Barack Obama Quotes

There is a real fear around shifting from our existing economic system because people believe it gives us social organisation, a sense of freedom, and the ability to be nice to each other. Growth is seen as a social lubricant that allows us to be socially responsible.

We want our children to live in an America that isn't burdened by debt, that isn't weakened by inequality, that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.

We cannot afford to leave the poor behind.

Poverty must be reduced not only for reasons of moral and justice, but also of security.

The American dream is under assault.

A man's respect for law and order exists in precise relationship to the size of his paycheck.

Our investments in social justice and basic needs are as vital to our future as fiscal and macroeconomic reforms. A nation deeply divided will not stand. And it certainly will not move forward.

What kind of America do people want to leave for their children? What horrors are down the road, stuff that was unthinkable 30 years ago?

We cannot run a democracy without a strong middle class.

The issue of wealth inequality is ... the great moral issue of our time.

This country is very good at creating wealth, but not very good at distributing it.

Inequality of income is bad for everyone, not just the poor and the middle class.

Liberty is impossible if 36 thousand families at the top of the economic pyramid get as much income as 12 million families at the bottom.

You can't have a United States if you are telling some folks that they can't get on the train. There is a cracking point where a society collapses.

Society can't function without shared prosperity.

It's almost impossible to have security at the expense of insecurity of others. It's almost impossible to have prosperity when there is a huge problem of poverty and backwardness all over the world.

Labour ministers often look puzzled when reports show that Britain has one of the lowest levels of social mobility in the developed world. They just don't get it. They see poverty, inequality, fairness, as all about income. For the past 12 years, they have relied on tax credits to solve this. But tax credits do not solve poverty: they mask it.

No, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, people don't want handouts. They want purpose.

My goal is to eradicate poverty. I think we can't have equality until we eradicate poverty.

I think what Donald [Trump] is saying is that it's unacceptable to him that members of the African-American community - and I'm sure he will say this about other communities as well - who live in violence, who are subject of that, or who do not have the educational opportunities that every child in this country should have so they can reach their fullest potential, that that's unacceptable.

Millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain enslaved by the chains of poverty. It is time to set them free.

At the start of the second decade of the 21st century, young people all over the world are demonstrating against a variety of issues ranging from economic injustice and massive inequality to drastic cuts in education and public services. These demonstrations have and currently are being met with state-sanctioned violence and an almost pathological refusal to hear their demands.

You are not born racist. You are born into a racist society. And like anything else, if you can learn it, you can unlearn it. But some people choose not to unlearn it, because they're afraid they'll lose power if they share with other people. We are afraid of sharing power. That's what it's all about.

There are too many people trying to take opportunity from people in the middle class.

I think markets are mechanisms that determine prices that are necessary for mass heterogenous populations, and markets do generate levels of technological innovation and productivity that is crucial. But when unregulated, they often generate levels of vast inequality and ugly isolation that makes it difficult for people to relate and connect with one another.