What we call wisdom is the result of all the wisdom of past ages. Our best institutions are like young trees growing upon the roots of the old trunks that have crumbled away.

It is not the going out of port, but the coming in, that determines the success of a voyage.

The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.

All ambitions are lawful except those that climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.

I got to that desperate place where nobody could help me but God.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

Faith crosses every border and touches every heart in every nation.

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is.