What I've said to [my team] is, "Look, we ran our leg of the race and we did a darn good job."

You can choose a future where more Americans have the chance to gain the skills they need to compete, no matter how old they are or how much money they have. Education was the gateway to opportunity for me. It was the gateway for Michelle. And now more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle-class life.

There's something about these steps [in Oval Office] and thinking about everybody who's walked here and all the business that's been done here.

I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.

The forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.

My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government.

But the basic principle that we’re going to have to see some of this debt written down, that the government is going to have to support some banks, that others that are not viable, essentially that we’re going to have to do something with those assets.