Obama Saying We Need to Make This Nation Great Again.

Every presidency tin can exist seen as a series of words. Which is why we decided to read through hundreds of thousands of the words of Barack Obama—who was a writer, in practice and disposition, long before he was the 44th president of the United states. What does he think of his task? Yes we can, Obama said when he ran. But not overnight, he was quick to add together afterwards he won. Change is hard. Merely await at these 101 things he's said since 2006, from his glossy sense of what his presence in the Oval Office could mean to what turned out to be a much more constrained, less soaring reality. Hither is the arc of Obama.

1. "My attitude about something like the presidency is that you don't desire to just be the president. You lot want to change the country. You want to make a unique contribution. You want to be a great president." (Men's Vogue, September 2006)

two. "This country is fix for a transformative politics of the sort that John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Franklin Roosevelt represented." (Time, October fifteen, 2006)

iii. "I don't know exactly what makes somebody prepare to be president. Information technology's not clear that JFK was 'ready' to be president, it's not clear that Harry Truman, when he was elevated, was 'ready,' and yet, somehow, some people respond and some people don't. My instinct is that people who are ready are folks who go into it understanding the gravity of their work, and are able to combine vision and judgment." (New Yorker, Nov 6, 2006)

iv. "Well, there are a lot of things I think I can accomplish, but two things I know. The first is, when I raise my hand and take that adjuration of part, there are millions of kids around this country who don't believe that it would e'er be possible for them to be president of the United states of america. And for them, the world would change on that twenty-four hour period. And the second thing is, I think the globe would await at us differently the day I got elected, because it would be a reaffirmation of what America is, virtually the constant perfecting of who we are. I retrieve I tin can help repair the harm that's been done." (Game Change, Dec thirteen, 2006)

5. "Likewise many times, later on the election is over and the confetti is swept abroad, all those promises fade from retentiveness, and the lobbyists and special interests move in, and people turn abroad, disappointed equally before, left to struggle on their own." (speech announcing his presidential campaign, February 10, 2007)

6. "I'yard running for president because the time for the tin't-do, won't-practise, won't-fifty-fifty-try style of politics is over. It's time to turn the page." (spoken language in San Diego, May 2, 2007)

vii. "I call back that I have the chapters to get people to recognize themselves in each other." (This Week, May xiii, 2007)

8. "I actually believe my ain rhetoric." (Newsweek, May 2008)

9. "I was never the likeliest candidate for this function." (election victory voice communication, Nov iv, 2008)

10. "I do have confidence that nosotros're gonna be able to get it correct. Merely it'southward not gonna be overnight." (Today, Feb 2, 2009)

xi. "I ever felt that a president is answerable for making the best decisions, but that there are going to be a lot of unexpected twists and turns along the way. And equally I said recently, this is still a human enterprise and these are large, tough, complicated bug. Somebody noted to me that past the time something reaches my desk, that means it'southward really hard. Considering if it were easy, somebody else would have made the conclusion and somebody else would have solved it." (New York Times, March 7, 2009)

12. "I do think in Washington it'south a little flake like American Idol, except everybody is Simon Cowell. Everybody's got an stance." (The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, March 19, 2009)

thirteen. "And, yous know, manifestly, at the inauguration I call back that there was justifiable pride on the part of the state that we had taken a stride to move united states across some of the searing legacies of racial discrimination in this country. But that lasted about a day." (White Business firm news conference, March 24, 2009)

fourteen. "Well, I had a habit of praying every dark, earlier I go to bed. I pray all the fourth dimension at present. Because I've got a lot of stuff on my plate and I need guidance all the fourth dimension." (Nightline, July 24, 2009)

fifteen. "Await, you know, when you're in this job, I remember, uh—every president who's had it is constantly humbled by the caste to which there are a lot of issues out there, and the notion that ane person alone can solve all these bug—I recall you're cured of that illusion very quickly." (Nightline, July 24, 2009)

