Michelle Obama

Our first job in life as women, I think, is to get to know ourselves. And I think a lot of times we don’t do that. We spend our time pleasing, satisfying, looking out into the world to define who we are – listening to the messages, the images, the limited definitions that people have of who we are.

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.

So early in our lives we are shushed. And not just directly shushed but sometimes in our lives we’re treated too preciously. We may have a father that loves us and treats us like a doll. They don’t treat us like real beings and equal partners.

I’ve never had the passion for politics.

Men don’t even ask that question, ‘What if it doesn’t happen?’ That’s what we do. That is a behavior of our gender. Speak up in all that tables we’re in.

Oftentimes, it’s the way we react to change that is the thing that determines the overall experience.

I was dyslexic, I had no understanding of schoolwork whatsoever. I certainly would have failed IQ tests. And it was one of the reasons I left school when I was 15 years old. And if I – if I’m not interested in something, I don’t grasp it.

You are your own teacher. Investigate yourself to find the truth – inside, not outside. Knowing yourself is most important.

Many schools include a service project as part of their curriculum, and many corporations have in-house projects for their employees or give them time off to do volunteer work.

That man is best educated who knows the greatest number of things that are so, and who can do the greatest number of things to help and heal the world.

An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all.

Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.

Instead of going to Paris to attend lectures, go to the public library, and you won’t come out for twenty years, if you really wish to learn.

Community colleges are certainly one of America’s best-kept secrets.

You must unlearn what you have learned.

Knowledge without education is but armed injustice.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

When girls are educated, their countries become stronger and more prosperous.

In our culture and in culture sometimes they make you feel a little be weird for being smart… but we are intelligent people and our dreams matter regardless of if you speak with an accent and people think that that makes you not intelligent.

We seldom suffer from taking our subject of study too seriously, but we usually suffer when we take ourselves too seriously.

In terms of doing work and in terms of learning and evolving as a person, you just grow more when you get more people’s perspectives… I really try and live the mission of the company and… keep everything else in my life extremely simple.