Barack Obama Quotes - Page 40

• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Government, Differences, People

  Profile in The Independent Magazine, March 10, 2007.

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• These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

  Barack Obama

  Inspiring, Country, America

  A More Perfect Union, delivered 18 March 2008, Philadelphia, PA

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• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Inspiring, Country, Believe

  A More Perfect Union, delivered 18 March 2008, Philadelphia, PA

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• What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth.

  Barack Obama

  America, Together, Earth

  Second Presidential Election Victory Speech, delivered 7 November 2012, McCormick Place Chicago, Illinois

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• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Law, Affordable, Secure

  "Obama: 'Shop around' if you lose your health insurance plans". www.foxnews.com. October 31, 2013.

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• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Mistake, Names, Decision

  Second Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 21 January 2013, Washington, D.C.

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• We are not going to keep the window open forever.

  Barack Obama

  Forever, Window

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• Iran's nuclear program . . . there was going to be a time limit . . .

  Barack Obama

  Iran, Nuclear, Limits

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• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Opportunity, Iran, Waiting

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• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Islamic, Responsibility, Iran

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• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Patriotic, Government, Self

  "Partisan-in-chief Obama – crossing the line with America's federal workforce" By Tony Shaffer, www.foxnews.com. October 03, 2013.

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• My father's voice had nevertheless remained untainted, inspiring, rebuking, granting or withholding approval. 'You do not work hard enough, Barry. You must help in your people's struggle. Wake up, black man!

  Barack Obama

  Father, Struggle, Hard Work

  Barack Obama (2007). “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance”, p.220, Broadway Books

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• All this marked them as vaguely liberal, although their ideas would never congeal into anything like a firm ideology; in this, too, they were American.

  Barack Obama

  Ideas, Firm, Ideology

  Barack Obama (2007). “Dreams From My Father”, p.17, Canongate Books

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• But another thing I know is this — we can’t steer ourselves out of this crisis by heading in the same, disastrous direction. We can’t change direction with a new driver who wants to follow the same old map. And that’s what this election is all about.

  Barack Obama

  Maps, Want, Election

  "Obama's Remarks in Espanola, New Mexico". www.realclearpolitics.com. September 18, 2008.

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• We're showing that there's no excuse for other nations to come together, both developed and developing, to achieve a strong global climate agreement next year.

  Barack Obama

  Strong, Agreement, Years

  Barack Obama's remarks at G20 Press Conference at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Center in Brisbane, Australia, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. November 16, 2014.

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• The actions of those in power can have enormous consequences - a price that they themselves almost never have to pay.

  Barack Obama

  Pay, Action, Authority

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• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Simple, Self, Blood

  A New Beginning: Speech at Cairo University, delivered 4 June 2009, Cairo, Egypt

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• The promotion of human rights cannot be about exhortation alone. At times, it must be coupled with painstaking diplomacy. I know that engagement with repressive regimes lacks the satisfying purity of indignation. But I also know that sanctions without outreach -- condemnation without discussion -- can carry forward only a crippling status quo. No repressive regime can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door.

  Barack Obama

  Moving, Rights, Doors

  Nobel Prize for Peace Acceptance Speech and Lecture, delivered 10 December 2009, Oslo City Hall, Oslo, Norway

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• Nowhere is it ordained that history moves in a straight line.

  Barack Obama

  Moving, History, Lines

  Barack Obama (2007). “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream”, p.248, Canongate Books

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• Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.

  Barack Obama

  Powerful, Ideas, Going Away

  On the Courage and Dignity of the People of Iran, delivered 23 June 2009

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• I am the eternal optimist. I think that, over time, people respond to civility and -- and rational argument.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, People, Argument

  "Obama takes questions on economy". Barack Obama's comments during his first prime time televised news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, www.cnn.com. February 9, 2009.

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• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Powerful, America, Justice

  First Speech to a Joint Session of Congress, delivered 24 February 2009

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• 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.

  Barack Obama

  People, Tears, Trying

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• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Cutting, Common Sense, Innovation

  First Speech to a Joint Session of Congress, delivered 24 February 2009

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• Ultimately there is no dividing line between Main Street and Wall Street. We will rise or we will fall together as one nation.

  Barack Obama

  Wall, Fall, Together

  "President Obama Pitches Financial Reform". "NBC Nightly News" with Brian Williams, archives.nbclearn.com. April 22, 2010.

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