Barack Obama Quotes

Leadership starts with understanding responsibility, not ability. Leadership is a Stewardship, not a show.

When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.

Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom.

I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon [George] Washington.

Realizing the responsibility I've been entrusted with... it's humbling. Very humbling.

If someone as blessed as I am is not willing to clean out the barn, who will?

These are my friends, my family. It would be hell on earth to spend the rest of my life leading them into situations where some of them are going to get killed... but it would be worse watching someone well-meaning but incompetent or untrained double those deaths.

I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a Queen, as to be a Queen over so thankful a people.

Only by acknowledging the success and sacrifice made by those who came before us can we fully understand what we must do to ensure the liberty of those who will succeed us.

We have been given the trust and goodwill of New Zealanders. I do not take that trust for granted, and I never will.

I am not virtuous. Our sons will be if we shed enough blood to give them the right to be.

When it comes to my own turn to lay my weapons down, I shall do so with thankfulness and fatigue, and whatever be my destiny afterward, I shall be glad to lie down with my fathers in honor. It is human at least, if not divine.

Tom Clarke is dead. He has not our responsibilities. Nobody will ever know what he would do for the situation did not arise for him. But is has risen for us and we must face it with our intelligence and conscious of our responsibility.

Leadership involves not so much marching gloriously at the head of a parade as paying quietly for the parade permit and the cleanup afterward. Leading the world means acting not as its Commander-In-Chief but as its concierge.

The mantle of the pioneers has fallen on our shoulders.

They serve so that we don't have to. They offer to give up their lives so that we can be free. It is, remarkably, their gift to us. And all they ask for in return is that we never send them into harm's way unless it is absolutely necessary. Will they ever trust us again?

Since it has pleased Providence to place me in this station, I shall do my utmost to fulfill my duty towards my country; I am very young, and perhaps in many, though not in all things, inexperienced, but I am sure, that very few have more real good will and more real desire to do what is fit and right than I have.

Being of service is not enough. You must become a servant of the people. When you do, you can demand their commitment in return

A degree of silence envelops [George] Washington’s actions; he moved slowly; one might say that he felt charged with future liberty, and that he feared to compromise it. It was not his own destiny that inspired this new species of hero: it was that of his country; he did not allow himself to enjoy what did not belong to him; but from that profound humility what glory emerged! Search the woods where Washington’s sword gleamed: what do you find? Tombs? No; a world! Washington has left the United States behind for a monument on the field of battle.

Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.

You don't eat before your troops eat, and you don't ask your troops to do anything you won't do, too.

It's like I learned in the military: the officers always ate last. When you're responsible for people, that's how it should be.

I have to take care of my family, my team, and my legacy.

My father is always with me. But moving forward and making my father more proud of me is very important. Taking care of my family, as my father did, is even more important.