In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.

I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

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.

A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

You cannot be a hero without being a coward.

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

As long as the people don’t fear the truth, there is hope. For once they fear it, the one who tells it doesn’t stand a chance. And today, truth is still beautiful… but so frightening.

Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.

A President’s hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.

The people respect and believe in men who fulfill their duty.

The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument… an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.

Freedom lies in being bold.

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

Every time there has been an effort by the Haitian people to overcome the misery and poverty that comes from 200 years of bitter attacks, really bitter, the U.S. steps in and blocks it.

When the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worse. I could be a mayor.

I don’t want a brat on my team.

Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility.

I think the materialist conception of history is valid.

I don’t like to see a president who is just out campaigning all year long or for the last four years. I’d like to see somebody who’s going in the office. In fact, I’d like to not see them because that way you’d be sure that they’d be working.

Let me tell you what I literally told every world leader I’ve met with, and I’ve met them all: It’s never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America. We have the finest fighting force in the world.

Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?

Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it.

And I will do everything that I can as long as I am President of the United States to remind the American people that we are one nation under God, and we may call that God different names but we remain one nation.

What is a fear of living? It’s being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself – for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good.

The President is going to benefit from me reporting directly to him when I arrive.

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.

First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us – especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change? Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?

A good leader doesn’t get stuck behind a desk.

To some extent I happily don’t know what I’m doing. I feel that it’s an artist’s responsibility to trust that.

If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.

We came into a broken world. And we’re the cleanup crew.

I became a Republican in 1951, the first year I could vote.

The progress of evolution from President Washington to President Grant was alone evidence to upset Darwin.

I don’t think we handled the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad as well as we might have. But that’s now history.

The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It’s the age-old struggle: the roar of the crowd on the one side, and the voice of your conscience on the other.

I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone – and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.

All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.

My momma didn’t clean up floors so I could be a thug… so I could wear my pants down.

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.

The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival.

I happen to be a big fan of Western civilization; I think it beats the hell out of tyranny and starvation.

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.

If you’d have said Evangelical in 1957, most people wouldn’t know what you were talking about. And then, they’d be against it.

You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy’s ranks.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

There is a heavy emphasis in Mormonism on initiative, on responsibility, on a work ethic, and on education. If you take those elements together with a free-enterprise system, you’ve got the chemistry for a lot of industry.

The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.

History should be written as philosophy.

There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible that in any profane history.

This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

Every generation always thinks it was better before, and I think people have been saying this for probably thousands of years.

The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.