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Barack Obama Quotes (1961-)
President, Poet, Politician
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About Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States of America from 2009 to 2017. Born in Hawaii, the son of a Kenyan father and a mother from Kansas, he won the 2008 presidential election and was re-elected president in November 2012. A member of the U.S. Democratic Party, he was the first African American president. Before becoming president, he represented the 13th district for three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004 and served as United States senator from Illinois between January 4, 2005 and November 16, 2008. While president, he was the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
Best Barack Obama Quotes
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Barack Obama quotes.
“No one is pro-abortion.”
- Barack Obama, 2004)
“By 2014, the war in Afghanistan will be over.”
- Barack Obama, 2012)
“Let me be absolutely clear: Iran is a grave threat.”
- Barack Obama, 2008)
“Evolution is more grounded in my experience than angels.”
- Barack Obama, 2006)
“Guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now.”
- Barack Obama, 2009)
“When I was a kid, I inhaled. Frequently. That was the point.”
- Barack Obama, 2006)
“We will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities.”
- Barack Obama, 2009, A New Beginning
“As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam.”
- Barack Obama, 2009, A New Beginning
“I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.”
- Barack Obama, 2005)
Barack Obama Quotes by Topic
Find exactly what you are looking for by browsing this categorized list of Barack Obama quotes by topic.
Barack Obama on War 8 quotes
View all 8 quotes on War →Barack Obama on Democracy 7 quotes
Speaking at a 2018 political rally, Barack Obama critiqued the post-truth political climate, arguing that democracy crumbles when truth and language lose their meaning.
“When words stop meaning anything, when truth doesn’t matter, when people can just lie with abandon, democracy can’t work.”
Barack Obama on United States 7 quotes
“We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. 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.”
Barack Obama on Hope 6 quotes
View all 6 quotes on Hope →Barack Obama on Peace 6 quotes
“The terms of peace may be negotiated by political leaders, but the fate of peace is up to each of us.”
Barack Obama on Social Security (United States) 6 quotes
“The challenge, I think, for the tea party movement is to identify specifically, what would you do? It's not enough just to say, "Get control of spending." I think it's important for you to say, you know, "I'm willing to cut veterans' benefits," or, "I'm willing to cut Medicare or Social Security benefits," or, "I'm willing to see these taxes go up."”
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Barack Obama on Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 4 quotes
“Science allows us to communicate across the seas and fly above the clouds; to cure disease and understand the cosmos. But those same discoveries can be turned into ever-more efficient killing machines. The wars of the modern age teach this truth. Hiroshima teaches this truth. Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us. The scientific revolution that led to the splitting of an atom requires a moral revolution, as well.'''”
- Barack Obama, O)
Barack Obama on Future 3 quotes
View all 3 quotes on Future →Barack Obama on Grace 3 quotes
“We don’t earn grace. We're all sinners. We don't deserve it. But God gives it to us anyway.”
Barack Obama on Potential 3 quotes
“[I]t’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”
Barack Obama on Freedom of the press 3 quotes
Speaking to the people of Estonia in 2014, President Obama emphasized the importance of a free press and open discourse as bulwarks against misinformation and lies.
“We have to uphold a free press and freedom of speech -- because, in the end, lies and misinformation are no match for the truth.”
Barack Obama on American benevolence 3 quotes
“America has never fought a war against a democracy, and our closest friends are governments that protect the rights of their citizens.”
What Barack Obama Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Barack Obama shared regarding contemporaries.
Barack Obama on John McCain 12 quotes
“We come to celebrate an extraordinary man – a warrior, a statesman, a patriot who embodied so much that is best in America. President Bush and I are among the fortunate few who competed against John at the highest levels of politics. He made us better presidents. Just as he made the Senate better. Just as he made this country better. So for someone like John to ask you, while he’s still alive, to stand and speak of him when he’s gone, is a precious and singular honor.”
