Barack Obama
If you run you stand a chance of losing, but if you don't run you've already lost.Collection: Inspirational
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.Collection: Courage
I wouldn't be the man I am today without the woman who agreed to marry me 20 years agoCollection: Men
After all, there were thousands of so-called campus radicals, most of them white and tenured and happily tolerated. No, it remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.Collection: Loyalty
Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nationCollection: Christian
I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting." (Victory Speech, Nov. 7, 2012)Collection: Fighting
We are an American family and we rise and fall together as one nation.Collection: Fall
One of the proudest things of my three years in office is helping to restore a sense of respect for America around the world.Collection: Years
Above all, our freedom endures because of the men and women in uniform who defend it.Collection: Men
Whatever decisions I make are going to be based first on a strategy to keep us safe and then we'll figure out how to resource it.Collection: Decision
The theater is necessary. Dance is necessary. Song is necessary. The arts are necessary- they are a necessary part of our livesCollection: Song
Rather than double-down on the top-down economics that let a fortunate few play by their own rules, let’s embrace an economic patriotism that says we rise or fall together, as one nation, and as one people.Collection: Fall
And when it comes to developing the high standards we need, it's time to stop working against our teachers and start working with them. Teachers don't go in to education to get rich. They don't go in to education because they don't believe in their children. They want their children to succeed, but we've got to give them the tools. Invest in early childhood education. Invest in our teachers and our children will succeed.Collection: Education
Congress has become so dysfunctional that more and more of a burden is placed on the agencies to fill in the gaps. And the gaps get bigger and bigger because they're not constantly refreshed and tweaked.Collection: Agency
I think it's fair to say that [Donald Trump] and I are sort of opposites in some ways.Collection: Thinking
All too rarely do I hear people asking just what it is that we've done to make so many children's hearts so hard, or what collectively we might do to right their moral compass - what values we must live by.Collection: Children
To anyone out there who has ever been assaulted: You will never be alone. You are never alone. We have your back. I've got your back.Collection: Powerful
Based on current surveys of public opinion in the United States, it turns out that the majority of Americans think I've done a pretty good job.Collection: Jobs
Because of the internet and communications, the clash of cultures is much more direct. People feel, I think, less certain about their identity, less certain about economic security.Collection: Communication
Through words he gave voice to the voiceless. Through deeds he gave courage to the faint of heart.Collection: Powerful
There is a big risk for the Republicans in a race, especially with Hillary Clinton as a likely Democratic nominee in a contest that will focus on the possibility of the first woman president to be six months suspending up the nomination of a black woman, who is imminently qualified.Collection: Race
The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.Collection: Heart
Literacy is the most basic currency of the knowledge economy.Collection: Kids
We'll build new ties of trade and of commerce, culture and education that unleash the potential of the Iraqi people.Collection: Military
Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.Collection: Money
When it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s.Collection: Want
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.Collection: Government
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.Collection: Inspiring
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words.Collection: Inspiring
The incredible story of progress that is America has always been built by those who ask why, what if, and why not. Our schools must begin instilling that wonder in our children again so that their generation will unite around the next great project of our time, whether it be declaring America energy independent or launching the next great technological revolution.Collection: Inspiring
The greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one anotherCollection: Inspiring
The size of your paycheck shouldn’t determine your child’s future.Collection: Children
Become a teacher. Your country needs you.Collection: Country
America leads - not with bluster, but with persistent, steady resolve.Collection: America
If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.Collection: Keeping Promises
Boston is a tough and resilient town. So are its people. I'm supremely confident that Bostonians will pull together, take care of each other, and move forward as one proud city. And as they do, the American people will be with them every single step of the way.Collection: Moving
I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.Collection: Decision
What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth.Collection: America
If you're one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance. This law will only make it more secure and more affordable.Collection: Law
For now, decisions are upon us and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.Collection: Mistake
I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face.Collection: Independent
The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.Collection: Choices
I have no patience with people who go around blowing up innocent people.Collection: People
We are not going to keep the window open forever.Collection: Forever
Iran's nuclear program . . . there was going to be a time limit . . .Collection: Iran
Iran . . . has failed to take the opportunity to demonstrate that its nuclear program is peaceful . . . time is not unlimited.Collection: Opportunity
That may prevent us from getting a deal done, It is there to be had. Whether ultimately Iran can seize that opportunity - we will have to wait and see, but it is not for lack of trying on our part.Collection: Opportunity
Since taking office, I've made it clear that the United States was prepared to begin a new chapter of engagement with the Islamic Republic of Iran. We offered the Iranian government a clear choice. It could fulfill its international obligations and realize greater security, deeper economic and political integration with the world, and a better future for all Iranians. Or it could continue to flout its responsibilities and face even more pressure and isolation.Collection: Islamic
None of this is fair to you. And should it continue, it will make it more difficult to keep attracting the kind of driven, patriotic, idealist Americans to public service that our citizens deserved and that our system of self-government demands.Collection: Patriotic