"I was pretty realistic to people about..." - Quote by Barack Obama
I was pretty realistic to people about what we could get done, and the situation we were in, and trying to tamp down expectations. If you listen to my stump speeches, if you listen to what I said at Grant Park, I kept on saying, "Look, this is not just about me, this is not going to happen in one year, or one term, or even one presidency." And we tried to layer into everything we were saying a sense of hope, but also realism.
More by Barack Obama
More on Leadership
“Woman is more fitted than man to make explorations and take bolder action in ahimsa.”
“The presence of a king engenders loveAmongst his subjects, and his royal friends.”
“Let's remember that our leadership is defined not just by our defense against threats, but by the enormous opportunities to do good and promote understanding around the globe to forge greater cooperation, to expand new markets, to free people from fear and want. And no one is better positioned to take advantage of those opportunities than America.”
More on Realism
“I fear that, with our current veneration for the natural and the real, we have arrived at the opposite pole to all idealism, and have landed in the region of the waxworks.”
“To be candid, some people have given positive thinking a bad name. I can't stand to hear some gung-ho individual say that with positive thinking you can just do 'anything.' If you think about that one for a moment, you recognize the absurdity of it.”
“Don't confuse my point of view with cynicism. The real cynics are the ones who tell you that everything's gonna be all right.”