True leadership will not be measured by the ability to muzzle dissent, or to intimidate and harass political opponents at home. The people of the world want change. They will not long tolerate those who are on the wrong side of history.
American leadership is not simply a matter of going it alone and bearing all of the burden ourselves.
What Reagan ushered in was a skepticism toward government solutions to every problem. I don’t think that has changed.
We don’t believe in a small America. We believe in a big America – a tolerant America, a just America, an equal America – that values the service of every patriot.
It’s time to put country ahead of party. It’s time to put the next generation ahead of the next election.
Politics, differences of religion or race, all that fades away when we are confronted with the awesome power of nature, and we’re reminded that all we have is each other.
There’s no straight line to progress.
I use a different style if I’m speaking to a big crowd; I can gin up folks pretty well. But when I’m in these town hall settings, my job is not to throw them a lot of red meat. I want to give them a sense of my thought process.
We rise and fall as one people, one nation.
When all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free.
All people should be treated equally, regardless of who they are or who they love.
We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions.
The truth is, some of these comments, when you actually ask ‘well, this is based on what? This notion that Obama’s a socialist, for example?’ Nobody can really give you a good answer.
A person’s zip code shouldn’t decide their destiny.
If somebody was sending rockets into my house, where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.
When we start using religion as a bludgeon in politics, when we start questioning other people’s faith, we start using religion to divide, instead of bring the country together, then I think we’ve got a problem.
Around the world, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela – what they did was hard. It takes time. It takes more than a single term. It takes more than a single president. It takes more than a single individual.
I am very proud of the fact I do not cheat when I’m playing golf.
I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage.
Mandela’s commitment to democracy was ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power.