"If, in [Federal Housing Administration] application, black..." - Quote by Barack Obama

“I am the eternal optimist. I think that, over time, people respond to civility and -- and rational argument.”

“Just like I described in health care, yeah, somebody comes in, they got new ideas, maybe ideas that are completely opposite of my ideas. Maybe some of it goes, maybe some of that progress goes back. Maybe they think of some things we didn't think of, and so in some other areas - we can learn something.”

“I was elected because I believed in what we call "grassroots politics," politics from the bottom up, not the top down.”

“Us as a people, we can't do it on our own. We have to understand that we're not each other's enemy. We have to stop discriminating against each other due to class and due to race and due to location or financial position.”

“Who makes and keeps the Jew or the Negro base, who but you, who exclude them from the rights which others enjoy?”

“The white poor also suffer deprivation and the humiliation of poverty if not of color. They are chained by the weight of discrimination though its badge of degradation does not mark them. It corrupts their lives, frustrates their opportunities and withers their education. In one sense it is more evil for them because it has confused so many by prejudice that they have supported their own oppressors.”

“Every modern war has had its roots in exploitation.”

“It's the poorer people in tropical zones who will get really hit by climate change - as well as some ecosystems, which nobody wants to see disappear.”

“To some of us, hunger was more academic than real, but we must try to develop the ability to feel the urgency of such a situation.”