Barack Obama Quotes About Ambition

• 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

  Success, Encouragement, Money

  Commencement Address at Knox College, delivered 4 June 2005, Galesburg, Illinois

• It betrays a poverty of ambition if all you think about is what goods you can buy instead of what good you can do.

  Barack Obama

  Ambition, Thinking, Poverty

  President Barack Obama's remarks at the commencement ceremony at Century Campus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. May 19, 2013.

• 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

  Money, Ambition, Focus

  Barack Obama's commencement speech at Northwestern University, www.northwestern.edu. June 19, 2006.

• 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. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Work, Nice

• I think, as you get older, that's when your ambitions become "peculiar".

  Barack Obama

  Ambition, Thinking, Peculiar

  Source: www.vanityfair.com

• I actually think, when you're young, ambitions are somewhat common - you want to prove yourself. It may grow out of different life experiences. You may want to prove that you are worthy of the admiration of the demanding father. You may want to prove that you are worthy of the love of an absent father.

  Barack Obama

  Father, Ambition, Thinking

  Source: www.vanityfair.com

• The elevation of appearance over substance, of celebrity over character, of short term gains over lasting achievement displays a poverty of ambition. It distracts you from what's truly important.

  Barack Obama

  Ambition, Character, Achievement

• There are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Memories, Ambition

  First Presidential Inaugural Address, Delivered 20 January 2009

• I believe we can seize this future together, because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. [...] We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions. [...] We are and forever will be the United States of America. [...] We will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on Earth.

  Barack Obama

  Believe, Ambition, America

  Obama's victory speech, politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com. November 7th, 2012.

• While we may not live to see the full realization of our ambition, we will have the satisfaction of knowing that the world we leave to our children will be better off for what we did.

  Barack Obama

  Children, Ambition, Knowing

  Barack Obama's Remarks on Climate Change in Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. June 25, 2013.

• They assert that their program is purely peaceful. . . . We want them to demonstrate clearly in the actions they propose that they have truly abandoned any nuclear weapons ambition.

  Barack Obama

  Ambition, Peaceful, Nuclear

• I think that at a certain stage those early ambitions burn away, partly because you achieve something, you get something done, you get some notoriety. And then the particularities of who you are and what your deepest commitments are begin expressing themselves. You're not just chasing the idea of "me" being important, but you, rather, are chasing a particular passion.

  Barack Obama

  Passion, Ambition, Commitment

  Source: www.vanityfair.com

• As I got older, then my particular ambitions started cohering around creating a world in which people of different races or backgrounds or faiths can recognize each other's humanity, or creating a world in which every kid, regardless of their background, can strive and achieve and fulfill their potential.

  Barack Obama

  Ambition, Kids, Race

  Source: www.vanityfair.com

• We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions

  Barack Obama

  Ambition, Alaska, Individual

  Second Presidential Election Victory Speech, delivered 7 November 2012, McCormick Place Chicago, Illinois

• If you're willing to put in the work, the idea is that you should be able to raise a family and own a home, not go bankrupt because you got sick, 'cause you've got some health insurance that helps you deal with those difficult times; that you can send your kids to college; that you can put some money away for retirement. That's all most people want. Folks don't have unrealistic ambitions. They do believe that if they work hard, they should be able to achieve that small measure of an American dream.

  Barack Obama

  Dream, Retirement, Believe

  Remarks by the President at Conveyor Engineering and Manufacturing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. January 25, 2012.

• One of the things that we have to change in this country is the idea that people can't disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism. I have never suggested that Sen. McCain picks his positions on national security based on politics or personal ambition. I have not suggested it because I believe that he genuinely wants to serve America's national interest. Now, it's time for him to acknowledge that I want to do the same. Let me be clear: I will let no one question my love of this country.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Believe, Ambition

• You could analyze me and say that my father leaving and being absent was a motivator for early ambition, trying to prove myself to this apparition who had vanished. You could argue that me being a mixed kid in a place where there weren't a lot of black kids around might have spurred on my ambitions. You could go through a whole litany of things that sparked me wanting to do something important.

  Barack Obama

  Father, Ambition, Kids

  Source: www.vanityfair.com

• You may want to prove that you're worthy of other kids or neighbors who were wealthier than you and teased you. You may want to prove that you're worthy of high expectations. But I do think that there is a youthful ambition that very much has to do with making your mark in the world. And I think that cuts across the experiences of a lot of people who end up achieving something significant in their field.

  Barack Obama

  Ambition, Kids, Cutting

  Source: www.vanityfair.com

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