"The ideas of ancient Greece helped inspire..." - Quote by Barack Obama
The ideas of ancient Greece helped inspire America's founding fathers as they reached for democracy. Our revolutionary ideas helped inspire Greeks as they sought their own freedom.
More by Barack Obama
“Most people who serve in Washington have been trained either as lawyers or as political operatives--professions that tend to place a premium on winning arguments rather than solving problems.”
“When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That's not what this program is about. ... What the intelligence community is doing is looking at phone numbers, and durations of calls; they are not looking at people's names and they're not looking at content. ... If the intelligence committee actually wants to listen to a phone call they have to go back to a federal judge, just like they would in a criminal investigation.”
“We want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games, realize that it's not just my way or the highway.”
More on Democracy
“We must settle this question now -- whether in a free government the minority have the right to break it up whenever they choose. If we fail, it will go far to prove the incapability of the people to govern themselves.”
“Some of us gave a little blood for the right to participate in the democratic process.”
“A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy.”
More on History
“There was a time when "sound as a dollar" was a description, not a joke.”
“We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.”
“I transmit but do not create. I place my trust in the teachings of antiquity.”