Barack Obama Quotes

Barack Obama is one of the most influential and iconic leaders of our time. As the 44th President of the United States, he made history by becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office. During his two terms in office, Obama presided over a period of significant economic and social change, including the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Table of Contents:

1. Early Life

2. Education

3. Community Organizing

4. Political Career

5. 2008 Presidential Election

6. First Term

7. 2012 Presidential Election

8. Second Term

9. Legacy

10. Top Barack Obama Quotes

Early Life

Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother, Ann Dunham, was a white American from Kansas, and his father, Barack Obama Sr., was a black Kenyan studying at the University of Hawaii. The couple married in 1960, but divorced when Barack was just two years old. Barack would later describe his upbringing as “a patchwork quilt.” He was raised primarily by his mother and her second husband, Lolo Soetoro, in Indonesia, and spent time with his grandparents in Hawaii.

As a young man, Obama showed great promise as a student. He excelled in both academics and sports, and was elected class president during his senior year of high school. Obama then attended Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years before transferring to Columbia University in New York City. He graduated from Columbia in 1983 with a degree in political science.

Education

Obama began his education at the prestigious Punahou School in Honolulu, where he excelled both academically and athletically. He was elected class president in his senior year, and was also a standout player on the school’s basketball team.

After graduating from Punahou in 1979, Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he graduated with a degree in political science in 1983.

Community Organizing

After graduating from college, Obama moved to Chicago to work as a community organizer. He helped develop job training programs for unemployed workers and fought against predatory lending practices. He also became active in local politics, and in 1996 he was elected to the Illinois State Senate.

Political Career

In 2004, Obama gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, and his star began to rise within the party. In 2007, he announced his candidacy for President of the United States, and in 2008 he defeated John McCain to become the 44th President.

During his first term, Obama faced the Great Recession and helped pass the Affordable Care Act, which provided health insurance to millions of Americans. He also oversaw the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which had previously prevented openly gay men and women from serving in the military.

In 2012, Obama was re-elected to a second term, defeating Republican challenger Mitt Romney. During his second term, Obama helped bring about the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide and reached a historic agreement with Iran to limit its nuclear program.

2008 Presidential Election

In 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States. He ran a highly effective campaign, and in 2008 he defeated John McCain to become the 44th President.

First Term

During his first term, Obama faced the Great Recession and helped pass the Affordable Care Act, which provided health insurance to millions of Americans. He also oversaw the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which had previously prevented openly gay men and women from serving in the military.

2012 Presidential Election

In 2012, Obama was re-elected to a second term, defeating Republican challenger Mitt Romney. During his second term, Obama helped bring about the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide and reached a historic agreement with Iran to limit its nuclear program.

Second Term

In his second term, Obama continued to pursue his agenda of social and economic change. He helped bring about the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide and reached a historic agreement with Iran to limit its nuclear program.

Legacy

As his time in office comes to an end, Obama remains one of the most popular presidents in recent history. A recent poll found that 59% of Americans approve of the job he is doing, and he leaves office with a 60% favorability rating.

Top Barack Obama Quotes

“Our stories may be singular, but our destination is shared.” ― Barack Obama

“While we breathe, we will hope.” ― Barack Obama

“Fixing a broken immigration system. Protecting our kids from gun violence. Equal pay for equal work, paid leave, raising the minimum wage. All these things still matter to hardworking families; they are still the right thing to do; and I will not let up until they get done.” – Barack Obama

“We need to make progress on some important issues. Take the sequester – Republicans fell in love with the whole thing, and now they can’t stop talking about how much they hate it. It’s like we’re trapped in a Taylor Swift album.” – Barack Obama

“The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on.” – Barack Obama

“Libraries remind us that truth isn’t about who yells the loudest, but who has the right information. Because even as we’re the most religious of people, America’s innovative genius has always been preserved because we also have a deep faith in facts.”

“The worst thing that colonialism did was to cloud our view of our past.”― Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

“What I’ve realized is that life doesn’t count for much unless you’re willing to do your small part to leave our children — all of our children — a better world. Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.” ― Barack Obama

“Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. it’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” ― Barack Obama

“Yes We Can!” ― Barack Obama

“You can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time.” – Barack Obama

“I’m inspired by the people I meet in my travels–hearing their stories, seeing the hardships they overcome, their fundamental optimism and decency. I’m inspired by the love people have for their children. And I’m inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.” ― Barack Obama

“You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig.” ― Barack Obama

“Some things are beyond my control. For example, this whole controversy about Jay-Z going to Cuba – it’s unbelievable! I’ve got 99 problems, now Jay-Z is one.” – Barack Obama

“No, you can’t deny women their basic rights and pretend it’s about your ‘religious freedom’. If you don’t like birth control, don’t use it. Religious freedom doesn’t mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs.” ― Barack Obama

“Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.” ― Barack Obama

” But that’s not all the law is. The law is also memory; the law also records a long-running conversation, a nation arguing with its conscience.”― Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

“It is time to give Iraqis their country back.” – Barack Obama

“I believe in evolution, scientific inquiry, and global warming; I believe in free speech, whether politically correct or politically incorrect, and I am suspicious of using government to impose anybody’s religious beliefs -including my own- on nonbelievers.”― Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

“It’s important to make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.” ― Barack Obama

“If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.” ― Barack Obama

“Lincoln – they used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me. So democracy has never been for the faint of heart…” – Barack Obama

“And so the moment we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold into a library, we’ve changed their lives forever, and for the better. This is an enormous force for good.” ― 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

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” ― 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 realise your true potential.” – Barack Obama

“Now, when you first become president, one of the questions people ask you is, “what’s really going on in Area 51?” … oh, I think I just became the first president to ever publicly mention Area 51… how’s that?” – Barack Obama

“There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America – there’s the United States of America.” ― Barack Obama

“Understand, our police officers put their lives on the line for us every single day. They’ve got a tough job to do to maintain public safety and hold accountable those who break the law.” – Barack Obama

“We are the change we have been waiting for.”― Barack Obama

“What we need in Washington is not more political tactics – we need more good ideas.” – Barack Obama

“Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled.”― Barack Obama

“Hope is the bedrock of this nation; the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us.” – Barack Obama

“Americans still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.” – Barack Obama

“One voice can change a room, and if one voice can change a room, then it can change a city, and if it can change a city, it can change a state, and if it change a state, it can change a nation, and if it can change a nation, it can change the world. Your voice can change the world.” ― Barak Obama

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” – Barack Obama

“The study of law can be disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative reality; a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power–and that all too often seeks to explain, to those who do not, the ultimate wisdom and justness of their condition. ― Barack Obama

“In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.”― Barack Obama

“I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.” ― Barack Obama

“We don’t ask you to believe in our ability to bring change, rather, we ask you to believe in yours.” ― Barack Obama

“Those who have the privilege to serve this country have an obligation to do our job as best we can… that’s why disagreement cannot mean dysfunction… the American people’s hopes and dreams are what matters, not ours.” – Barack Obama

“Money is not the only answer, but it makes a difference.” – Barack Obama

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” ― Barack Obama

“The role of citizen in a democracy does not end with your vote.” – 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

“In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.” ― Barack Obama

“I don’t want to pit Red America against Blue America – I want to be President of the United States of America.” – 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

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