What had been happening in Ferguson was oppressive and objectionable and was worthy of protest, but there was no excuse for criminal acts, they're criminals, they need to be arrested and then what we need to do is to make sure that like-minded, good-spirited people on both sides -- law enforcement who have terrifically tough job and people who understandably don't want to be harassed just because of their race -- that we're able to work together to come up with some good answers.

Barack Obama

Categorized in : US News

In this new, hyper competitive age, none of us, none of us can afford to be complacent.

Barack Obama

hyper complacent age

I think perhaps education doesn’t do us much good unless it is mixed with sweat.

Barack Obama

sweat thinking

Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq. We did. I promised to refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11. We have. We've blunted the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan, and in 2014, our longest war will be over. A new tower rises above the New York skyline, al Qaeda is on the path to defeat, and Osama bin Laden is dead.

Barack Obama

new-york inspirational war

Never read Who Moved My Cheese in the workplace when you can read The Joy of Not Working.

Barack Obama

cheese joy advice

The next phase and this is part of what I'm interested in doing after I get out of the presidency is to make sure that I'm working with that next generation so that they understand you can't just rely on inspiration. There's a little perspiration involved in bringing about change too. That you have to be organized, that you have to vote even when it's not exciting.

Barack Obama

next inspiration littles

I am asking my Attorney General to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorneys general to expand our investigations into the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis. This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.

Barack Obama

hurt special law

... the country deserves us to be willing to compromise on behalf of the greater good.

Barack Obama

greater-good compromise country

My biggest frustration so far is the fact that this society has not been willing to take some basic steps to keep guns out of the hands of people who can do just unbelievable damage. We're the only developed country on Earth where this happens. ... And it happens once a week. And it's a one-day story. ... The country has to do some soul-searching on this.

Barack Obama

frustration gun country

We didn't become the most prosperous country in the world just by rewarding greed and recklessness. We didn't come this far by letting the special interests run wild. We didn't do it just by gambling and chasing paper profits on Wall Street. We built this country by making things, by producing goods we could sell.

Barack Obama

running inspirational country

We run everything to ground. If you see something, say something. Report your concerns to law enforcement. They will be looked at, they will be reviewed.

Barack Obama

enforcement law running

You know, one of the things I think you understand as president is you're held responsible for everything, but you don't always have control of everything, right?

Barack Obama

responsible president thinking

For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.

Barack Obama

pro-life country people

I think that the risk to all the progress we've made was at stake in the election because not just the president-elect but a lot of members of Congress, including now the Speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader, have said that their principal agenda was to undo a lot of this progress. But as I've been talking about over the last several days when it comes to health care, the gains that we've made are there. Twenty million people have health insurance that didn't have it before. The uninsured rate is the lowest it's ever been.

Barack Obama

majority-leader talking thinking

We the people declare today that the most evident of truth that all of us are created equal ... that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

Barack Obama

pro-life soul people

Life takes its own turns, makes its own demands, writes its own story, and along the way, we start to realize we are not the author.

Barack Obama

inspirational-life stories writing

Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law.

Barack Obama

gay brother journey

If you have health insurance, then you don't have to do anything. If you've got health insurance through your employer, you can keep your health insurance, keep your choice of doctor, keep your plan.

Barack Obama

employers doctors choices

I'm a warrior for the middle class.

Barack Obama

warrior middle class

As we look forward to the New Year, let's resolve to recommit ourselves to the values we share.

Barack Obama

new-year looks years

I would say of all the things that have happened during the course of my presidency the knowledge that you have hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed, millions who have been displaced, [makes me] ask myself what might I have done differently along the course of the last five, six years.

Barack Obama

done people years