16. "Later I received the news, Malia walked in and said, 'Daddy, you lot won the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is Bo's altogether!' And then Sasha added, 'Plus, we take a three-day weekend coming up.' So it'south expert to have kids to go along things in perspective." (remarks on winning the Nobel Peace Prize, October nine, 2009)

17. "I don't think anything prepares you lot for the presidency." (U.Due south. News & Earth Report, October 27, 2009)

18. "Exercise every day. Seeing my family. Keeping things in perspective. Reading history. Reminding yourself that this is a long-term proposition and you're not going to get everything exactly right, merely hopefully, if you're moving things in the right trajectory, that things unremarkably work out." (U.Southward. News & Globe Report, October 27, 2009)

19. "The worst thing about existence president is all the racket, all the political games—you know, it tin can be like a hall of mirrors, where just a few people are talking to each other and never breaking out of it. And Michelle is very good at making me focus non on the immediate orbit that we're in but what'southward going on outside of information technology." (interview with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, December eleven, 2009)

20. "Let's be clear here. Seven presidents accept tried to reform a health care system that anybody acknowledges is broken. Seven presidents accept failed up until this point." (threescore Minutes, December thirteen, 2009)

21. "You know, we live in history. And it's complicated. And things aren't always, you lot know, completely clean." (six 0 Minutes, December 13, 2009)

22. "You know, this is a boondocks where once a screw-up happens, people can't just say, 'OK, that was a screw-up and let's ready it.' In that location has to exist, you lot know, two weeks' worth of cable churr about it." (60 Minutes, December 13, 2009)

23. "There's got to be a sense sometimes that we're willing to rise to a higher place our item interests, our particular ideas, in order to get things washed. Right now, that culture has, I think, cleaved downwardly over the concluding several years, and ane of my jobs over the next iii years is to try to run into if nosotros tin revive that." (ABC News, December xvi, 2009)

24. "The one thing I'm clear about is that I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president. And I—and I believe that." (ABC News, January 26, 2010)

25. "When your poll numbers drop, yous're an idiot. When your poll numbers are high, you're a genius. If my poll numbers are low, then I'thousand absurd and cognitive and cold and detached. If my poll numbers are high, well, 'He's calm and reasoned.'" (ABC News, January 26, 2010)

26. "My point is the easiest thing to do in politics is to point fingers, to figure out who to blame for something, or to make people afraid of things. That's the easiest style to get attention. That'southward what reporters will report on. You call somebody a name, you say, 'Await what a terrible matter they've done, and they're going to do more terrible things to yous if you don't sentry out.'" (speech communication in New Hampshire, Feb 2, 2010)

27. "Let's acknowledge that republic has e'er been messy. Let's not exist overly cornball." (National Prayer Breakfast, February four, 2010)

28. "Nosotros—I've got a whole bunch of portraits of presidents around here, starting with Teddy Roosevelt, who tried to practice [health intendance reform] and didn't go it done. The reason that it needs to be washed is not its effect on the presidency. It has to do with how information technology'due south going to impact ordinary people who right at present are desperately in demand of aid." (Special Study with Bret Baier, March 17, 2010)

29. "People don't progress in a straight line. Countries don't progress in a straight line." (David Remnick'due south The Bridge, April half-dozen, 2010)

xxx. "As I've found out later a yr in the White Business firm, changing this blazon of slash-and-burn politics isn't easy." (Academy of Michigan graduation speech, May ane, 2010)

31. "I too have the shortest commute of anybody I know. And that makes a huge difference because it means no matter how long I'g working any given day I can e'er go upstairs to run into my wife and kids. And that's something I probably capeesh more than than anything else virtually being here in the White Business firm." (C-SPAN, August 12, 2010)

32. "You lot know, the Lincoln Bedroom, I don't go into much, except when there are visitors. Every once in a while, I'll sneak in, just to reread the Gettysburg Address." (C-SPAN, August 12, 2010)

