United States quotes

Explore quotes about the diverse landscapes, cultures, and history of the United States from famous figures and iconic leaders.

Why can't I just eat my waffle?

- Barack Obama

If you run you stand a chance of losing, but if you don’t run you’ve already lost.

- Barack Obama

You can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time.

- Barack Obama

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

- Barack Obama

Understand, our police officers put their lives on the line for us every single day. They’ve got a tough job to do to maintain public safety and hold accountable those who break the law.

- Barack Obama

The thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.

- Barack Obama

The role of citizen in a democracy does not end with your vote.

- Barack Obama

The future rewards those who press on. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on.

- Barack Obama

Some things are beyond my control. For example, this whole controversy about Jay-Z going to Cuba – it’s unbelievable! I’ve got 99 problems, now Jay-Z is one.

- Barack Obama

Now, when you first become president, one of the questions people ask you is, what’s really going on in Area 51? … oh, I think I just became the first president to ever publicly mention Area 51… how’s that?

- Barack Obama

Now, as a nation, we don't promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That's an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.

- Barack Obama

It’s important to realise I was actually black before the election.

- Barack Obama

In the end, this is what this election’s about – do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

- Barack Obama

If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.

- Barack Obama

Hope is the bedrock of this nation; the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us.

- Barack Obama

Focussing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realise your true potential.

- Barack Obama

Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

- Barack Obama

Change doesn’t come from Washington; change comes to Washington.

- Barack Obama

Americans still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.

- Barack Obama

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.

- Abraham Lincoln