Barack Obama Quotes

I didn't say I was that smart, I said I went to class and I enjoyed what I was doing.

We should not have 8th grade graduations. Instead we should tell the students, “You have a long way to go. Get your butt down and study.”

I graduated in biology by overcoming an incredibly impossible science workload in college. The knowledge does nothing for me, but knowing I achieved that makes me feel like I can achieve anything because those science classes in biology are just impossible.

For decades, the public school system failed too many children, so we passed the No Child Left Behind Act and demanded schools show results in return for money.

I think I've developed into an actress because I've worked darn hard at it and I've learned a great deal from a lot of gifted people. And if I have nothing else to show for my life, apart from a scrapbook full of cuttings, I have the knowledge that my early days in Hollywood weren't in vain.

Education is fundamental to any success. That's your baseboard.

For every negative, there's a positive. It's in everything. How you deal with life, outlook, how much energy you put into achieving something. That's why I detest entitlement. Anything that's worthwhile is going to call for some sacrifice. Nothing worthwhile will come to you without a price. People think in sports, you have different rules. You really don't. It's whatever motivates you.

I think people sometimes don't pay enough attention to what they do. I've done well, but the reason is pretty simple: I've worked my ass off. The toughest thing a performer can do is make it look as if it comes easy.

That diploma you hold in your hands today is really just your learner's permit for the rest of the drive through life. Remember, you don't have to be smarter than the next person, all you have to do is be willing to work harder than the next person.

You're just as good, and if you work harder, you can be better and you can be more than you think you can.

Luck take a second look at what appears to be someone's good luck. You'll find not luck but preparation, planning, and success-producing thinking.

I'm for higher standards measured in an intellectually honest way, with abundant school choice, ending social promotion. And I know how to do this because as governor of the state of Florida I created the first statewide voucher program in the country, the second statewide voucher program, in the country and the third statewide voucher program in the country.

I try to think about my goals. I think about my competitors-I know they're working hard, and if they are, I have to work hard too. I have to be one step ahead of them.

I think confidence comes from doing something well, working at it hard, and you build it up. It's not something you're born with. You have to build the confidence as you go along.

While I do not think it was so intended I have always been of the opinion that this turned out to be much the best for me. I had no national experience. What I have ever been able to do has been the result of first learning how to do it. I am not gifted with intuition. I need not only hard work but experience to be ready to solve problems. The Presidents who have gone to Washington without first having held some national office have been at great disadvantage.

We need to make sure our students are exerting themselves. We need to praise them when they deserve it and to tell them honestly when they have it in them to work harder.

I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.

It's okay to be ambitious, it's okay to be over-prepared.

I think one of my biggest lessons so far in life is that hard work really does pay off. It may not culminate in the way you expected it to, but I have found that when I really put my head down and apply myself, I often get a good result.

Do you know that I have undergone three quarters of this labour entirely for the sake of the fourth quarter?

Somebody told me that if you wake up every day and do stuff that's easy, then you're doing the wrong thing. If you wake up every day and do stuff that's really hard and you manage to get through to people, then you're doing the right thing. They might have just fooled me by telling me that, but it worked. I think that's my philosophy.

If you're not ready to make the greatest effort, don't even think about the greatest goal

The most unbearable thing about many successful people is not - as we flatteringly think - how lazy they are, but how hard they work.

The very concept of universal formal education is a product (and a relatively late product) of the capitalist world-economy.

I think it is good that fashion is a challenge because when something is a challenge, you want to do it better.