“Don’t ever let anybody tell you that your efforts don’t matter or that your voice doesn’t count. Don’t ever believe that you can’t make a difference. You have.”

It is moments like these that force us to try harder, and dig deeper, and to discover gifts we never knew we had – to find the greatness that lies within each of us.

In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity – it is a prerequisite.

You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.

I wouldn’t be the man I am today without the woman who agreed to marry me 20 years ago

A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things.

We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend. And we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it’s easy, but when it is hard.

If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.

A child’s course in life should be determined not by the zip code she’s born in, but by the strength of her work ethic and the scope of her dreams.

The sweetest sound I know is the Muslim call to prayer.

History doesn’t always move in a straight line. Sometimes it zigs and zags.

A nation that can’t control its energy sources can’t control its future.

It’s important to make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.

It should be the power of our vote, not the size of our bank accounts, that drives our democracy.

When our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act.

In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.

We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect.

I believe in second chances, but I don’t believe in third or fourth chances.

Whatever you believe, you become.

I’ve always believed in the strength and resilience of the American people.

You cannot use someone else’s fire. You can only use your own. And in order to do that, you must first be willing to believe that you have it.

I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day.

And when someone apologizes to you enough times for things they’ll never stop doing, I think it’s fearless to stop believing them. It’s fearless to say “you’re not sorry” and walk away.

I believe we have a responsibility to do even more. It’s so important that we’re changing.

I know you won’t believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others.