Michelle Obama Quotes

The whole idea of a democracy is that we ourselves, the people, are supposed to make a path of our politics, and it is we who with our feet and our vote and our labors and our vigilance are supposed to shape our country.

If people don't vote, everything stays the same. You can protest until the sky turns yellow or the moon turns blue, and it's not going to change anything if you don't vote.

Even though I grew up and I didn't always like getting dragged to the meetings or the rallies or the speeches, I developed a very strong respect for participating in a democratic process.

Each generation has to stand up for democracy. It can't take anything for granted and may have to fight fundamental battles anew.

Democracy is a life, and involves continual struggle.

I ran because I became convinced after King was shot and killed, and Martin Luther King was one of the great heroes of my life, that politics is not perfect but it's the best available nonviolent means of changing how we live. If we don't like how we live, we can participate in the perfect most revolutionary act in a democracy, it's called voting.

Democracy is not what we hate the most and what we fear the most. We need to stand up.

To protest against injustice is the foundation of all our American democracy.

Thunder on! Stride on! Democracy. Strike with vengeful stroke!

From my quarter-a-century experience as a fighter for democracy, there is never a final victory for democracy. It is always a struggle in every generation, and you have to take up the course of time and time again.

I think you have to ask yourself does voting work on the level that you are trying to effectuate change; that is the conversation you must have.

I want people to learn what democracy means.

I have always believed that on important issues, the leaders must lead. Where the leaders fail to lead, and people are really concerned about it, the people will take the lead and make the leaders follow.

This is one of the finest expressions of U. S. democracy at work.

The Pulse of Democracy

Getting involved in politics was a quest for freedom.

It is not suffrage that gives life to democracy; it is our democratic society that gives life to suffrage.

The goal in the end is not to win elections. The goal is to change society.

When I grow up I’m going to change the government.

My father told me about American democracy. And he said you have to be actively engaged in the political process to make our democracy work. So I've been doing that my entire life. Civil rights movement. The peace movement during the Vietnam conflict. The movement to get an apology and redress for Japanese-Americans.

Some of us gave a little blood for the right to participate in the democratic process.

We can't wait until elections to fight for what we care about. We can't hope for a benevolent leader who may choose to listen to us. We need a network that lets the best ideas and leaders rise to the top through an open, inclusive democratic process.

I'm a person who's always been politically active and passionate about people's rights.

I think voting is the lowest form of political action that you can do. A lot of times, it keeps people from doing stronger things.

If you are conscious and really want change in this world, and you don't vote, then what was all the fighting for? All the things our parents and our parents' parents fought for?