Barack Obama
America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire. The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress that the world has ever known. We were born out of revolution against an empire. We were founded upon the ideal that all are created equal. And we have shed blood and struggled for centuries to give meaning to those words, within our borders and around the world. We are shaped by every culture. Drawn from every end of the Earth, and dedicated to a simple concept, E pluribus unum: Out of many, one.Collection: Simple
To overcome extremism, we must also be vigilant in upholding the values our troops defend because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America. That is why I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists because living our values doesn't make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger.Collection: Powerful
When you start just focusing exclusively on trying to tear the other person down instead of what you are going to do on behalf of the American people to deal with this economy, then that's not serving Democrats, that's not serving Republicans, that's not serving anybody.Collection: People
It is time to put in place tough, new common-sense rules of the road so that our financial market rewards drive and innovation, and punishes short-cuts and abuse.Collection: Cutting
The interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.Collection: Powerful
Ultimately there is no dividing line between Main Street and Wall Street. We will rise or we will fall together as one nation.Collection: Wall
Societies held together by fear and repression may offer the illusion of stability for a time, but they are built upon fault lines that will eventually tear asunder.Collection: Powerful
Lincoln, they used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me. So democracy has never been for the faint of heart.Collection: Heart
Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a triple A country.Collection: Country
Michelle will tell you that when we get together for Christmas or Thanksgiving, it's like a little mini-United Nations... I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher... We've got it all.Collection: Together
A sportswriter once referred to him as our future president. With a name like Kevin, I don't know whether that's possible.Collection: Funny
So I think it's important to understand that your duly elected representatives have been consistently informed about exactly what we're doing.Collection: Thinking
I wouldn't consider them acts of war, but I would consider them acts of property damage, commercial theft that are serious.Collection: War
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.Collection: Phones
I know starting careers in troubled times is a challenge, but it is also a privilege. Because it's moments like these that force us to try harder, dig deeper and to discover gifts we never knew we had. To find the greatness that lies within each of us. So don't ever shy away from that endeavor. Don't stop adding to your body of work. I can promise that you will be the better for that continued effort as will be this nation that we all love.Collection: Lying
Abraham Lincoln and Millard Fillmore had the same title. They were both presidents of the United States, but their tenure in office and their legacy could not be more different.Collection: Office
There is nothing wrong with our country, there is something wrong with our politics...When this country is operating off a common ground, nobody can stop us. But when we're divided, then we end up having a whole lot of self-inflicted problems.Collection: Country
We are still the America that does the hard things, that does the great things. We're the nation that always dared to dream. We're the nation that dared to take risks.Collection: Dream
Peace is not merely the absence of visible conflict. Only a just peace based on the inherent rights and dignity of every individual can truly be lasting.Collection: Peace
I believe in evolution, scientific inquiry, and global warming; I believe in free speech, whether politically correct or politically incorrect, and I am suspicious of using government to impose anybody's religious beliefs -including my own- on nonbelievers.Collection: Religious
While freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by his people here on earth.Collection: People
Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.Collection: Electricity
The best education I received was working with people in the community on a grassroots basis. Because what it taught me was that ordinary people, when they are working together can do extraordinary things.Collection: People
Although we may come from vastly different stories and very different walks of life, we are one people who possess common values and common ideals; who celebrate individual excellence but also share a recognition that together, we can accomplish great and wonderful things we can't accomplish alone.Collection: Together We Can
Don't let your failures define you.Collection: Define You
Our relationship with the European Union, which has done so much to promote stability, stimulate economic growth, and foster the spread of democratic values and ideals across the continent and beyond.Collection: Growth
The friendship that we established early on in our marriage ... that carries you through tough times. That and a good sense of humor.Collection: Tough Times
Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.Collection: Dust
We are not entitled to success we have to earn itCollection: Entitled
It betrays a poverty of ambition if all you think about is what goods you can buy instead of what good you can do.Collection: Ambition
Writing has been an important exercise to clarify what I believe, what I see, what I care about, what my deepest values are. The process of converting a jumble of thoughts into coherent sentences makes you ask tougher questions.Collection: Believe
The arc of the moral universe may bend towards justice, but it doesn't bend on its own.Collection: Powerful
I don't believe we can get very far, with leaders who write off half the nation as a bunch of victims who never take responsibility for their own lives.Collection: Believe
And above all, children need our unconditional love - whether they succeed or make mistakes; when life is easy and when life is tough.Collection: Children
On every continent, there are girls who will go on to change the world in ways we can only imagine, if only we allow them the freedom to dream.Collection: Girl
The Russians can't change us or significantly weaken us. They are a smaller country. They are a weaker country. Their economy doesn't produce anything that anybody wants to buy, except oil and gas and arms. They don't innovate. But they can impact us if we lose track of who we are.Collection: Country
You have social media and the Internet and immigration and so, suddenly, cultures are clashing and people feel as if they're less familiar with the people around them. That causes social anxieties.Collection: Media
America's nurses are the beating heart of our medical system.Collection: Heart
In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.Collection: Change
I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director.Collection: Thinking
Any time bombs are used to target civilians it is an act of terror.Collection: Target
We may come from different places and have different stories, but we share common hopes, and one very American dream.Collection: Dream
Let's not only provide a jumpstart to the economy and immediately or save 3 million jobs, but let's also put a down payment on some of the structural problems that we have in our economy.Collection: Money
Is this money well spent? This is taxpayer money, it is going to be adding to the deficit short term and if we can't justify it, then we're not going to spend tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, just to make somebody happy, if it's not good for the economy.Collection: Money
That's why the American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan won't just throw money at our problems, we'll invest in what worksCollection: Money
Short term, the most important thing is to put people back to work ... If they're working, that means they're paying taxes, that means that they're buying goods and services - and the economy, instead of being on a downward spiral, starts back up on an upward spiral.Collection: Mean
I will eliminate capital-gains taxes for the small businesses and the startups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrowCollection: Jobs
Slowly, but surely, we are moving in the right direction. We're on the right track. The economy is getting strongerCollection: Moving
All across the world, ...increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.Collection: Running