My strong preference has always been to legislate when I can get legislation done.

I want every young man who sees me to know that I'm not that different from them. I wasn't born into wealth. I wasn't born into fame. I made a lot of mistakes - but I kept at it.

When you're a candidate and you say something that is inaccurate or controversial, it has less impact than it does when you're president of the United States. Everybody around the world's paying attention. Markets move. National security issues require a level of precision in order to make sure that you don't make mistakes.

I reserve the right, as president of the United States to meet with anybody at a time and place of my choosing if I think it's going to keep America safe.

Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values.

The thing I know for sure is that at the end of my life, what I'm going to remember is the love I felt for my family and my friends, and whatever good I did for other people.

Cynicism is a sorry kind of wisdom.