Barack Obama Inspirational Quotes

• 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

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Hope

• We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Commitment, Responsibility

  Second Democratic Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, delivered 6 September 2012, Charlotte, North Carolina

• 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

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Barack Obama (2008). “An American Story: The Speeches of Barack Obama : a Primer”, Independent Publishing Group

• Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq. We did. I promised to refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11. We have. We've blunted the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan, and in 2014, our longest war will be over. A new tower rises above the New York skyline, al Qaeda is on the path to defeat, and Osama bin Laden is dead.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, New York, War

  Second Democratic Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, delivered 6 September 2012, Charlotte, North Carolina
• 

  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

  Inspirational, Smart, Space

• 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

  Inspirational, Dream, Sorry

• I think what you're seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they've got to be treated like every other American. And I think that principle will win out.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Cousin, Brother

  News Conference in the East Wing, www.nytimes.com. June 29, 2011.

• It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Family, Retirement

  Daily Labor Report, Issues 169-189, Bureau of National Affairs, 2010.

• If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Jobs, Patriotic

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

• Money is not the only answer, but it makes a difference.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Money, Differences

• Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Freedom, Integrity

• Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. We are going to press on. We’ve got work to do.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Gratitude, Cheer

  Barack Obama's Remarks at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. September 24, 2011.

• Don't just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Graduation, Fighting

  President Barack Obama's remarks at Barnard College Commencement Ceremony in Columbia University, New York, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. May 14, 2012.

• If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Motivational, Inspiring

  "Barack Obama's farewell speech: this is how a leader signs off" by Ruchira Karnik, www.hindustantimes.com. January 15, 2017.

• I began feeling the way I imagine an actor or athlete must feel when, after years of commitment to a particular dream...he realizes that he's gone just about as far as talent or fortune will take him. The dream will not happen, and he now faces the choice of accepting this fact like a grownup and moving on to more sensible pursuits, or refusing the truth and ending up bitter, quarrelsome, and slightly pathetic.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Dream, Moving

  "The Audacity of Hope". Book by Barack Obama, www.npr.org. October 17, 2006.

• We too often let the material things serve as indicators that we're doing well, even though something inside us tells us that were not doing our best. That we are avoiding that which is hard, but also necessary. That we are shrinking from rather than rising to the challenges of the age.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Challenges, Age

• 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

• We didn't become the most prosperous country in the world just by rewarding greed and recklessness. We didn't come this far by letting the special interests run wild. We didn't do it just by gambling and chasing paper profits on Wall Street. We built this country by making things, by producing goods we could sell.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Running, Country

• On every front there are clear answers out there that can make this country stronger, but we're going to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling. Our job is to make sure that even as we make progress, that we are also giving people a sense of hope and vision for the future.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Hope, Country

  "Obama: 'Fear' drives voters" by Carol E.Lee, www.politico.com. October 16, 2010.

• There is probably a perverse pride in my administration... that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who's occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can't be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Pride, Thinking

  "Policy or Politics? Obama Learns the Hard Way He Has to Do Both" by Dan Farber, www.cbsnews.com. Policy or Politics? Obama Learns the Hard Way He Has to Do Both.

• The shift to a cleaner energy economy wont happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Choices, Facts

  Fifth Presidential State of the Union, delivered 28 January 2014

• In December, I agreed to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans because it was the only way I could prevent a tax hike on middle-class Americans. But we cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society. We can't afford it. And I refuse to renew them again.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Cutting, Class

  "Obama’s Speech on Reducing the Budget", www.nytimes.com. April 13, 2011.

• Your voice can change the world.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Successful, Voice

  "Obama's healthcare reform speech gets union crowd fired up" by Sam Youngman, thehill.com. September 7, 2009.

• I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that's not what America's about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don't contract them.

  Barack Obama

  Love, Inspirational, Marriage

  "Barack Obama Answers Your Questions About Gay Marriage, Paying For College, More". www.mtv.com. November 01, 2008.

• You Can't Rest on Your Laurels. Your Own Body of Work Is Yet to Come.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Body, Laurels

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