Barack Obama Quotes Speeches, Books, and Interviews  I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm gonna make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world. Barack Obama, December 2008 To ensure prosperity here at home and peace abroad, we all share the belief we have to maintain the strongest military on the planet. Barack Obama, December 2008. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. Barack Obama, Feb 5, 2008 If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost. If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress. My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.- Speech on race, March 18, 2008. In the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.- Barack Obama, February 10, 2007 Presidential announcement. We've got a story to tell that isn't just against something but is for something.- Barack Obama, "Take Back America Conference" on June 14, 2006. I'm in this race not just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation.- February 10, 2007 Presidential announcement. If we aren't willing to pay a price for our values, if we aren't willing to make some sacrifices in order to realize them, then we should ask ourselves whether we truly believe in them at all.-                                                                                                     Barack Obama, Audacity of Hope. This campaign can't only be about me... It must be about what we can do together.- Barack Obama, February 10, 2007 Presidential announcement. We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people. Yes we can.- Speech following New Hampshire Primary January 8, 2008. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.-        Speech following Super Tuesday results, Feb 5 , 2008. Change doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington.-   Speech in Denver, Aug. 28, 2008. The true test of the American ideal is whether we're able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them. Whether chance of birth or circumstance decides life's big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a chance to work hard, get ahead, and reach their dreams.-                                                                       Barack Obama, speech, Jun. 4, 2005. Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire; what led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation; what led young women and young men to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom's cause. Hope is what led me here today-with a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas; and a story that could only happen in the United States of America. Hope is the bedrock of this nation; the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us; by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is; who have courage to remake the world as it should be.-                                                                                    Barack Obama, speech, Jan. 3, 2008. There are a whole lot of religious people in America, including the majority of Democrats. When we abandon the field of religious discourse-when we ignore the debate about what it means to be a good Christian or Muslim or Jew; when we discuss religion only in the negative sense of where or how it should not be practiced, rather than in the positive sense of what it tells us about our obligations toward one another; when we shy away from religious venues and religious broadcasts because we assume that we will be unwelcome-others will fill the vacuum. And those who do are likely to be those with the most insular views of faith, or who cynically use religion to justify partisan ends.-                                                            Barack Obama, Audacity of Hope. When people are judged by merit, not connections, then the best and brightest can lead the country, people will work hard, and the entire economy will grow - everyone will benefit and more resources will be available for all, not just select groups.-                                                            Barack Obama, speech, Aug. 28, 2006. Yes, our greatness as a nation has depended on individual initiative, on a belief in the free market. But it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, of mutual responsibility. The idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we're all in it together and everybody's got a shot at opportunity. Americans know this. We know that government can't solve all our problems - and we don't want it to. But we also know that there are some things we can't do on our own. We know that there are some things we do better together.-                                                                                       Barack Obama, speech, Aug. 7, 2006. Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. it's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.-                                        Barack Obama, speech, Jul. 12, 2006. We have a stake in one another, what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and ... if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done for the people with whom we share this Earth.- Barack Obama, speech, Dec. 1, 2006.  It's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential.- Barack Obama, speech, Jun. 16, 2006.  Most people who meet my wife quickly conclude that she is remarkable. They are right about this. She is smart, funny and thoroughly charming. Often, after hearing her speak at some function or working with her on a project, people will approach me and say something to the effect of, you know, I think the world of you, Barack, but your wife, wow!- Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope. I do think that there is a big difference between family farms and agri-business, and one of the distressing things that I think has occurred is with consolidation of farm lands. You've seen large agri-businesses benefit from enormous profits from existing farm programs, and I think we should be focusing most of those programs on those family farmers.-                                                               Barack Obama, debate, Oct. 12, 2004. The internet today is an open platform where the demand for websites and services dictates success. You've got barriers to entry that are low and equal for all comers. And it's because the internet is a neutral platform that I can put on this podcast and transmit it over the internet without having to go through some corporate media middleman. Barack Obama, Podcast, Jun. 8, 2006. We have to acknowledge the progress we made, but understand that we still have a long way to go. That things are better, but still not good enough.-                       Barack Obama, Larry King Live, Oct. 19, 2006. There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America, there's the United States of America.- Keynote speech to Democratic National Convention, July 2004. Everybody knows politics is a contact sport.-                   Barack Obama, The New Yorker, May 31, 2004.  I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.-                                                                                                                    Barack Obama, 2002.