“I think the most important thing for young people is that they're not trapped in the past. And human progress is driven by looking at a problem with fresh eyes, with new eyes. […] And that's the power of young people, is asking why. Little kids, they naturally do that, right? When you talk to a four-year-old or a five-year-old, six-year-old, you tell them to do something -- "Why?" "Why?" And sometimes, as parents, we try to say, "because I told you so." And we don't want to talk about it, right? But that impulse to ask why is actually what drives human progress. […] Vision is important, but then you also have to have the persistence to keep working to make progress. And I always tell young people to have big dreams, but then also be willing to work for those dreams. It's not going to come right away.”

— Barack Obama

Remarks by the President in YSEALI Town Hall at Taylor's University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (November 20, 2015) https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/11/20/remarks-president-yseali-town-hall <br class="br">2015

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 30, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I think the most important thing for young people is that they're not trapped in the past. And human progress is driven…" by Barack Obama?

Barack Obama1158

44th President of the United States of America 1961

Related quotes

“And this is probably a good place for me to end by just saying that the issue of climate change is a perfect example of why young people have to lead. Because old people, they've created a mess, and then they'll be gone. And then you -- (applause) -- you're the ones who have to deal with it. And also what happens is old people get set in their ways. So the older you get, the more likely you are to say, that's how it's always been so that's how I'm going to keep on doing it -- even if there's a better way to do things. Young people, they're asking, well, why do I have to do it that way? Let's try it this way. And that kind of willingness to accept challenges and try things in a new way, to not be stuck in the past, or to look towards the future, that's what all of you represent.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2014, Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Town Hall Speech (November 2014)

“You’re negotiating all these problems for several years, they will talk about that, about a newspaper, they will talk about an underage boy in prison (for example). He’s 17 and he raped a nine-year-old, and they ask: “Why do you lock him up?” And so I say, what do you do, this is a rape case, and they want to discuss, I spend so many hours discussing whatever it is this boy… So what do they want us to do? Release him? So that he can go and rape another one?”

Jakaya Kikwete (1950) Tanzanian politician and president

On doing business with China easily. <br class="br">Interviews, Interview with Financial Times, 2007-10-04 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d8a07e28-72a3-11dc-b7ff-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check1/

“I don't know why a 57-year-old man would loan an 18-year-old cashier at Whole Foods $250. I don't know why a man would do that. But I can tell you one thing: my husband's not going to Whole Foods anymore.”

Judith Sheindlin (1942) American lawyer, judge, television personality, and author

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixef04_4NLE&t=19s&index=1&list=UU3QQg392IdRXlV3Sr5d9vdw
Quotes from Judge Judy cases, Being funny

“[Asked who inspired him to be a vegetarian] I used to sell books, when I was about 18 …. We were selling books, and right next to us was an old man. I mean, he had to be about 80 years old, and he was a nutritionist, but he was a holistic nutritionist, and he was talking to us about how you shouldn’t really eat animals and things of that nature … and he pulled up his shirt and the man had the abs of a 15-year-old. He says to us, “Touch ’em. Punch me,”—whatever—and he’s like, “How old do you think I am?” And we thought he was about 50 years old, and he’s like, “I’m 86 years old.””

Jeru the Damaja (1972) American Hip Hop artist

… We looked at each other, me and my friends, and we were, like, when we’re 86, we want to be like that …. So that’s what started it. <br class="br">" Jeru the Damaja http://www.peta2.com/heroes/jeru-the-damaja/", interview by Peta2, having just released his album Divine Design (2003).