The day will come – and it is not far off – when the legacy of Lincoln will finally be fulfilled at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when a black man or woman will sit in the Oval Office. When that day comes, the most remarkable thing about it will be how naturally it occurs.

A toddling little girl is a centre of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other.

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

I love diversity.

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.

What’s important for my daughter to know is that… if you are fortunate to have opportunity, it is your duty to make sure other people have those opportunities as well.

I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that oral teachers and sign teachers found it difficult to sit down in the same room without quarreling, and there was intolerance upon both sides. To say ‚oral method‘ to a sign teacher was like waving a red flag in the face of a bull, and to say ‚sign language‘ to an oralist aroused the deepest resentment.

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.

I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind.

A black person grows up in this country – and in many places – knowing that racism will be as familiar as salt to the tongue. Also, it can be as dangerous as too much salt. I think that you must struggle for betterment for yourself and for everyone.

The little man is still a man.

If we could do high-speed rail in California just half a notch above what they’ve done on the Shanghai line in China, and if we had a straight path from L.A. to San Francisco, as well as the milk run, at least that would be progress.

Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.

So while an incredible amount of progress has been made, on this fifth anniversary, I wanted to come here and tell the people of this city directly: My administration is going to stand with you – and fight alongside you – until the job is done. Until New Orleans is all the way back, all the way.

The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.

I’m not for gay marriage, but I’m not for discriminating against people.

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.

It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well.

It’s a question of whether we’re going to go forward into the future, or past to the back.

Until we’re educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.

These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

I’m not in favour of dividing Hindus and Sikhs. I’m not in favour of dividing Hindus and Christians. All the citizens, all the voters, are my countrymen.

How could you have a soccer team if all were goalkeepers? How would it be an orchestra if all were French horns?

I separated from the Southern Baptists when they adopted the discriminatory attitude towards women, because I believe what Paul taught in Galatians that there is no distinction in God’s eyes between men and women, slaves and masters, Jews and non-Jews – everybody is created equally in the eyes of God.

It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

You don’t have the same mentality as you did five years ago – even one year. People are always changing, and I believe that everyone deserves the space to change and for people to recognize their change.

You’re not better than anybody else, but you’re not less than anybody else. You’re a child of the Most High God.

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

Boys will be boys. And even that wouldn’t matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls.

I am a beneficiary of the American people’s generosity, and I hope we can have comprehensive immigration legislation that allows this country to continue to be enriched by those who were not born here.

Nothing on this earth is standing still. It’s either growing or it’s dying. No matter if it’s a tree or a human being.

All religions must be tolerated… for every man must get to heaven in his own way.

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.

Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

On the other hand, you have different fingers.

Honestly, I like everything, boyish girls, girlish boys, the heavy and the skinny.

Revolutions go not backward.

In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

The reason men oppose progress is not that they hate progress, but that they love inertia.

New roads; new ruts.

The truth of Moore’s law has made remarkable things possible. On the software side, I think natural user interfaces in all their forms are equally significant.

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?

Wouldn’t it be great if we could look forward to a whole world in which no child will be left behind?

We’re not trying to make you less of a man. We just want you to love us as deeply and as wholesomely and as fully as we love you.

Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.

When you truly accept that those children in some far off place in the global village have the same value as you in God’s eyes or even in just your eyes, then your life is forever changed; you see something that you can’t un-see.

I feel like my music has become a lot of things. It’s hard to label the evolution, but I like there to be an evolution. I just like to paint with all different kinds of colors.

Innovation is moving at a scarily fast pace.

Because I was suspicious of the traditional Christian church, I tended to tar them all with the same brush. That was a mistake, because there are righteous people working in a whole rainbow of belief systems – from Hasidic Jews to right-wing Bible Belters to charismatic Catholics.

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.

In too many communities, too many young men of color are left behind and seen only as objects of fear. Through initiatives like My Brother’s Keeper, I’m personally committed to changing both perception and reality.