Barack Obama Quotes

We must have a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces - or at the very least a plan for it - something the administration has incredulously failed to do for over two years.

Our military commanders have said over and over again that a timetable for withdrawal sends the wrong message to our troops, but more importantly to our enemy.

I don't think we [the USA] need more troops. I think we need to be less worried about civilian casualties.

I don't know all the facts on Iraq, but I think we should work closely with the Americans.

I had said from the start that I thought Iraq was a mistake, that we should have stayed focused on Afghanistan. I think it was the right decision because the Taliban at that point had gotten a lot of momentum before I'd gotten into office, partly because we hadn't been paying attention as much as we needed to to Afghanistan.

One of the reasons some people get so angry with me is because I have the space now that a lot of others who think like me don't.

Gods don't like people not doing much work. People who aren't busy all the time might start to think.

My brand of leadership, which is very focused on bringing people together, solving problems - it's what I have always tried to do - just had a hard time being as powerfully compelling in the campaign as I think it has been in previous years for other candidates.

I was involved in trying to save the Rwandan people and Sudan now. It's a mass murder. Mass murder is a terrifying word. We don't have to go further than that. Cambodia came close to, but what was it, Cambodians killing Cambodians after all. So therefore I think we should be very careful with vocabulary.

Compromise is not popular. It's not at all popular among young people who these days call themselves "activists." They think compromises are dishonest, opportunistic, humiliating. Not in my vocabulary.

I think a lot of people are afraid of being happy because of what others might think of it.

Mr. Vice President, I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't keep interrupting each other.

I'm going to spend a lot of time trying to explain as best I can why it's important for us to succeed in Iraq. I'm going to do what I think is right, and if, you know, if people don't like me for it, that's just the way it is.

I think the problem with John Bolton is he disagrees with President Trump's foreign policy. He would be closer to John McCain's foreign policy. John Bolton still believes the Iraq war was a good idea. He still believes that regime change is a good idea. He still believes that nation-building is a good idea.

One thing I think is interesting is the Jedi in the prequels are supposed to be peacekeepers, and certainly had a very artful way of making war. They had an artful way of defending themselves and inciting violence, really. You find that the Jedi who survived all of that had a much more simpler way of going about things.

You have to engage with people who are different from you and try to work with their thinking and their mind. That's a real challenge.

I think people have confidence that I will fairly and accurately represent their point of view to the President, and that I'm not going to put a spin on it, even if I may disagree with it.

I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation building.

I am very direct, to the point that I think I might make people uncomfortable! I do not know how not to be direct. I don't think there's time to waste.

If you are a human being, you might as well face it. You are going to rub a lot of people the wrong way.

I think we do have an interest in combating states that try to cross borders and steal parts of other people's country.

Be careful, think about the effect of what you say. Your words should be constructive, bring people together, not pull them apart.

People like you should be stopped, Mr. Woodrow,' she mused aloud, with a puzzled shake of her wise head. 'You think you're solving the world's problems but actually you're the problem.

I think that's my nature, to want to bring people together rather than to try to bombard them into agreement.

In my own personal experience in my life, people that I argue with or have confrontations with are the people I love and care about the most. I wouldn't think to argue with somebody I couldn't give two s**ts about. There's no point in arguing if you don't care.