33. "I will say that the S Lawn is extraordinary. And we congenital this play prepare out here that Malia and Sasha used to apply a lot. They're now getting old enough where sometimes they don't utilize information technology as much as nosotros expect. But I've got nieces and nephews and kids of staff come in. And there are times when I'm working here and I'll expect out the window and suddenly somebody'southward on a swing or laughing as they go down a slide, and information technology reminds y'all of why we're doing what we're doing." (C-SPAN, August 12, 2010)

34. "You know, look, our political life is like our individual lives. There are ups and downs. There are peaks and valleys." (New York Times Magazine, October 12, 2010)

35. "I make no apologies for having set high expectations for myself and for the country, because I recall we tin meet those expectations. Now, the one matter that I will say—which I anticipated and can be tough—is the fact that in a big, messy republic like this, everything takes time. And we're not a civilisation that's built on patience." (New York Times Mag, Oct 12, 2010)

36. "History never precisely repeats itself. But there is a pattern in American presidencies—at least modern presidencies. You come in with excitement and fanfare. The other political party initially, having been beaten, says information technology wants to cooperate with you. Y'all showtime implementing your program as you promised during the campaign. The other political party pushes back very hard. It causes a lot of consternation and drama in Washington. People who are already cynical and skeptical about Washington generally look at it and say, 'This is the aforementioned quondam mess as we've seen earlier.' The president's poll numbers drib. And you have to and then sort of wrestle back the confidence of the people as the programs that you've put in place first bearing fruit." (New York Times Mag, October 12, 2010)

37. "I am president, I am not rex. I can't exercise these things just by myself." (Univision, October 25, 2010)

38. "My attitude is, if we're makin' progress, step by step, inch by inch, day by day, that we are existence true to the spirit of that campaign." (The Daily Show, Oct 27, 2010)

39. "And then, the most important things for me over the last two years, in terms of stress reduction, is the fact that if I'k here in Washington, I'm having dinner at 6:30, just about every night. And sitting around that table, listening to [my kids], and trying to respond their questions, that keeps my bearings." (ABC News, November 26, 2010)

twoscore. "Equally I travel beyond the country folks often enquire me what is it that I pray for. And like virtually of you, my prayers sometimes are general: 'Lord, give me the force to meet the challenges of my office.' Sometimes they're specific: 'Lord, give me patience as I watch Malia become to her first trip the light fantastic—where in that location will be boys.' 'Lord, have that skirt go longer equally she travels to that dance.'" (National Prayer Breakfast, February 3, 2011)

41. "I recall that when you're president of the The states, it comes with the territory that folks are going to criticize you. That'south what I signed upwardly for." (NPR, July 22, 2011)

42. "No wonder I have got more gray hair at present." (CNN, August 16, 2011)

43. "Every bit long every bit I'm president, I'k gonna be held responsible, in some fashion, to set up the problem." (hour, Dec 11, 2011)

44. "Sometimes when I'm talking to my squad, I describe united states of america as, you know—I'thou the captain and they're the coiffure on a ship, going through really bad storms. And no affair how well we're steering the transport, if the gunkhole's rocking dorsum and forth and people are getting sick and, you know, they're being buffeted by the winds and the rain and, y'all know, at a certain betoken, if you're asking, 'Are you enjoying the ride right now?' Folks are gonna say, 'No.' And [if you] say, 'Do you think the captain's doing a skillful job?' People are gonna say, 'You know what? A practiced helm would accept had u.s. in some smooth waters and sunny skies, at this point.' And I don't command the conditions. What I can command are the policies we're putting in place to make a difference in people'south lives." (threescore Minutes, December 11, 2011)

45. "You lot know, there was really a good commodity written a while back, taking a expect at the old printing clips from every Autonomous president, dating dorsum to Franklin Roosevelt, including Roosevelt. And, you know, nobody was happy with them. Nobody was happy with them. You know? Pecker Clinton, who'due south beloved past the Democratic Party, at this point—and I consider to be an extraordinarily successful president—you expect at his one-time press clippings, he was getting beat upwards with some of the same stuff I was getting beat up with." (sixty Minutes, December 11, 2011)

