Because here’s the thing: Emotions are not plans. They don’t solve problems or right any wrongs. You can feel them – you will feel them, inevitably – but be careful about letting them guide you. Rage can be a dirty windshield. Hurt is like a broken steering wheel. Disappointment will only ride, sulking and unhelpful, in the back seat. If you don’t do something constructive with them, they’ll take you straight into a ditch. My power has always hinged on my ability to keep myself out of the ditch.

— Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama Quotes

The challenge in leading a big life becomes trying to find ways to protect your dreams and your drive, to remain tough without being overly guarded, to stay nimble and open to growth, allowing others to see you for who you are. It’s about learning how to shelter your flame without hiding its light.

— Michelle Obama

The goal, instead, is to find someone who will do the work with you, not for you, contributing on all fronts and in all ways.

— Michelle Obama

How do we get more comfortable, less paralyzed, inside of uncertainty? What tools do we have to sustain ourselves? Where do we find extra pillars of support? How can we create safety and stability for others? And if we work as one, what might we manage to overcome together?

— Michelle Obama

For now, though, I want to offer one small reminder, which is that real growth begins with how gladly you’re able to see yourself.

— Michelle Obama

No one person, no one relationship, will fulfill your every need. Not every friend can offer you safety or support on every day. Not everyone can, or will, show up precisely when or how you need them to. And this is why it’s good to always continue making room at your table, to keep yourself open to gathering more friends. You will never not need them, and you will never stop learning from them.

— Michelle Obama

What I want to say, then, is stay vigorous and faithful, humble and empathetic. Tell the truth, do your best by others, keep perspective, understand history and context. Stay prudent, stay tough, and stay outraged. But more than anything, don’t forget to do the work.

— Michelle Obama

She tells me that it’s important to always presume the best about children – that it’s preferable to let them live up to your expectations and high regard rather than asking them to live down to your doubts and worries.

— Michelle Obama

When you’re beginning something new, you can’t always see where you’re headed with it. You have to be okay with not knowing exactly how things will turn out.

— Michelle Obama

How do we build places where gladness lives – for ourselves and for others, and most especially for children – and to which we will always want to return?

— Michelle Obama

Which is another important thing to remember about friendship: You’re crazy if you think you get to make all the rules. What mattered was that we just kept showing up, in closeness, in commitment, in compromise, and even in fatigue. For me, it’s all about showing up.

— Michelle Obama

And for me, there is no quicker or more efficient way to obliterate stress and get focused on the present moment than to throw myself into a hard-core, edge-pushing workout. Or even better, a series of them. I guess you might say that vigor is one of my Love Languages.

— Michelle Obama

Being busy is a kind of tool this way. It’s like giving yourself a suit of armor to wear: If someone’s shooting arrows in your direction, you’re less likely to register any hits. There simply isn’t time.

— Michelle Obama

I often say that it’s much harder to hate up close.

— Michelle Obama

The notion of going high shouldn’t raise any questions about whether we are obligated to fight for more fairness, decency, and justice in this world; rather, it’s about how we fight, how we go about trying.

— Michelle Obama

One of the greatest lessons life has taught me is that adaptability and preparedness are paradoxically linked. For me, preparedness is part of the armor I wear. I plan, rehearse, and do my homework ahead of anything that feels even remotely like a test. This helps me to operate with more calm under stressful circumstances, knowing I will most often, regardless of what happens, find some pathway through. Being organized and prepared helps keep the floor feeling more solid beneath my feet.

— Michelle Obama

The thick-skin part means learning what to do with your rage and your hurt, where to put it, how to convert it into actual power.

— Michelle Obama

Change happens one person at a time.

— Michelle Obama

The unknown is where possibility glitters.

— Michelle Obama

When you start to rewrite the story of not-mattering, you start to find a new center. You remove yourself from other people’s mirrors and begin speaking more fully from your own experience, your own knowing place. You become better able to attach to your pride and more readily step over all the despites. It doesn’t remove the obstacles, but I’ve found that it helps to shrink them. It helps you to count your victories, even the small ones, and know that you’re doing okay.

— Michelle Obama

Fertility is not something you conquer. Rather maddeningly, there’s no straight line between effort and reward.

— Michelle Obama
More Michelle Obama Quote >>
Privacy Policy   7.00ms  0.71MB