Quotes from Barack Obama

I'm an old-fashioned guy. I believe in the Enlightenment, and reason, and logic, and you know, facts.

When I was a kid I inhaled frequently. That was the point.

Two hundred and thirty-two years and they wait until the country's falling apart before they turn it over to the brother!

I thought the country I'd just described to them - a hopeful, generous, courageous America, an America that was open to everyone. At about the same age as the graduates were now, I'd seized on that idea and clung to it for dear life. For their sake more than mine, I badly wanted it to be true.

God sees the world through the eyes of those most oppressed.

O, fly and never tire, Fly and never tire, Fly and never tire, There's a great camp-meeting in the Promised Land. —FROM AN AFRICAN AMERICAN SPIRITUAL

In my daughters I see her every day, her joy, her capacity for wonder. I won't try to describe how deeply I mourn her passing still. I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her.

Look at yourself before you pass judgment. Don't make someone else clean up your mess.

Let us keep that promise — that American promise — and in the words of Scripture -- hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.

And so the moment we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold into a library, we've changed their lives forever, and for the better. This is an enormous force for good.

As she spoke, her voice never wavered; it was the voice of someone who has forced a larger meaning out of tragedy. Or

More than anyone, this book is for those young people—an invitation to once again remake the world, and to bring about, through hard work, determination, and a big dose of imagination, an America that finally aligns with all that is best in us.