46. "I retrieve that when I came into office in 2008, it was my firm belief that at such an important moment in our history, there was no reason why Democrats and Republicans couldn't put some of the former ideological baggage aside and focus on common sense, what works, practical solutions to the tough problems we were facing. And I think the Republicans fabricated a different calculation, which was, 'You know what? We really screwed upwardly the economy. Obama seems popular. Our all-time bet is to stand up on the sidelines, because we think the economy'southward gonna become worse, and at some signal, merely blame him.'" (hr, December 11, 2011)

47. "I didn't overpromise. And I didn't underestimate how tough this was gonna exist. I always believed that this was a long-term projection; this wasn't a short-term project." (hour, Dec eleven, 2011)

48. "The 1 thing I've prided myself on before I was president—and information technology turns out that continues to be truthful equally president—I'one thousand a persistent son of a gun. I just stay at it. And I'1000 but gonna go on on staying at it as long as I'm in this role." (60 Minutes, December 11, 2011)

49. "I've got v more years of stuff to do." (hr, December 11, 2011)

l. "In that location's nothing more humbling, really, than beingness president. Information technology'southward a strange thing. Suddenly, you've got all the pomp and the circumstance and you've got the helicopters and y'all've got the Air Force One and—and the plane is really nice. It really is. I hateful, Nib may not miss being president, merely he misses that airplane. Let's face it, he does. It'due south a great plane. And I'll miss it, likewise." (remarks at a private fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, April 29, 2012)

51. "Merely not yet." (remarks at a private fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, Apr 29, 2012)

52. "The gridlock you encounter in Washington does not exist out in neighborhoods and cities and towns beyond the country. If I go to Malia'southward or Sasha'due south soccer game and I'm continuing there with a bunch of parents, I don't know whether or not they're Democrats or Republicans, and most of them have the aforementioned concerns and the aforementioned values." (Late Show with David Letterman, September xix, 2012)

53. "You'll run across I article of clothing only grey or blueish suits. I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't desire to make decisions nigh what I'm eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to brand." (Vanity Fair, October 2012)

54. "You need to focus your decision-making energy. Y'all demand to routinize yourself. You can't exist going through the twenty-four hour period distracted past trivia." (Vanity Fair, October 2012)

55. "I played a lot of sports when I was a kid, and all the same exercise. If you lot have a bad game, you merely move on. You look forward to the next one. And it makes you that much more than adamant." (ABC News, October 10, 2012)

56. "Then we've made existent progress these past iv years. But … we know our piece of work's non done even so. … And that's why I'k running for a 2d term as president. Because nosotros've got more work to practise." (campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, November 1, 2012)

57. "The biggest challenge we've always had is that unlike FDR—who came into office when the economy had already bottomed out, so people understood that everything washed subsequent to his election was making things meliorate—I came in just as we were sliding." (Rolling Stone, November 8, 2012)

58. "I call up that being in this office has made me even more appreciative of my family in means that I didn't retrieve I could be. I already loved them so much, but when you're under all these pressures, to come home every single dark—at least when I'm in boondocks—and have Michelle and the girls there, and draw joy from them … they are my balance and they keep me grounded, and that's truer now than information technology'southward e'er been." (O, The Oprah Mag, November 2012)

59. "Practise I wish that things were more orderly in Washington, and rational, and people listened to the best arguments and compromised and operated in a more thoughtful and organized fashion? Absolutely. Merely when you look at history, that's been the exception rather than the norm." (Meet the Press, December 30, 2012)

threescore. "There are all sorts of lessons to be learned both from past presidents and my ain offset term. I've said this earlier, only one of the things that happened in the starting time term was that we had then many fires going on at the same time that we were focusing on policy and getting it right, which means that we were spending less time communicating with the American people about why we were doing what nosotros were doing and how it tied together with our overarching desire of strengthening our center grade and making the economy piece of work." (New Republic, Jan 27, 2013)

61. "And a big chunk of my mean solar day is occupied past news of war, terrorism, indigenous clashes, violence done to innocents." (New Commonwealth, January 27, 2013)

