Barack Obama Quotes

Nothing will deter us from building the future we want for our children. What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshaling our best efforts to save it.

As I said in my State of the Union address ensuring the security of the United States and the safety of our people demands a smart, patient and disciplined approach to the world.

We're starting to make some progress. But there's still gonna be some pain out there. If I don't have this done in three years, then there's gonna be a one-term proposition.

I have to make the very best judgments I can make in terms of what's gonna keep the American people safe. And is what, what's gonna uphold our Constitution and our traditions of due process.

Mexico is going to need the United States to cooperate in order to rid itself of the violence and corruption that results from the drug trade.

Sometimes Hillary Clinton doesn't get the credit she deserves. But the fact is, Hillary is steady, and Hillary is true.

By the way, you know, Mitt Romney and McCain, I don't agree with them, but they would have been okay. I could have been satisfied with them.

At least Romney and McCain, they respect the rule of law. At least Romney and McCain, they understand their limitations.

My God, Donald Trump is unfit! He's ill-tempered, he's unsuited, he is not qualified, he's unsuited to be president.

The United States has been a Pacific nation for over two centuries. That's not going to change.

My particular passion for Lincoln dates back from my earliest memories of politics.

For me, Lincoln is like just a handful of people - a Gandhi, or a Picasso, or a Martin Luther King Jr. - who is an original and captures something essential.

I think it's fair to say that my temperament is steady - and on the buoyant side.

On the spectrum of successful politicians, I'm not introverted the way some have been.

I like my quiet time. There is a writer's sensibility in me sometimes, where I step back.

I don't buy the hype when everybody is saying how wonderful things are and how great I am, and I don't get too down when people say, "This is a disaster and he's done for."

The pyramids are one of those things that live up to the hype. They're elemental in ways that are hard to describe.

I am a firm believer that you don't do anything significant by yourself. Again, maybe there are exceptions. There's the Picasso or the Mozart.

The Balkanization of the media means that nobody is having a single conversation with a single set of agreed-upon facts and assumptions the way you had as recently as the 90s.

Generally speaking, people who know me will tell you that my public persona is not that different from my private persona.

There is a big part of me that has a writer's sensibility. And so that's how I think. That's how I pursue truth. That's how I hope to communicate truth to people.

I think I have a pretty good take on popular culture that maybe makes up for the fact that I'm not a sound-bite politician for the nightly news.

There aren't a lot of situations where I look back and I say, The decision I actually made or the course we actually pursued was the wrong course.

Anybody who gets into bed and turns out the lights the first night in the White House probably feels a little bit of a start, where you say, "Goodness ... "

There wasn't a time where I felt fearful that I couldn't make the best decisions possible.

We can make sure that people who don't have health insurance can buy into an insurance pool that gives them better bargaining power.

Every president who has tried to bring about big changes I think elicits the most passionate responses.

Health care has become a proxy for a broader set of issues about how much government should be involved in our economy, particularly coming off a huge economic crisis.

I want to make sure that as president of the United States that I'm not asserting in some way that my decisions overrule the decisions of prosecutors who are there to uphold the law.

My core goal is to dismantle, defeat, destroy al Qaeda and its allies that killed Americans and are still plotting to go kill Americans.

The only reason I send a single young man or woman in uniform anywhere in the world is because I think it's necessary to keep us safe.

We're not going to put the cart before the horse and just think by sending more troops, we're automatically going to make Americans safe.

I don't know if Donald Trump's ever been to an actual polling place, but, you know, he doesn't even worry if what he says is true. This is just about him worried that he's losing.

I think the average American, if they go to the workplace, somebody's next to 'em, they're not poking around trying to figure out what their religious beliefs are.

My question would be whether there is active persecution of atheists.

If it's on Facebook, it all looks the same.

The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense.

In fact, the American people did decide, back in 2012, when they elected me president of the United States.

I think I was able to talk to people about values in ways that people - in ways that resonated with folks.

I very much believe in reforming the tax system.

If you want a model for what is possible, if you want to see how to build a peaceful and prosperous and dynamic society, then look at Berlin and look at Germany.

Campaigning is different from governing.

You don't take it personally. You understand that if people are angry that somehow the government is failing, then they are going to look to the guy who represents government.

I think where I get frustrated at times was the belief that the president can do anything if he just decides he wants to do it.

My first job as commander in chief is to keep the American people safe.

Part of American leadership is making sure that we're doing nation building here at home. That will help us maintain the kind of American leadership that we need.

Moammar Gadhafi had more American blood on his hands than any individual other than Osama bin Laden.

I will stand with Israel if they are attacked.

When I've sent young men and women into harm's way, I always understand that that is the last resort, not the first resort.

There's no reason why Americans should die when Afghans are perfectly capable of defending their own country.