Barack Obama Quotes

There are two Americas. One which influences government and economic policy and the other which must live with the results.

Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don't, why should we? They talk about people and the proletariat; I talk about the suckers and the mugs. It's the same thing.

I think in part the reason is that seeing an economy that is, in many ways, quite different from the one grows up in, helps crystallize issues: in one's own environment, one takes too much for granted, without asking why things are the way they are.

Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle. The modern industrial proletariat does not belong to the category of such classes.

As a Londoner I was able to see how the world of power and money cast its shadow on those who failed.

No government fights fascism to destroy it. When the bourgeoisie sees that power is slipping out of its hands, it brings up fascism to hold onto their privileges.

I can dine at the White House, but I can still hang at the 'hood.

In an ideal world, an individual's institutional power would be correlated perfectly with his or her value-add. In practice, this is seldom the case.

Too often we shape our public positions on the basis of our economic connections. That brings us dangerously close to economic determinism.

I'm sure we, the American people, are the butt of jokes by those in power.

The scum of the People are most Tyrannical when they get the Power, and treat their Betters with the greatest Insolence.

The real problem is that the way that power is given out in our society pits us against each other.

The privileged man, whether he be privileged politically or economically, is a man depraved in intellect and heart.

In the end, glorification of splendid underdogs is nothing other than glorification of the splendid system that makes them so.

... this is a grievance society and that if you want to get into its leading edge you pretty well have to be a victim.

Scratch a pessimist, and you often find a defender of privilege.

The defeats and victories for the people at the top aren't defeats and victories for the people at the bottom.

For America's elite there is never accountability. That is for the rest of us.

Powerful people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and pays our way.

However badly off a community may be at any given time, someone profits while the community remains in its present conditions. Someone owes his status to retention of the present conditions. Someone's plans and investment in the future depend on everything remaining the same.

Power is always gradually stealing away from the many to the few, because the few are more vigilant and consistent.

The "have nots" outnumber the "haves." No wonder the ruling class of every country grows more and more alarmed.

One must denounce the economic, financial, and social mechanisms and structures that are manipulated by the rich and powerful for their own benefit at the expense of the poor

… the unjust institutions which work so much misery and suffering to the masses have their root in governments, and owe their whole existence to the power derived from government.

Our elite has not evolved in 20 years, and the instincts of this elite are not democratic.