Seven of Barack Obama’s best quotes
Former US president is renowned for his oratory







Barack Obama turns 57 tomorrow - and has marked his birthday week with a return to politics.
After keeping a fairly low profile since leaving the White House, the former US president has announced his endorsements of 81 Democratic candidates in the nation’s midterm elections later this year.
Obama said in a typically eloquent statement on Wednesday that he was “proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of Democratic candidates - leaders as diverse, patriotic, and big-hearted as the America they’re running to represent”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Even putting aside party affiliations, Obama cuts a very different figure to his successor in tone and temperament, as NBC News noted when Donald Trump took office in January 2017.
“It’s No-Drama Obama vs. Drama-All-The-Time Trump,” said the news site. “The nation’s first African-American president vs. the man who led the so-called birther campaign against him. ‘Yes We Can’ vs. ‘Make America Great Again’.”
Nowhere is this difference more apparent than in their speaking styles. “Barack Obama was, as president, eloquent,” says The Conversation. “His language was sophisticated. He spoke in measured tones and advanced informed, reasoned dialogue.”
Click on the gallery above to see seven of his greatest quotes.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Groypers: the alt-right group pulled into the foreground
The Explainer The network is led by alt-right activist Nick Fuentes
-
10 concert tours to see this upcoming fall
The Week Recommends Concert tour season isn't over. Check out these headliners.
-
How to put student loan payments on pause
The Explainer If you are starting to worry about missing payments, deferment and forbearance can help
-
Is Kash Patel’s fate sealed after Kirk shooting missteps?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The FBI’s bungled response in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting has director Kash Patel in the hot seat
-
Russian drone tests Romania as Trump spins
Speed Read Trump is ‘resisting congressional plans to impose newer and tougher penalties on Russia’s energy sector’
-
Trump renews push to fire Cook before Fed meeting
Speed Read The push to remove Cook has ‘quickly become the defining battle in Trump’s effort to take control of the Fed’
-
Will Donald Trump’s second state visit be a diplomatic disaster?
Today's Big Question Charlie Kirk shooting, Saturday’s far-right rally and continued Jeffrey Epstein fallout ramps-up risks of already fraught trip
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-war
Talking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
Calls for both calm and consequences follow Kirk killing
TALKING POINTS The suspected assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk has some public figures pleading for restraint, while others agitate for violent reprisals
-
Why does Donald Trump keep showing up at major sporting events?
Today's Big Question Trump has appeared at the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500 and other events
-
‘Democracy is under threat globally’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day