Barack Obama

[on Michelle] A dedicated mom, a good friend, and someone who’s not afraid to poke a little fun at herself from time to time

I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office.

Don’t just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.

I’m a history buff, and I know that big changes take time. But I also know that, setting politics aside, usually things are never as good as you think they are or as bad as you think they are. And that has served me well temperamentally.

My first four jobs were minimum wage or close to it.

[living at the White House] This isn’t about us. There’s so much history here that no one family can claim this space as their own.

What Michelle has done is to remind me every day of the virtues of order.

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

Obviously I couldn’t have done anything that I’ve done without Michelle… not only has she been a great first lady, she is just my rock. I count on her in so many ways every single day.

If you treat your wife like a thoroughbred, you’ll never end up with a nag.

By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.

Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can’t sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can’t sleep with the window open.

There is nothing so much seduces reason from vigilance as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman in marriage.

There is no subject on which more dangerous nonsense is talked and thought than marriage.

Both marriage and death ought to be welcome: The one promises happiness, doubtless the other assures it.

Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.

Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side.

He didn’t dare to, because his father had a weak heart and habitually threatened to drop dead if anybody hurt his feelings. You may have noticed that people with weak hearts are the tyrants of English married life.

This is my first marriage. Beforehand, I was living in sin.

It is a woman’s business to get married as soon as possible, and a man’s to keep unmarried as long as he can.

It is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from inclination.