Barack Obama Quotes About Purpose

• What we can do is to live out our lives as best we can with purpose, and love, and joy. We can use each day to show those who are closest to us how much we care about them, and treat others with the kindness and respect that we wish for ourselves. We can learn from our mistakes and grow from our failures. And we can strive at all costs to make a better world.

  Barack Obama

  Kindness, Mistake, Joy

  Eulogy for Ted Kennedy, delivered 29 August 2009

• Let us each of us now embrace with solemn duty, and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.

  Barack Obama

  Passion, Dedication, Common Purpose

  Second Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 21 January 2013, Washington, D.C.

• The strongest democracies flourish from frequent and lively debate, but they endure when people of every background and belief find a way to set aside smaller differences in service of a greater purpose.

  Barack Obama

  Differences, People, Democracy

  First Presidential Prime Time Press Conference, delivered 9 February 2009

• 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.

• I will never forget that the only reason I'm standing here today is because somebody, somewhere stood up for me when it was risky. Stood up when it was hard. Stood up when it wasn't popular. And because that somebody stood up, a few more stood up. And then a few thousand stood up. And then a few million stood up. And standing up, with courage and clear purpose, they somehow managed to change the world.

  Barack Obama

  Courage, Purpose, World

  "Are We Beacons of Democracy Only When it’s Easy?" by James Boyce, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 20, 2009.

• 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.

• On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

  Barack Obama

  Unity, Purpose, Conflict

  First Presidential Inaugural Address, Delivered 20 January 2009

• The leaders we revere and the businesses that last are generally not the result of a narrow pursuit of popularity or personal advancement, but of devotion to some bigger purpose. That's the hallmark of real success. The other trapping of success might be the by product of this larger mission, but it can't be the central thing.

  Barack Obama

  Motivational, Success, Leadership

• 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

• The program grew out of a desire to address a gap identified after 9/11 ... The program does not involve the NSA examining the phone records of ordinary Americans. Rather, it consolidates these records into a database that the government can query if it has a specific lead - phone records that the companies already retain for business purposes.

  Barack Obama

  Phones, Government, Nsa

• [...] we must start by inspiring our children with a sense of purpose...by nurturing their imagination so that they may dream big and then work hard to reach those dreams. Too often, our children spend hours playing Playstation without ever finding out how to build Playstation. They watch television but never wonder how it's put together. They surf web page after web page on the Internet, but are never taught how to design one.

  Barack Obama

  Inspiring, Dream, Children

• We're up against the conventional thinking that says your ability to lead as president comes from longevity in Washington or proximity to the White House. But we know that real leadership is about candor and judgment and the ability to rally Americans from all walks of life around a common purpose, a higher purpose.

  Barack Obama

  Real, Thinking, Common Purpose

  South Carolina Democratic Primary Victory Speech, delivered 26 January 2008

• I'm told there's a saying from those ancient times, kalos kai agathos, when someone or something is good and beautiful on the outside, but is also good and noble on the inside in terms of character and in terms of purpose. And I think that's a fine description of the friendship that exists between the Greek people and the American people.

  Barack Obama

  Beautiful, Character, Thinking

  Source: time.com

• In America, we want a peaceful planet. We want people to be able to enjoy their lives and know they're going to have a bright and prosperous future, not be at war. That's our purpose.

  Barack Obama

  War, Prosperous Future, America

  Source: genius.com

• We've now got a group of young people in this country who for all practical purposes are American. They grew up here. They've gone to school here. They don't know anything other than being American kids. But their parents may have brought them here without all the proper paperwork - might have brought them here when they were three, might have brought them here when they were five. And so, lo and behold, by the time they finish school, and they're ready to go to college, they find out they can't go to college and, in fact, their status as Americans are threatened.

  Barack Obama

  Country, School, Kids

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

• So we have a choice to make. We can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress. Or we can pull together and say that in America, our destiny isn't written for us but by us. We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles, and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship. We can act boldly to turn crisis into opportunity and, together, write the next great chapter in our history and meet the test of our time.

  Barack Obama

  Writing, Destiny, Opportunity

  "The Action Americans Need". www.washingtonpost.com. February 5, 2009.

• Shaykh Bin Bayyah described his purpose. We must declare war on war so the outcome will be peace upon peace.

  Barack Obama

  War, Purpose

  Source: www.foxnews.com

• I didn't become a Christian until many years later, when I moved to the South Side of Chicago after college. It happened not because of indoctrination or a sudden revelation, but because I spent month after month working with church folks who simply wanted to help neighbors who were down on their luck no matter what they looked like, or where they came from, or who they prayed to. It was on those streets, in those neighborhoods, that I first heard God's spirit beckon me. It was there that I felt called to a higher purpose - His purpose.

  Barack Obama

  Christian, College, Years

  President Obama's Address To The National Prayer Breakfast, www.foxnews.com. February 5, 2009.

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