62. "I am more mindful probably than almost of not but our incredible strengths and capabilities, just also our limitations." (New Republic, January 27, 2013)

63. "I remember, you know, one of the things that humbles you as president—I'chiliad sure Hillary feels the same way equally secretarial assistant of state—is that you realize that all you can do every single twenty-four hour period is to effigy out a direction, make sure that y'all are working equally difficult as you can to put people in places where they can succeed, ask the right questions, shape the right strategy. But information technology'due south going to be a squad that both succeeds and fails. And it's a procedure of constant improvement, because the world is large and it is chaotic. You know, I remember Bob Gates—yous know, commencement thing he said to me, I call back maybe first calendar week or ii that I was there and nosotros were meeting in the Oval Office. And he, patently, has been through seven presidents or something. And he says, 'Mr. President, one thing I can guarantee you is that at this moment, somewhere, somehow, somebody in the federal authorities is screwing upward.'" (lx Minutes, January 27, 2013)

64. "Y'all know, in that location are transitions and transformations taking place all effectually the earth. We are non going to be able to control every aspect of every transition and transformation. Sometimes they're going to become sideways. Sometimes, y'all know, there'll be unintended consequences." (60 Minutes, January 27, 2013)

65. "Just I do worry sometimes that as before long as we leave the prayer breakfast, everything we've been talking well-nigh the whole time at the prayer breakfast seems to be forgotten—on the aforementioned twenty-four hours of the prayer breakfast. I mean, y'all'd similar to remember that the shelf life wasn't and then short. Simply I become dorsum to the Oval Office and I starting time watching the cable news networks and information technology's similar we didn't pray." (National Prayer Breakfast, February 7, 2013)

66. "Every bit president, sometimes I have to search for the words to console the inconsolable. Sometimes I search Scripture to determine how best to balance life as a president and equally a husband and as a father. I often search for Scripture to effigy out how I tin be a better man likewise every bit a amend president." (National Prayer Breakfast, Feb 7, 2013)

67. "What people really typically desire is a clean solution, a silver bullet, here'southward what we're going to do and we just move frontward—well, that's not, unfortunately, how the globe works." (Charlie Rose, June 17, 2013)

68. "If we get in the addiction where a few folks, an extremist wing of one party, whether information technology'south Democrat or Republican, are immune to extort concessions based on a threat of undermining the total organized religion and credit of the United States, then any president who comes after me, not just me, will detect themselves unable to govern effectively." (CNBC, October ii, 2013)

69. "It is not unusual for Democrats and Republicans to disagree. That's the way the founders designed our authorities. Commonwealth's messy. Merely when you have a situation in which a faction is willing potentially to default on U.S. authorities obligations, then nosotros are in trouble." (CNBC, October 2, 2013)

70. "Am I exasperated? Absolutely I'g exasperated." (CNBC, Oct ii, 2013)

71. "How business is done in this boondocks has to modify." (remarks at the White Firm, October 17, 2013)

72. "Disagreement cannot mean dysfunction. It can't degenerate into hatred." (remarks at the White House, October 17, 2013)

73. "Y'all know, when Social Security was start passed, people said, 'This is socialism, this is terrible.' When Medicare passed, people were fighting it, saying, 'Y'all're going to lose, you know, your health care.' Some of the same arguments that are fabricated well-nigh the Affordable Care Act you heard most Social Security, you lot heard about Medicare. But once you get over that hump and the thing starts rolling, and people become accustomed to it and confident nearly it, it ends up helping a lot of people and, you know, that's only the nature of social alter in this country." (Steve Harvey, December 20, 2013)

74. "At that place have been times where I've been constrained by the fact that I had two young daughters who I wanted to spend time with—and that I wasn't in a position to piece of work the social scene in Washington." (New Yorker, Jan 27, 2014)

75. "The but time I get frustrated is when folks act like it's not complicated and there aren't some real tough decisions, and are sanctimonious, as if somehow these aren't complicated questions." (New Yorker, Jan 27, 2014)

