Michelle Obama

Empower yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise.

You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.

I’ve learned that from my husband, that sort of, you know, ability to not get too high or too low with changes and bumps in the road.

I never cut class. I loved getting A’s, I liked being smart. I liked being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world.

Let us not forget: I didn’t just wake up First Lady… I mean, I went to law school, I practised law, I worked for the city, I ran a nonprofit (and) I was an executive at a hospital. I’ve been in the world. I’ve worked in every sector, and you don’t do that without coming up against some stuff. You know, having your feelings hurt, having people say things about you that aren’t true… Life hits you, so over the course of living, you learn how to protect yourself in it. You learn to take in what you need and get rid of the stuff that’s clearly not true.

When you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. You reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.

The wilderness is near as well as dear to every man. Even the oldest villages are indebted to the border of wild wood which surrounds them, more than to the gardens of men. There is something indescribably inspiriting and beautiful in the aspect of the forest skirting and occasionally jutting into the midst of new towns, which, like the sand-heaps of fresh fox-burrows, have sprung up in their midst. The very uprightness of the pines and maples asserts the ancient rectitude and vigor of nature. Our lives need the relief of such a background, where the pine flourishes and the jay still screams.

Men are what their mothers made them.

It is not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.

I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision.

There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right.

He presents me with what is always an acceptable gift who brings me news of a great thought before unknown. He enriches me without impoverishing himself.

Whenever, therefore, people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth, it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblances to that truth.

Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

Necessity does everything well.

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.

I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.

Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.

Where God does not govern, tyrants will rule.