Michelle Obama

I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them.

A lot of power and bravery is practice. And some of that is taking the risk to try and be at the table. And then when you’re at the table, taking that first risk to open your mouth and risk being rejected.

I was probably 10 or 11 when I saw that, and sort of started thinking, ‘You know what? Marriage is an option. Having a family is an option. And going to school and getting your education and building your career is another really viable option that can lead to happiness and fulfillment.

How hard you work matters more than how much you make.

And let’s be clear: It’s not enough just to limit ads for foods that aren’t healthy. It’s also going to be critical to increase marketing for foods that are healthy.

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.

School reports were always pretty bad. I never ever did my homework. I always turned up for lessons as I liked my teachers but my report said I didn’t try very hard.

I would like to be a scholar in whatever I do, a scholar is never finished, he is always seeking and I am always seeking.

The function of this school is custodial. It’s here to keep these kids off the streets until the girls are big enough to get pregnant and the boys are old enough to go out and hold up a gas station.

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends.

I call myself a teacher because they want me to call myself a teacher, but actually, what I’m doing is I’m studying.

We are now embarked on another venture to put the American dream to work in meeting the new demands of a new day. Once again we must start where men would improve their society have always known they must begin – with an educational system restudied, reinforced, and revitalized.

My father must have had some elementary education for he could read and write and keep accounts inaccurately

But before any great things are accomplished, a memorable change must be made in the system of Education and knowledge must become so general as to raise the lower ranks of Society nearer to the higher. The Education of a Nation, instead of being confined to a few schools & Universities, for the instruction of the few, must become the National Care and expence, for the information of the Many.

[On his donation of $100 million to UCLA in 2012 adding to the $200 million he donated in 2002] The cost of a world-class medical education should not deter our future innovators, doctors and scientists from the path they hope to pursue. We need the students at this world-class institution to be driven by determination and the desire to do their best work and not by the fear of crushing debt. I hope in doing this that others will be inspired to do the same.

Do not neglect your life skills, which should include a healthy dose of financial education.

Economists report that a college education adds many thousands of dollars to a man’s lifetime income – which he then spends sending his son to college.

… because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college.

To educate the peasantry, three things are needed: schools, schools and schools.

I don’t care what their [Guns N’ Roses] record is. If you need a blood donor and the only person who can give you a transfusion is Hitler, you take the blood.

There is no education like adversity.