Barack Obama on Ted Kennedy 9 quotes
“By the age of 12, he was a member of a Gold Star family. By 36, two of his brothers were stolen from him in the most tragic, public of ways. By 41, he nearly lost a beloved child to cancer. And that made suffering something he knew. And it made him more alive to the suffering of others.”
Barack Obama on Martin Luther King Jr. 4 quotes
“We rightly and best remember Dr. King's soaring oratory that day, how he gave mighty voice to the quiet hopes of millions; how he offered a salvation path for oppressed and oppressors alike. His words belong to the ages, possessing a power and prophecy unmatched in our time.”
Barack Obama on Lyndon B. Johnson 4 quotes
“As a master of politics and the legislative process, he grasped like few others the power of government to bring about change. …President Johnson liked power. He liked the feel of it, the wielding of it. But that hunger was harnessed and redeemed by a deeper understanding of the human condition; by a sympathy for the underdog, for the downtrodden, for the outcast. And it was a sympathy rooted in his own experience.”
Barack Obama on Kanye West 3 quotes
View all 3 quotes on Kanye West →Barack Obama on Salvatore Giunta 3 quotes
“Now, I’m going to go off-script here for a second and just say I really like this guy. I think anybody -- we all just get a sense of people and who they are, and when you meet Sal and you meet his family, you are just absolutely convinced that this is what America is all about.”
Barack Obama on Donald Trump 3 quotes
In a 1991 paper, a young Barack Obama critiqued the American Dream, suggesting its core aspiration, for many, was to achieve the success of someone like Donald Trump.
“[Americans have] a continuing normative commitment to the ideals of individual freedom and mobility, values that extend far beyond the issue of race in the American mind. The depth of this commitment may be summarily dismissed as the unfounded optimism of the average American—I may not be Donald Trump now, but just you wait; if I don't make it, my children will.”
Barack Obama on Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 2 quotes
“That's my man right there, the most popular politician on earth.”
Barack Obama on Joe Biden 2 quotes
“I've asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort, because nobody messes with Joe. Am I right? They don't mess with him.”
Barack Obama on Manmohan Singh 2 quotes
“He has been doing a wonderful job in guiding India even prior to being the prime minister along the path of extraordinary economic growth. That is a marvel, I think, for all of the world.”
Barack Obama on Women 2 quotes
“Today, women make up about half our workforce, but they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it's an embarrassment. Women deserve equal pay for equal work.”
Barack Obama on Bashar al-Assad 2 quotes
“We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. He has not led. For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside.”
Quotes About Barack Obama
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Barack Obama from others.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Barack Obama
Anonymous on Barack Obama 2 quotes
“For all President Trump's talk these days about Democrats trying to make America socialist, the reality is that he is the king of big government. The federal bureaucracy is just as large, centralized, careless with spending, and intrusive under Donald Trump as it was when Barack Obama was in office. In many cases, it's bigger. This is an uncomfortable truth for Trump supporters. Rather than hew to traditional conservative beliefs about a limited federal role, Trump has allowed government to balloon. He's especially vexed when we inform him the government will never be large enough or powerful enough to execute his spontaneous propositions. The US federal budget deficit was actually declining under the Obama administration, from $1.4 trillion in 2009 when Obama took office to $587 billion in 2016, just before he left. Credit for the remarkable downward trend goes to congressional Republicans, who forced a standoff with the White House in 2011. They demanded a budget deal that would bring the deficit under control. This was the Budget Control Act, a law that slashed federal spending, put strict annual limits on future expenditures, and placed a cap on the government's "credit card." It was considered the conservative "Tea Party" movement's crowning achievement.”
Source on Barack Obama 3 quotes
“I am reminded of the phrase the audacity of hope. Who can say that the president of the United States is not audacious? Was it not audacious for him to say on Tuesday that the United States supported the forces of change in the Arab Spring?”
Julian Assange on Barack Obama
In a 2012 UN address, Julian Assange criticized Obama's portrayal of the Arab Spring, highlighting US complicity in Tunisian oppression revealed by WikiLeaks.
