Barack Obama: Trending quotes (page 38)

“Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope: In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation, a belief in things not seen, a belief that there are better days ahead.”

Barack Obama

2004, Democratic National Convention speech (July 2004)
Context: In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? I'm not talking about blind optimism here... No, I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope: In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation, a belief in things not seen, a belief that there are better days ahead.

God , Hope

“Each of us deserves the freedom to pursue our own version of happiness. No one deserves to be bullied.”

Barack Obama

Freedom , Happiness

“My little girls can break my heart. They can make me cry just looking at them eating their string beans.”

Barack Obama

Girl , Heart , Cry

“What Washington Needs is Adult Supervision.”

Barack Obama

“At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better”

Barack Obama

Change

“I wish the country had fewer lawyers and more engineers.”

Barack Obama

Source: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

Country

“There is no excuse for not trying.”

Barack Obama

“I wonder, sometimes, whether men and women in fact are capable of learning from history--whether we progress from one stage to the next in an upward course or whether we just ride the cycles of boom and bust, war and peace, ascent and decline.”

Barack Obama

Source: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

Women , Men , War , Peace

“To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.”

Barack Obama

Support , Help

“You might be locked in a world not of your own making, her eyes said, but you still have a claim on how it is shaped. You still have responsibilities.”

Barack Obama book Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Source: Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

World

“It's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”

Barack Obama

“Cynicism is a sorry kind of wisdom.”

Barack Obama

Wisdom

“Someone once said that every man is trying to live up to his father's expectations or make up for their father's mistakes….”

Barack Obama

Source: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

For Father

“Change is never easy, but always possible.”

Barack Obama

Change

“All too rarely do I hear people asking just what it is that we've done to make so many children's hearts so hard, or what collectively we might do to right their moral compass - what values we must live by.”

Barack Obama book Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Source: Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Children , People , Heart

“We may not be able to stop evil in the world, but how we treat one another is entirely up to us.”

Barack Obama

2011, Tucson Memorial Address (January 2011)
Context: We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.
Context: I believe we can be better. Those who died here, those who saved lives here — they help me believe. We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.

World , Evil

“My identity might begin with the fact of my race, but it didn't, couldn't end there.
At least that's what I would choose to believe.”

Barack Obama book Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Source: Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance