We didn’t crumble after 9/11. We didn’t falter after the Boston Marathon. But we’re America. Americans will never, ever stand down. We endure. We overcome. We own the finish line.

Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.

Life is just one damned thing after another.

There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.

I was bullied as a boy – lots of kids are, but hopefully most of us get on with our lives and grow up.

You’re not a product of your nature. That is your genetic makeup or your nurture, the things that have happened to you. Of course those things affect you powerfully, but they do not determine you.

Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.

America isn’t Congress. America isn’t Washington. America is the striving immigrant who starts a business, or the mom who works two low-wage jobs to give her kid a better life. America is the union leader and the CEO who put aside their differences to make the economy stronger.

The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.

There will be days when I walk in an arena and people will cheer and then there might be days when I walk in an arena and people might boo, but it all sounds the same to me because it’s all just noise that lets me know that I’m relevant.

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.

What’s coming will come and we’ll just have to meet it when it does.

But for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn’t get that. No joke – I’d leave meetings crying all the time.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

The British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.

If you don’t stand your ground, then all that happens is people push you backwards.

I have found it easier to identify with the characters who verge upon hysteria, who were frightened of life, who were desperate to reach out to another person. But these seemingly fragile people are the strong people really.

It’s nice to say let’s be bipartisan. But we’re a partisan nation. We were raised as a partisan nation.

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

I want to go and go, and then drop dead in the middle of something I’m loving to do. And if that doesn’t happen, if I wind up sitting in a wheelchair, at least I’ll have my high heels on.

All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.

None of us has any personal interest above the interests of the country. Our country is more important than our careers.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

When things are going bad, don’t get all bummed out. Don’t get startled; don’t get frustrated. If you can say the word ‚good,‘ guess what? It means you’re still alive. It means you’re still breathing.

Exceeds man’s might: that dwells with the gods above.

We are a nation founded as a rebuke to tyranny. A nation of revolutionaries who refused sovereign reign from afar. Hear me – we’re a nation that says give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. A nation built on our differences, guided by the belief that we’re all created equal.

Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much larger. Some are villains and others are good guys. But all of them are necessary; otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

You know, there is always times where you feel discouraged and things coming against you, but I don’t know if I ever wanted to throw in the towel.

The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

You can tell the strength of a nation by the women behind its men.

I think every entertainer’s had nights when things go wrong. I mean you can’t remember everything all the time, and especially if you’re having hard times personally, things going on that you – you know, and then people make it worse. And that makes you feel worse.

I want to represent… to the kids to draw strength from me. So they can see that everybody goes through something, but you can rise up and do your best. Just try.

How one life turns out is not dependent on what people do to us or what they don’t do for us.

My mother raised me with God. We were poor financially, but we were rich spiritually.

What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.

Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.

I believe with all my heart that America remains ‚the great idea‘ that inspires the world. It is a privilege to be born here. It is an honor to become a citizen here. It is a gift to raise your family here, to vote here, and to live here.

I do believe in the old saying, ‚What does not kill you makes you stronger.‘ Our experiences, good and bad, make us who we are. By overcoming difficulties, we gain strength and maturity.

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

You have to be tough and have a lot of faith.

Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

We care for each other and care about our family, and we are both working towards the same goal.

The way up and the way down are one and the same.

Music is one of the most powerful things the world has to offer. No matter what race or religion or nationality or sexual orientation or gender that you are, it has the power to unite us.

Endurance is patience concentrated.

A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.

Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.

Kitchens are hard environments and they form incredibly strong characters.

You have people come into your life shockingly and surprisingly. You have losses that you never thought you’d experience. You have rejection and you have learn how to deal with that and how to get up the next day and go on with it.

A cat is only itself, representative of the strong forces of life that won’t let go.

I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there’s purpose and worth to each and every life.

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.

Sometimes in the past when I played something might make me lose focus, or I would go home after a game where I thought I could have played better and I would let it hang over my head for a long time when it shouldn’t.

The whole aspect of cinema and film festivals should be a moment to come together and celebrate art and humanity. It would be a shame if there was such a divide.