Barack Obama Quotes

A change of mentality is needed, no longer seeing the poor as a burden, or as intruders trying to profit from others, but as people seeking to share the goods of the world so that we can create a just and prosperous world for all.

People who are much too sensitive to demand of cripples that they run races ask of the poor that they get up and act just like everyone else in society.

All I know for sure is that issues like race, like class, are always best approached with compassion and open-mindedness.

In my work, I'm always trying not to put barriers up between the 'good poor' and the 'bad poor.' I'm not sure my work will change things much, but at the very least, you want to make people feel that they are not alone.

Societies should be judged by how they treat the weakest among them.

As a liberal, I am morally obligated to be pragmatic. What good do I do poor people, elderly people, people who are being discriminated against because of their sexual orientation if I'm not realistic about accomplishing something.

In a competitive world, not everybody can follow the pace; you will leave people out. We now accept that we must take care of these people. You cannot let them die in the streets; people will not accept it. And that is right, too.

I mean I think children love the idea that there are different viewpoints and different words for things and different worlds. And the more that they pretend to be other people, the harder it is for them to hate them and misunderstand them when they grow up.

To put it mildly, nothing can be turned and worn inside out with greater ease than one's notion of social justice, public conscience, a better future, etc.

I am not a Somali representative. I am not a Muslim representative. I am not a millennial representative. I am not a woman representative. I am a representative who happens to have all of these marginalized identities and can understand the intersectionality of all of them in a very unique way.

Being gay is not something that defines me. What defines me is what my mom always taught me: to treat everyone with respect, to always be a hard worker, and to be kind.

Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity - or because of their sexual orientation.

I had been a radical, a left-wing politico, and meeting the Indian people made me realize that the politics of the left and the right were so much less important than the politics of the heart and the spirit.

I feel it's part of my job to make the problems of the poor compelling.

We should be tolerant, fair, open, and we should understand the rights that all people have in our society.

The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.

I am a human being; nothing human can be alien to me.

It's never a good idea to organize society in a way that depletes the energy of half the population. We discovered this with women decades ago, and now it's time to realize it with introverts.

The hallmark of a healthy society has always been measured by how it cares for the disadvantaged.

The challenge of social justice is to evoke a sense of community that we need to make our nation a better place, just as we make it a safer place.

We need leaders who will stand up for the little guy and listen once again.

We live in a complicated, oppressive world with enormous cities and vast populations, and I try to contribute by making it more light and open and calm.

I'm definitely more understanding of people who have disabilities and who are suffering.

Republicans can be a funny bunch. They're against affirmative action, but they always seem to be able to find people of color to fill a slot just when they're most needed.

People with handicaps teach me that being is more important than doing, the heart is more important than the mind, and caring together is better than caring alone.