Barack Obama Quotes About Poverty

• There are war-torn countries, people full of poverty, who still voted, 60, 70 percent. If here in the United States of America, we voted at 60 percent, 70 percent, it would transform our politics.

  Barack Obama

  Country, War, America

  Barack Obama's Speech in Immigration Town Hall in Miami, Florida, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. February 25, 2015.

• 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.

• Peace is not just the absence of war. True peace depends upon creating the opportunity that makes life worth living. And to do that, we must confront the common enemies of human beings: nuclear weapons and poverty; ignorance and disease.

  Barack Obama

  War, Ignorance, Opportunity

• 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

• Any strategy to reduce intergenerational poverty has to be centered on work, not welfare--not only because work provides independence and income but also because work provides order, structure, dignity, and opportunities for growth in people's lives.

  Barack Obama

  Opportunity, Order, People

  Barack Obama (2006). “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream”, p.178, Crown

• If poverty is a disease that infects the entire community in the form of unemployment and violence, failing schools and broken homes, then we can't just treat those symptoms in isolation . We have to heal that entire community.

  Barack Obama

  Healing, Home, School

  "Obama Says He, Too, Is a Poverty Fighter". Speech at the Town Hall Education, Arts & Recreation Campus, Washington, DC, www.washingtonpost.com. July 19, 2007.

• The best anti-poverty program is a world-class education.

  Barack Obama

  Class, World, Poverty

• 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

• Prosperity without freedom is just another form of poverty.

  Barack Obama

  Powerful, Poverty, Prosperity

  "Obama tells China US is 'here to stay'". "PM", www.abc.net.au. November 17, 2011.

• If we neglect or abandon those who are suffering in poverty ... not only are we depriving ourselves of potential opportunities for markets and economic growth, but ultimately that despair may turn to violence that turns on us.

  Barack Obama

  Opportunity, Suffering, Growth

• Foreign Assistance is not an end in itself. The purpose of aid must be to create the conditions where it's no longer need.

  Barack Obama

  Purpose, Poverty, Aids

  "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer, www.cnn.com. September 22, 2009.

• Unemployment is low, incomes are up, poverty is down - and that's going to be a lasting change.

  Barack Obama

  Lasting Change, Low Income, Unemployment

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• As the wealthiest nation on Earth, I believe the United States has a moral obligation to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition, and to partner with others.

  Barack Obama

  Believe, Fighting, Hunger And Poverty

  "Obama welcomes Hollande as French president hints at Afghan compromise" by Ewen MacAskill, Patrick Wintour, www.theguardian.com. May 18, 2012.

• We should raise the minimum wage so that no one who works full time has to live in poverty

  Barack Obama

  Money, Minimum Wage, Poverty

• [A] family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That's wrong. That's why, since the last time this Congress raised the minimum wage, 19 states have chosen to bump theirs even higher. Tonight, let's declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour.

  Barack Obama

  Kids, Two, Should Have

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

• Today, we are closer to fulfilling America's promise of economic and social justice because we stand on the shoulders of giants like Dr. King, yet our future progress will depend on how we prepare our next generation of leaders. We must fortify their ladders of opportunity by correcting social injustice, breaking the cycle of poverty in struggling communities, and reinvesting in our schools. Education can unlock a child's potential and remains our strongest weapon against injustice and inequality.

  Barack Obama

  Kings, Children, Struggle

• Hunger, disease and poverty can lead to global instability and leave a vacuum for extremism to fill. So instead of just managing poverty, we must offer nations and people a pathway out of poverty. And as president I've made development a pillar of our foreign policy, alongside diplomacy and defense.

  Barack Obama

  People, President, Pathways

  "Politics and Foreign Aid: What Romney and Obama Can Learn from Huckabee and Lincoln" by Tom Murphy, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 23, 2012.

• It's a moral imperative, it's an economic imperative, and it is a security imperative. For we've seen how spikes in food prices can plunge millions into poverty, which, in turn, can spark riots that cost lives, and can lead to instability. And this danger will only grow if a surging global population isn't matched by surging food production. So reducing malnutrition and hunger around the world advances international peace and security - and that includes the national security of the United States.

  Barack Obama

  United States, Population, Cost

• Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow.

  Barack Obama

  Paris, Secret, Unions

  Barack Obama, (2008). “Change We Can Believe In”, p.274, Canongate Books

• If you want to get at African American poverty, the income gap, wealth gap, achievement gap, that the most important thing is to make sure that the society as a whole does right by people who are poor, are working class, are aspiring to a better life for their kids.

  Barack Obama

  Kids, Class, People

  Source: www.theatlantic.com

• Progress in the most impoverished parts of our world enriches us all.

  Barack Obama

  Our World, Progress, World

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

• I have much more confidence in my ability, or any president or any leader's ability, to mobilize the American people around a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment to help every child in poverty in this country than I am in being able to mobilize the country around providing a benefit specific to African Americans as a consequence of slavery and Jim Crow.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Children, People

  Source: www.theatlantic.com

• [The Americans] believe in the idea that a child shouldn't be consigned to poverty just because of circumstances of their birth.

  Barack Obama

  Children, Believe, Ideas

  Source: www.theatlantic.com

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