76. "I accept strengths and I have weaknesses, similar every president, like every person. I practise think one of my strengths is temperament. I am comfortable with complexity, and I think I'one thousand pretty good at keeping my moral compass while recognizing that I am a product of original sin. And every forenoon and every night I'm taking measure of my deportment against the options and possibilities bachelor to me, understanding that there are going to be mistakes that I make and my team makes and that America makes; understanding that there are going to be limits to the good we tin can practise and the bad that nosotros can preclude, and that there'south going to be tragedy out there and, by occupying this office, I am role of that tragedy occasionally, but that if I am doing my very best and basing my decisions on the core values and ideals that I was brought up with and that I think are pretty consequent with those of virtually Americans, that at the end of the solar day, things will exist better rather than worse." (New Yorker, January 27, 2014)

77. "At the end of the twenty-four hours we're office of a long-running story. We just try to go our paragraph right." (New Yorker, January 27, 2014)

78. "I try to focus not on the fumbles, but on the next program." (Fox News, February 2, 2014)

79. "I don't get a chance to take walks very often. Hole-and-corner Service gets a little stressed. Simply every one time in a while, I'm able to sneak off. I'm sort of like the circus bear that kind of breaks the chain, and I start taking off, and everybody starts whispering, 'The deport is loose!'" (remarks at the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York, May 22, 2014)

80. "The deport is loose." (leaving the White House for a Starbucks run, June 9, 2014)

81. "The final fourth dimension I took a walk unencumbered was in Austin, Texas. True story. This is before a debate in the primary. And I walked forth the river, and I got about probably a mile, mile and a half, and and then some people started spotting me. … Secret Service got nervous." (remarks in Austin, July 10, 2014)

82. "What I've said to my team is, 'Become me out of Washington.' Allow me talk to people who are doing the correct thing and struggling, and then that they know they're being heard by at least somebody in Washington. Let's remind the land what nosotros should be focused on. And so that nosotros tin can also maybe prod Congress into doing the correct thing." (remarks in Austin, July x, 2014)

83. "Once I'grand washed, then I'll look back and see what the legacy is." (YouTube interview, Jan 22, 2015)

84. "I'grand not ignoring it. I'm dealing with it every day. That'due south what I wake up to each morning. I get a thick book full of death, devastation, strife and chaos. That'southward what I accept with my morning tea." (Vox, February ix, 2015)

85. "I don't get too loftier, don't go too low." (Huffington Post, March 21, 2015)

86. "Every bit long as I stay focused on those north stars, then I tend not to get too rattled." (Huffington Post, March 21, 2015)

87. "I want to thank everybody here for their prayers, which hateful so much to me and Michelle. Particularly at a time when my daughters are starting to grow upwardly and starting to go along college visits, I demand prayer. I get-go vehement upward in the centre of the day and I can't explain it. Why am I and then sad? They're leaving me." (White House Easter Prayer Breakfast, April 7, 2015)

88. "I got a letter of the alphabet a while back from a gentleman living in Colorado, and conspicuously an intelligent guy, and he had taken a lot of time to write this letter. And he said, you know, 'I voted for you twice, but I'm feeling disillusioned.' … And it went on and on, chronicling all the things that hadn't gotten washed. And most of what he said I responded to, I call up, pretty finer, because he seemed to have forgotten everything that had happened and how he had benefited. But the core, I retrieve, of his business organisation, the core of his complaint, was that he thought that when I got to Washington I could bring people together and make them piece of work more finer. And the fact of the affair is, is that Washington is still gridlocked and nonetheless seems obsessed with the curt term and the next election instead of the next generation. And on that effect, I had to tell him, 'You lot're right.' I am frustrated, and yous have every right to be frustrated, because Congress doesn't work the manner information technology should. Bug are left untended. Folks are more interested in scoring political points than getting things done—not because any private fellow member of Congress is a bad person—at that place are a lot of skilful, well-meaning, hardworking people out there—but because the incentives that take been built into the system reward short-term, reward a polarized politics, reward existence simplistic instead of being true, advantage division. And as mightily every bit I have struggled against that, I told him, 'You're right. It still is broken.' But I reminded him that when I ran in 2008, I, in fact, did non say I would fix it; I said we could fix it. I didn't say, 'Yes, I tin can.' I said—what? … 'Yes, we can.'" (remarks in Santa Monica, California, June 18, 2015)

