Michelle Obama

I stopped believing in love at first sight. I think you go through that wonderful love stage, but when it gets hard, you need a little bit more.

My habit is at the beginning of the year, I look at a blank calendar and then we put everything for the kids first like potlucks, sporting events, parent-teacher conferences, doctor’s appointments, and vacations. Second is me. When do I want to work out? When do I want to hang out with my girlfriends? What trips do I want to take? When can I take a long weekend? Put that on there. And then once all that’s done, everything else can come around that. It’s amazing because it forces you to say “no” because you’ve already blocked out the time.

When you’re not engaged in the day-to-day struggles that everybody feels, you slowly start losing touch. And I think it’s important for the people in the White House to have a finger on the pulse.

The realities are that, you know, as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station, you know.

Fear is a useless emotion. Don’t ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility.

We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.

The only prosperity the people can afford to be satisfied with is the kind that lasts.

We don’t see the things the way they are. We see things the way WE are.

Greatest thing we can produce is character. Everything else can be taken from us, but not our character.

Take care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them.

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.

I thought about writing a poem explaining how when you are lost at sea, even if you are rescued and survive, you never really come back. Then I realized everyone that’s ever been in love would already understand.

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

All this is only for the mice and myself to admire!

Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live.

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.

You gotta have a dream. If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come true?

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.

I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say what is and what is definitely not possible.