We need to recognize that the situation in Ferguson speaks to broader challenges that we still face as a nation. The fact is, in too many parts of this country, a deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color. Some of this is the result of the legacy of racial discrimination in this country.

Today, the news is scandals; that is news, but the many children who don’t have food – that’s not news. This is grave. We can’t rest easy while things are this way.

We all knew this. We all knew that it would take more time than any of us want to dig ourselves out of this hole created by this economic crisis.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.

The worst part of success is, to me, adapting to it. It’s scary.

We all know we have a finite period of time. I just feel if I’m going to be alive, I want to be challenged – to be as immortal as possible. The path to that isn’t an easy way, but it’s a rewarding way.

And so I would not enforce a law that would reject people and turn them away without giving them a fair and due process to determine if we should give them asylum and refuge.

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?

I love everything about my job, except being away from the kids.

To survive it is often necessary to fight and to fight you have to dirty yourself.

With Kansas, I had a four-year deal. The initial two months were real tough. I had to adjust a lot. Then, things started looking up.

Poverty is the mother of crime.

I’d go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked.

A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war, and it’s been tested by recession and all manner of challenges – I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

How hard, how bitter it is to become a man!

As I said last week in the wake of the grand jury decision, I think Ferguson laid bare a problem that is not unique to St. Louis or that area, and is not unique to our time, and that is a simmering distrust that exists between too many police departments and too many communities of color.

The poorest people are the sweetest people.

Nationalism has a way of oppressing others.

Men weren’t always happy for me. It was very challenging to watch a woman be so successful.

It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.

I hate victims who respect their executioners.

Let no such man be trusted.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it’s the restaurant business.

As a country, we can’t teach kids how to read and write when we got 18 years to do it. And that’s – that’s a disgrace.

An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.

Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.

The thing that I fear discriminating against is humor and truth.

Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.

I report to you that our country is challenged at home and abroad: that it is our will that is being tried and not our strength; our sense of purpose and not our ability to achieve a better America.

The realities are that, you know, as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station, you know.

We live in ugly times.

The problem with EMMA is that it is cost prohibitive for the small investors who were supposed to benefit from the new transparency.

If I write badly about blacks, homosexuals and women, it is because of these who I met were that. There are many ‚bads‘ – bad dogs, bad censorship; there are even ‚bad‘ white males. Only, when you write about ‚bad‘ white males, they don’t complain about it. And need I say that there are ‚good‘ blacks, ‚good‘ homosexuals and ‚good‘ women?

God tries you in certain, certain ways. Some people are rich, and they believe in God. They lose the money, things get hard, they get weak and quit going to church. Quit serving God like they did.

If you see oppression of the poor, and justice and righteousness trampled in a country, do not be astounded.

My father, who was jailed for stealing on more than one occasion, just abandoned his fatherly responsibilities and disappeared. I grew up working from the time I was nine years of age. Money was a big issue everywhere I lived.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

I come from a poor family, I have seen poverty. The poor need respect, and it begins with cleanliness.

Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.

The majority of my interactions with police were not good. There were a few good ones who were actually protecting the community. But then you have ones from the Valley. They never met me in their life, but since I’m a kid in basketball shorts and a white T-shirt, they wanna slam me on the hood of the car. Sixteen years old.

Everything in the world may be endured except continual prosperity.

Homophobia is real in this country.

Violence is both unavoidable and unjustifiable.

When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.

Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature – opposition to it is his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow.

Giving a poor person money keeps them poor.

Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition – such as lifting weights – we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.

My understanding of racial discrimination as a child was highly distorted because the most prominent man in Archery was an African-American bishop. When he came home from up north, where he was in charge of A.M.E. churches in five states, it was front-page news. He was the most successful man in my life.

I think unconscious bias is one of the hardest things to get at.

Boot camp sucks – SEAL training sucks – but you know what? That’s what makes you good.

Let’s be clear about this, and let’s be clear: we should not be creating incentives to house people in prison. We should be creating incentives instead to shut the revolving door into prison.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

My life is a struggle.

You learn to know a pilot in a storm.

I’ve made money, and I’ve been ripped off. I’ve had creative freedom, and I’ve been pressured to make hits. I have dealt with diva behavior from crazy musicians, and I have seen genius records by wonderful artists get completely ignored. I love music. I always will.

Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.

Making a film is like putting out a fire with sieve. There are so many elements, and it gets so complicated.