipartisan solution to this problem.

After a century of striving, after a year of debate, after a historic vote, health care reform is no longer an unmet promise. It is the law of the land.

We need earmark reform, and when I'm President, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.

With the changing economy, no one has lifetime employment. But community colleges provide lifetime employability.

But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people, and do our best to help them find their own grace. That's what I strive to do, that's what I pray to do every day.

My task over the last two years hasn't just been to stop the bleeding. My task has also been to try to figure out how do we address some of the structural problems in the economy that have prevented more Googles from being created.

America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

Over the last 15 months, we've traveled to every corner of the United States. I've now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.

When students participate in debate, they learn to study issues in depth and from perspectives, a skill I use everyday in the Senate.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

I also think the media's presence simply raised the question If the media could get to these places, why couldn't the federal government

I am very impressed with his intellect, ... He strikes me as a good and decent person but he is still following instructions, which is to say as little as possible on some core issues about how he would decide cases.