Barack Obama Quotes About Citizenship

• In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

  Barack Obama

  Country, War, Mean

• Citizenship means standing up for the lives that gun violence steals from us each day. I have seen the courage of parents, students, pastors, and police officers all over this country who say 'we are not afraid,' and I intend to keep trying, with or without Congress, to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans in our movie theaters, shopping malls, or schools like Sandy Hook.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Mean, School

  Fifth Presidential State of the Union, delivered 28 January 2014

• I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.

  Barack Obama

  Believe, Government, People

• I think the American people have a generous instinct. They understand that we're a nation of immigrants. But if those folks are going to live in this country, they have to be put on a pathway to citizenship that involves them paying a fine, making sure that they are at the back of the line and not cutting in front of people who applied legally to come into the country.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Cutting, Thinking

• Civility also requires relearning how to disagree without being disagreeable. Surely you can question my policies without questioning my faith or, for that matter, my citizenship.

  Barack Obama

  Matter, Citizenship, Civility

  Source: www.foxnews.com

• What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

  Barack Obama

  Character, Responsibility, Giving

  First Presidential Inaugural Address, Delivered 20 January 2009

• Yes, our greatness as a nation has depended on individual initiative, on a belief in the free market. But it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, of mutual responsibility. The idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we're all in it together and everybody's got a shot at opportunity. Americans know this. We know that government can't solve all our problems - and we don't want it to. But we also know that there are some things we can't do on our own. We know that there are some things we do better together.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Responsibility, Opportunity

  Barack Obama (2009). “Barack Obama: Speeches on the Road to the White House”

• [American Citizenship] captures the enduring idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations

  Barack Obama

  Country, Ideas, Generations

  Fourth Presidential State of the Union Address, delivered 12 February 2013, Washington, D.C.

• The true test of the American ideal is whether we're able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them. Whether chance of birth or circumstance decides life's big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a chance to work hard, get ahead, and reach their dreams.

  Barack Obama

  Dream, Humility, Hard Work

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

• In Africa, you often see that the difference between a village where everybody eats and a village where people starve is government. One has a functioning government, and the other does not. Which is why it bothers me when I hear people say that government is the enemy. They don't understand its fundamental role.

  Barack Obama

  Government, Differences, People

  Profile in The Independent Magazine, March 10, 2007.

• The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another - or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state.

  Barack Obama

  Religious, Organization, Goal

  "Obama Faith Council". www.pbs.org. February 6, 2009.

• What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman, but what I also believe is that we have an obligation to make sure that gays and lesbians have the rights of citizenship that afford them visitations to hospitals, that allow them to be, to transfer property between partners, to make certain that they're not discriminated on the job.

  Barack Obama

  Jobs, Believe, Gay

  Interview, www.weeklystandard.com. 2004.

• But I also want to give them a pathway so that they can earn citizenship, earn a legal status, start learning English, pay a significant fine, go to the back of the line, but they can then stay here and they can have the ability to enforce a minimum wage that they're paid, make sure the worker safety laws are available, make sure that they can join a union.

  Barack Obama

  Law, Safety, Giving

  "Transcript: NPR Democratic Candidates' Debate". www.npr.org. December 4, 2007.

• I think my most important advice is to understand what are the foundations of a healthy democracy and how we have to engage in citizenship continuously, not just when something upsets us; not just when there's an election or when an issue pops up for a few weeks. It's hard work.

  Barack Obama

  Hard Work, Thinking, Issues

  Remarks by President Obama and Chancellor Merkel of Germany in a Joint Press Conference, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. November 17, 2016.

• Citizenship means standing up for everyone's right to vote.***

  Barack Obama

  Mean, Vote, Citizenship

  Fifth Presidential State of the Union, delivered 28 January 2014

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