Barack Obama Quotes

I Know That Gaps Can Be Closed. And They Can Be Closed Substantially, More Than I Think We Believe.

The 20th Century Was A Bloodbath, And For All The Frustrations And Failures Of The Project To Unify Europe, The Last Five Decades Have Been Periods Of Unprecedented Peace, Growth, And Prosperity In Europe.

If Everything Seems To Be The Same And No Distinctions Are Made, Then We Won't Know What To Protect. We Won't Know What To Fight For.

I Think What Is True Is That There's Been An Underlying Division In The United States. Some Of It Has To Do With The Fact That Economic Growth And Recovery Tends To Be Stronger In The Cities And In Urban Areas. In Some Rural Areas, Particularly Those That Were Reliant On Manufacturing, There Has Been Weaker Growth, Stagnation, People Feeling As If Their Children Won't Do As Well As They Will.

I Try To Make It A Rule Not To Meddle In Other People's Politics.

Sometimes It May Seem As If Progress Is Stalled But What History Of Post-war Germany Shows Is That Strength And Determination And Focus And Adherence To The Values That We Care About Will Result In A Better Future For Our Children And Our Grandchildren.

Certainly I've Appreciated Angela Merkel As A Partner.

One Of The Things You Learn As President Is, As Powerful As This Office Is, You Have Limited Bandwidth. And The Time Goes By Really Quickly And You're Constantly Making Choices, And There Are Pressures On You From All Different Directions - Pressures On Your Attention, Not Just Pressures From Different Constituencies. And So You Have To Be Pretty Focused About Where Can You Have The Biggest, Quickest Impact.

If You Look At Countries Like South Africa, Where You Had A Black Majority, There Have Been Efforts To Tax And Help That Black Majority, But It Hasn't Come In The Form Of A Formal Reparations Program.

I Have Got To Figure Out A System Because I Have Bad Filing, Sorting, And Organizing Habits.

I Think My Most Important Advice Is To Understand What Are The Foundations Of A Healthy Democracy And How We Have To Engage In Citizenship Continuously, Not Just When Something Upsets Us; Not Just When There's An Election Or When An Issue Pops Up For A Few Weeks. It's Hard Work.

If People, Whether They Are Conservative Or Liberal, Left Or Right, Are Unwilling To Compromise And Engage In The Democratic Process, And Are Taking Absolutist Views, And Demonizing Opponents, Then Democracy Will Break Down.