89. "I've been through this. I've screwed up. I've been in the barrel tumbling down Niagara Falls, and I emerged, and I lived. And that'due south such a liberating feeling. It'south ane of the benefits of age." (WTF with Marc Maron, June 22, 2015)

90. "Yous know there'due south a place in Hawaii, Hanauma Bay, which is now a natural preserve. Simply it's a beautiful coral reef, and my mother, she always says that the reason I'1000 calm is because when she was pregnant with me she used to go down to this bay and sit down and listen to the water." (BBC, June 30, 2015)

91. "I can say this unequivocally. The VA is improve at present than when I came into function. Government works ameliorate than when I came into office. The economy, by whatsoever metric, is ameliorate than when I came into office. So the reason I can sleep at dark is, I say to myself, 'You know what? Information technology's better.' Now, am I satisfied with information technology? No. And should voters exist satisfied with it? Admittedly not. Because otherwise, you know, if we get complacent and lazy, and then stuff doesn't happen." (The Daily Bear witness, July 21, 2015)

92. "What I found during the course of the presidency, and I suppose this is true in life, is that investments and work that you brand back hither sometimes accept a fiddling longer than the 24-hour news cycle to conduct fruit." (BBC, July 24, 2015)

93. "I am in my 2nd term. It has been an extraordinary privilege for me to serve as president of the United states of america. I cannot imagine a greater honor or a more interesting chore. I love my work. But nether our Constitution, I cannot run again. I tin't run again. I really recall I'one thousand a pretty skilful president—I recollect if I ran, I could win. Merely I tin can't. Then there's a lot that I'd like to exercise to go on America moving, but the law is the law. And no ane person is above the law. Not even the president. And I'll be honest with you—I'one thousand looking forrad to life after existence president. I won't accept such a large security item all the time. It means I can go take a walk. I can spend time with my family." (voice communication in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 28, 2015)

94. "I've been around this track now for a while." (NPR, Baronial 10, 2015)

95. "Gotta keep moving." (NPR, August 10, 2015)

96. "That's one of the hardest things in politics to convince people of: to brand investments today that don't pay off until many years from at present." (Rolling Stone, September 23, 2015)

97. "I exercise call up that Speaker Boehner sometimes had a tough position considering there were members in his caucus who saw compromise of whatsoever sort as weakness or betrayal. And when you have divided regime, when you lot have a democracy, compromise is necessary. And I remember Speaker Boehner sometimes had difficulty persuading members of his caucus of that." (White House news conference, September 25, 2015)

98. "Only as I said from the start, information technology's going to accept time." (news conference in Antalya, Turkey, Nov sixteen, 2015)

99. "At that place'southward no doubt that the longer I'm in this job, the more confident I am nearly the decisions I'm making and more knowledgeable virtually the responses I can expect. And as a result, you cease up being looser. There'due south non much I have not seen at this point, and I know what to expect, and I can anticipate more than I did before." (GQ, November 17, 2015)

100. "When I think almost how I understand my function as denizen, setting bated being president, and the nearly important set of understandings that I bring to that position of citizen, the nearly important stuff I've learned I recall I've learned from novels. It has to do with empathy. It has to do with being comfortable with the notion that the world is complicated and total of grays, merely at that place'southward still truth there to exist found, and that you have to strive for that and work for that." (New York Review of Books, November 19, 2015)

101. "I of the things that you find is when you're in this job, you think most it differently than when y'all're but running for the job." (news conference in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, Dec ane, 2015)

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Source: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/obama-quotes-213485

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