[J]ust because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can't constrain the exercise of that right.

The true test of the American ideal is whether we're able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them. Whether chance of birth or circumstance decides life's big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a chance to work hard, get ahead, and reach their dreams.

The United States has been a Pacific nation for over two centuries. That's not going to change.

Guaranteed, full stop, nobody gets treated differently when it comes to the Justice Department, because nobody is above the law.

Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. it's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.

The private sector is doing fine.

You have to have a strong team around you [being a president].