Commitment to civil rights, idealistic thoughts, and charmingly good looks helped make his Senate Campaign and in 2004 Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, representing Illinois, and he gained national attention by giving a rousing and well-received keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In 2008 he ran for President, and despite having only four years of national political experience, he won. In January 2009, he was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, and the first African-American ever elected to that position.
(1961 – )
– Barack Obama Quotes –
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.’
~ Barack Obama
You will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime.
~ Barack Obama
I think when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody.
~ Barack Obama
We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.
~ Barack Obama
In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?
~ Barack Obama
We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued and they must be defeated.
~ Barack Obama
I think it is important for Europe to understand that even though I am president and George Bush is not president, Al Qaeda is still a threat.
~ Barack Obama
What do you think a stimulus is? It’s spending – that’s the whole point! Seriously.
~ Barack Obama
I opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying.
~ Barack Obama
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.
~ Barack Obama
We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.
~ Barack Obama
My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.
~ Barack Obama
You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt.
~ Barack Obama
Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terrorism have reduced the pace of military transformation and have revealed our lack of preparation for defensive and stability operations. This Administration has overextended our military.
~ Barack Obama
John Kerry believes in an America where hard work is rewarded.
~ Barack Obama
Why can’t I just eat my waffle?
~ Barack Obama
Everyone should try to realize their full potential.
~ Barack Obama
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
I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.
~ Barack Obama
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.
~ Barack Obama
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.
~ Barack Obama
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
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.
~ Barack Obama
What Washington needs is adult supervision.
~ Barack Obama
We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.
~ Barack Obama
Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation – not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago.
~ Barack Obama
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.
~ Barack Obama
As a nuclear power – as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon – the United States has a moral responsibility to act.
~ Barack Obama
People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time.
~ Barack Obama
If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their common welfare – all else is lost.
~ Barack Obama
My administration is the only thing between you [CEO’s] and the pitchforks.
~ Barack Obama
There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
~ Barack Obama
I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.
~ Barack Obama
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.
~ Barack Obama
The United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam.
~ Barack Obama
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.
~ Barack Obama
Where the stakes are the highest, in the war on terror, we cannot possibly succeed without extraordinary international cooperation. Effective international police actions require the highest degree of intelligence sharing, planning and collaborative enforcement.
~ Barack Obama
I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
~ Barack Obama
Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.
~ Barack Obama
I will cut taxes – cut taxes – for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.
~ Barack Obama
There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America – there’s the United States of America.
~ Barack Obama
Al Qaeda is still a threat. We cannot pretend somehow that because Barack Hussein Obama got elected as president, suddenly everything is going to be OK.
~ Barack Obama
We’re not going to baby sit a civil war.
~ Barack Obama
The fact that my 15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer than 15 minutes is somewhat surprising to me and completely baffling to my wife.
~ Barack Obama
Money is not the only answer, but it makes a difference.
~ Barack Obama
Community colleges play an important role in helping people transition between careers by providing the retooling they need to take on a new career.
~ Barack Obama
The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim-majority country – I know, because I am one of them.
~ Barack Obama
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.
~ Barack Obama
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.
~ Barack Obama
We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things.
~ Barack Obama
Issues are never simple. One thing I’m proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.
~ Barack Obama
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.
~ Barack Obama
Americans… still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.
~ Barack Obama
If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.
~ Barack Obama
This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.
~ Barack Obama
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.
~ Barack Obama
With the changing economy, no one has lifetime employment. But community colleges provide lifetime employability.
~ Barack Obama
I’ve got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.
~ Barack Obama
There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America – there’s the United States of America.
~ Barack Obama
In America, there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world.
~ Barack Obama
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.
~ Barack Obama
My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.
~ Barack Obama
I can make a firm pledge, under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.
~ Barack Obama
It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
~ Barack Obama
No one is pro-abortion.
~ Barack Obama
This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many.
~ Barack Obama
I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office.
~ Barack Obama
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.
~ Barack Obama
My wife has been my closest friend, my closest advisor. And … she’s not somebody who looks to the limelight, or even is wild about me being in politics. And that’s a good reality check on me. When I go home, she wants me to be a good father and a good husband. And everything else is secondary to that.
~ Barack Obama
I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.
~ Barack Obama
The thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.
~ Barack Obama
It’s time to fundamentally change the way that we do business in Washington. To help build a new foundation for the 21st century, we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative. That will demand new thinking and a new sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent.
~ Barack Obama
