Michelle Obama

This generation, because of social media and the internet, kids are more exposed to more people and more cultures. I think that they are more open in ways. They are less tolerant of obvious inequities. This generation will look at what is happening now in the world and say, ‘This doesn’t feel right because this wasn’t what I was taught.’

I’ve learned that from my husband, that sort of, you know, ability to not get too high or too low with changes and bumps in the road.

It has to be a true partnership, and you have to really really like and respect the person you’re married to because it is a hard road.

When girls are educated, their countries become stronger and more prosperous.

One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

The perception of the comic is a tie of sympathy with other men, a pledge of sanity, and a protection from those perverse tendencies and gloomy insanities in which fine intellects sometimes lose themselves. A rogue alive to the ludicrous is still convertible. If that sense is lost, his fellow-men can do little for him.

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.

Awareness is the greatest agent for change.

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.

Necessity is the mother of taking chances.

You are going to let the fear of poverty govern you life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.

Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.

Cruelty would be delicious if one could only find some sort of cruelty that didn’t really hurt.

Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.

Learn to say “I don’t know.” If used when appropriate, it will be often.

Anger is short madness

We have reached a point today where labor-saving devices are good only when they do not throw the worker out of his job.

You’ll never get anywhere if you go about what-iffing like that. Would Columbus have discovered America if he’d said ‘What if I sink on the way over? What if I meet pirates? What if I never come back?’ He wouldn’t even have started.

We bust build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.