America’s promises do not come with a price tag. We meet our commitments. We bear our burdens. That’s one of the reasons why almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago when I took office.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as president I must put the interests of America first Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it.

Being president isn’t anything like reality TV. It’s not about sending insulting tweets or making fiery speeches; it’s about whether or not the candidate can handle the awesome responsibility of leading this country.

Courage is grace under pressure.

A President cannot always be popular.

When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

Among physicists, I’m respected I hope.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters – two beautiful, intelligent black young women – playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters, and all our sons and daughters, now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.

We know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow. This is an edge America cannot surrender.

Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

I think that growing up in a crowded continent like Europe with an awful lot of competing claims, ideas… cultures… and systems of thought, we have, perforce, developed a more sophisticated notion of what the word ‚freedom‘ means than I see much evidence of in America.

When Hillary was First Lady, we went to the Beijing Women’s Conference. She courageously stood up and spoke out on behalf of human rights and women’s rights, inspiring millions to fight for a better future.

When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

Some day I shall be President.

We all gonna die eventually from something or other, but don’t be a wimp. Put up a good fight.

Many shoulder heavy burdens of righteous responsibility which, on occasion, seem so difficult to bear. I have heard those challenges termed impossible.

I am not saying I am the best manager in the world. But I’m quite good.

America is known as a country that welcomes people to its shores. All kinds of people. The image of the Statue of Liberty with Emma Lazarus‘ famous poem. She lifts her lamp and welcomes people to the golden shore, where they will not experience prejudice because of the color of their skin, the religious faith that they follow.

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.

The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.

Our chief justices have probably had more profound and lasting influence on their times and on the direction of the nation than most presidents.

Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one’s belly, in order to be able to save one’s head.

I have no further use for America. I wouldn’t go back there if Jesus Christ was President.

I think America has always been polarized.

If people lose faith in their government, the result is the same whether or not the loss of confidence is justified.

Politics is not bean bags. It’s serious, tough stuff.

People make a big fuss over you when you’re President. But I’m very serious about doing everything I can to make sure that it doesn’t go to my head.

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

You’ve all seen over the last eight years what President Obama means to this country. He is the embodiment of honor, resolve, and character – one of the finest presidents we have ever had.

I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking to any leader – or any person – in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks.

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.

It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.

I have spoken to Chinese leaders occasionally on human rights, but I’ve always done it in private.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.

Since many of you do not belong to the Catholic Church and others are non-believers, from the bottom of my heart I give this silent blessing to each and every one of you, respecting the conscience of each one of you but knowing that each one of you is a child of God.

The Bush Administration’s failure to be consistently involved in helping Israel achieve peace with the Palestinians has been both wrong for our friendship with Israel, as well as badly damaging to our standing in the Arab world.

No woman in my time will be prime minister or chancellor or foreign secretary – not the top jobs. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to be prime minister; you have to give yourself 100 percent.

Every first-term president has to learn something after he comes into office. Nobody can be completely ready for the inevitable crises.

The notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification.

My mom, she was a very, very soft woman. It was hard for her to yell or even curse. But when it came to fighting for her kids, she found a strength she didn’t always know she had.

You’re morally tainted if you don’t treat both the accuser and the accused with fairness and with respect, and with due process.

I will keep America moving forward, always forward, for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand Points of Light. This is my mission, and I will complete it.

I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people – one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion’s den. You can’t just play around with all those big cats – you’ve got to take somebody on.

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.

There are some women I definitely would not want to succeed me… but a man like David Souter, that would be great.

Well I do think, when there are more women, that the tone of the conversation changes, and also the goals of the conversation change. But it doesn’t mean that the whole world would be a lot better if it were totally run by women. If you think that, you’ve forgotten high school.

You know, you can only lead them from behind.

In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

Freedom is a right ultimately defended by the sacrifice of America’s servicemen and women.

Yeah, I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.

Honoring the priesthood fosters respect, respect promotes reverence, and reverence invites revelation.

Fifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting us back in Latin America. That’s why we restored diplomatic relations, opened the door to travel and commerce, and positioned ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people.