“Tunisian history did not begin in December 2010. And Mohamed Bouazizi did not set himself on fire so Barack Obama could be re-elected. His death was an emblem of the despair he had to endure under the Ben Ali regime. The world knew after reading WikiLeaks publications that Ben Ali and his government had long enjoyed the indifference, if not the support, of the United States in full knowledge of its excesses and its crimes.”
Hassan al-Turabi on Barack Obama
“He’s gentle towards the Muslims generally. Obama uses the word “terrorism” far less than his predecessor George W. Bush, and his name is a variant of the Arabic word Barakah.”
Glenn Beck on Barack Obama
“Glenn Beck: This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture, I don't know what it is. Brian Kilmeade: Listen, you can't say he doesn't like white people. David Axelrod's white, Rahm Emanuel's his chief of staff, I think 70% of the people we see every day are white. Robert Gibbs is white— Glenn Beck: I'm not saying that he doesn't like white people, I'm saying he has a problem. He has a — this guy is, I believe, a racist.”
Silvio Berlusconi on Barack Obama
“Translation: Barack Obama being young, handsome and sun-tanned is going to get along with you swimmingly.”
Michael Beschloss on Barack Obama
Senator Joe Biden on Barack Obama
Then-Senator Joe Biden, in a 2007 interview, sparked controversy by describing Barack Obama as "the first mainstream African-American" who was articulate, bright, and clean.
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man.”
Joe Biden on Barack Obama
Speaking to Xi Jinping in 2012, then-Vice President Biden underscored the political necessity for any U.S. president to champion human rights.
“No President of the United States could represent the United States were he not committed to human rights. If you don’t understand this, you can’t deal with us. President Barack Obama would not be able to stay in power if he did not speak of it. So look at it as a political imperative. It doesn’t make us better or worse. It’s who we are. You make your decisions. We’ll make ours.”
Harry Binswanger on Barack Obama
“Obama blames economic woes, some real some manufactured (“inequality”) on a philosophy and policy that was abandoned a century ago. What doesn’t exist is what he says didn’t work. Obama absurdly suggests that timid, half-hearted, compromisers, like George W. Bush, installed laissez-faire capitalism–on the grounds that they tinkered with one or two regulations (Glass-Steagall) and marginal tax rates–while blanking out the fact that under the Bush administration, government spending ballooned, growing much faster than under Clinton, and 50,000 new regulations were added to the Federal Register.”
John Bolton on Barack Obama
“Did NATO have problems? Of course. Not for nothing was Henry Kissinger's famous 1965 work entitled The Troubled Partnership: A Reappraisal of the Atlantic Alliance. The list of NATO's deficiencies was long, including, after the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse, the feckless abandonment by several European members of their responsibility to provide for their own self-defense. Under President Clinton, America suffered its own military declines, as he and others saw the collapse of Communism as "the end of history," slashing defense budgets to spend on politically beneficial domestic welfare programs. This "peace dividend" illusion never ended in much of Europe, but it ended in America with the September 11 mass murders in New York and Washington by Islamicist terrorists. NATO's future has been intensely debated among national-security experts for decades, with many urging a broader post-Cold War agenda. Barack Obama criticized NATO members for being "free riders," not spending adequately on their own defense budgets, but, typically, he had simply graced the world with his views, doing nothing to see them carried out.”
Misattributed Quotes
Quotes mistakenly credited to Barack Obama
“We are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists.”
“I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.”
“If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. If you've got a business, you didn't build that, somebody else made that happen.”
About Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States of America from 2009 to 2017. Born in Hawaii, the son of a Kenyan father and a mother from Kansas, he won the 2008 presidential election and was re-elected president in November 2012. A member of the U.S. Democratic Party, he was the first African American president. Before becoming president, he represented the 13th district for three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004 and served as United States senator from Illinois between January 4, 2005 and November 16, 2008. While president, he was the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.