70 Barack Obama Quotes about Good Leadership

– Barack Obama Quotes –

What better way to revive the feelings of black excellence, perseverance and hope than by reading Barack Obama Quotes? The first black president of the United States of America has had a lot to say over the years. Read through these Barack Obama quotes.

Barack Hussein Obama II was born on August 4, 1961, in Chicago, Illinois. He is a politician from the United States who served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. Obama was the first African-American president in the white house and a member of the Democratic Party. He previously served as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004 and as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 in the 21st century.

1. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

2. “I believe marriage is between men and women. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.”

3. “If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.”

4. “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.”

5. “We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what’s in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.”

6. “The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on.”

Barack Obama Quotes Regarding War

7. “Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq. We did. I promised to refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11. We have. We’ve blunted the Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan, and in 2014, our longest war will be over. A new tower rises above the New York skyline, al Qaeda is on the path to defeat, and Osama bin Laden is dead.”

8. “It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label.”

Famous Barack Obama Quotes

9. “I began feeling the way I imagine an actor or athlete must feel when, after years of commitment to a particular dream…he realizes that he’s gone just about as far as talent or fortune will take him. The dream will not happen, and he now faces the choice of accepting this fact like a grownup and moving on to more sensible pursuits, or refusing the truth and ending up bitter, quarrelsome, and slightly pathetic.”

10. “I think what you’re seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they’ve got to be treated like every other American. And I think that principle will win out.”

11.“If the people cannot trust their government  and the police officers to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their common welfare. Joe Biden – all else is lost.”

12. “When we don’t pay close attention to the decisions made by our leaders, when we fail to educate ourselves about the major issues of the day, when we choose not to make our voices and opinions heard, that’s when democracy breaks down. That’s when power is abused. That’s when the most extreme voices in our society fill the void that we leave. That’s when powerful interests and their lobbyists are most able to buy access and influence in the corridors of power – because none of us are there to speak up and stop them.”

13. “Participation in public life doesn’t mean that you all have to run for public office – though we could certainly use some fresh faces in Washington. But it does mean that you should pay attention and contribute in any way that you can. Stay informed. Write letters, or make phone calls on behalf of an issue you care about. If electoral politics isn’t your thing, continue the tradition so many of you started here at Michigan and find a way to serve your community and your country – an act that will help you stay connected to your fellow citizens and improve the lives of those around you.”

14. “Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.”

15. “In a world of complex threats, our security and leadership depends on all elements of our power – including strong and principled diplomacy.”

16. “On every front, there are clear answers out there that can make this country stronger, but we’re going to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling. Our job is to make sure that even as we make progress, that we are also giving people a sense of hope and vision for the future.”

17. “With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.”

18. “We didn’t become the most prosperous country in the world just by rewarding greed and recklessness. We didn’t come this far by letting the special interests run wild. We didn’t do it just by gambling and chasing paper profits on Wall Street. We built this country by making things, by producing goods we could sell.”

19. “In December, I agreed to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans because it was the only way I could prevent a tax hike on middle-class Americans. But we cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society. We can’t afford it. And I refuse to renew them again.”

20. “The shift to a cleaner energy economy won’t happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact.”

21. “The thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.”

22. “Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,’ he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. ‘Shake it off. Stop complainin’. Stop grumblin’. Stop cryin’. We are going to press on. We have work to do.”

23. “Money is not the only answer, but it makes a difference.”

24. “We have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing in our students and our schools. We must make sure that people who have the grades, the desire and the will, but not the money, can still get the best education possible.”

25. “My identity might begin with the fact of my race, but it didn’t, couldn’t end there. At least that’s what I would choose to believe.”

26. “When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk.”

Barack Obama Quotes on Success

27. “I’m the president of the United States. I’m not the emperor of the United States.”

28. “Change is never easy, but always possible.”

29. “The cynics may be the loudest voices – but I promise you, they will accomplish the least”

30. “You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.”

31. “Nothing in life that’s worth anything is easy.”

32. “We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it.”

33. “In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?”

34. “If you run you stand a chance of losing, but if you don’t run you’ve already lost.”

35. “The value of social movements and activism is to get you at the table, get you in the room, and then to start trying to figure out how is this problem going to be solved.”

36. “I think when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody.”

37. “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.” 

38. “Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail.”

39. “If you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like or who you love.”

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Barack Obama Quotes on Dreaming

40. “Keep exploring. Keep dreaming. Keep asking why. Don’t settle for what you already know. Never stop believing in the power of your ideas, your imagination, your hard work to change the world.”

41. “We are the change we have been waiting for.”

42. “We need to keep making our streets safer and our criminal justice system fairer – our homeland more secure, our world more peaceful and sustainable for the next generation.”

43. “Michelle’s like Beyoncé in that song. ‘Let me upgrade ya!’ She upgraded me.”

44. “We don’t turn back. We leave no one behind. We pull each other up.”

45. “What Washington needs is adult supervision.”

46. “Where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes We Can.”

47. “You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig.”

48.“When times get tough, we don’t give up. We get up.”

49. “We may not be able to stop evil in the world, but how we treat one another is entirely up to us.”

Relatable Barrack Obama Quotes

50. “Why can’t I just eat my waffle?”

51. “I’m a warrior for the middle class.”

52. “I just miss – I miss being anonymous.”

53. “I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”

54. “Issues are never simple. One thing I’m proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.”

55. “We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.”

56. “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.”

57. “We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges.”

58. “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America – there’s the United States of America.”

59. “Now, as a nation, we don’t promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That’s an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.”

60. “Americans still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.”       

61. “My advisors were a little worried about the new rap entrance music – they’re a little more traditional. They suggested I start with some jokes at my own expense – just to take myself down a peg. I was like, “guys, guys, after four and a half years, how many pegs are there left?”.”       

62. “What we need in Washington is not more political tactics – we need more good ideas.”       

63. “Those who have the privilege to serve this country have an obligation to do our job as best we can… that’s why disagreement cannot mean dysfunction… the American people’s hopes and dreams are what matters, not ours.”       

64. “It’s important to realise I was actually black before the election.”       

65. “I don’t want to pit Red America against Blue America – I want to be President of the United States of America.”  

66. “Hope is the bedrock of this nation; the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us.”       

67. “You can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time.”      

68. “What Washington needs is adult supervision.”       

69. “Some things are beyond my control. For example, this whole controversy about Jay-Z going to Cuba – it’s unbelievable! I’ve got 99 problems, now Jay-Z is one.”       

70. “Now, when you first become president, one of the questions people ask you is, “what’s really going on in Area 51?” … oh, I think I just became the first president to ever publicly mention Area 51… how’s that?”       

Barack Obama is a perfect definition of black wisdom and excellence. We hope this collection of Barack Obama quotes has inspired you. Don’t forget to share to your preferred platform.

StudentsandScholarship Team.