Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. 

A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.

We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.

We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened. 

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

The only source of knowledge is experience.

Intelligence is the application of knowledge.

Whatever position I occupied, it was the result of colleagues - of my comrades in the movement - who had decided in their wisdom to use me for the purpose of focusing the attention of the country and the international community on me.

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

In a consecrated calm, forgotten yet. Of the keen heart that hastens to forget old longings in fulfilling new desires.