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.

We’re so afraid of each other… Colour, wealth, these things that don’t really matter still play too much of a role in how we see one another. And it’s sad, because the thing that least defines us is the colour of our skin.

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

The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.

No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half its citizens.

You don’t want to be with a boy who is too stupid to appreciate a smart young lady. There is no boy who is cute enough or interesting enough to stop you from getting your education.

Poverty is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the task of many people to conceal their neediness from others. Consequently they support themselves by temporary means, and everyday is lost in contriving for tomorrow.

What quarrel, what harshness, what unbelief in each other can subsist in the presence of a great calamity, when all the artificial vesture of our life is gone, and we are all one with each other in primitive mortal needs?

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life … would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.

Our necessities are few, but our wants are endless.

Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.

Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay.

Commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass.

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.

Parentage is a very important profession, but no test of fitness for it is ever imposed in the interest of the children.

Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.

Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it.

We love to overlook the boundaries which we do not wish to pass.