Yesterday I heard this little podcast on the spiritual website elsajoy.com about a peom for Barack Obama . In the introduction he says "This guy isn’t just a politician. He is a teacher, a leader. Obama is to politics what Mozart was to music. "
An amazing statement but it rings true. He is mindful, elegant and with a big heart. You get the feeling that as a politician he not only talks about integrity but actually has it. Looking from the outside (Germany) to the approaching election one dares to say: America, Obama is the best thing that could happen to you now! The only thing you have to do is make it happen.
I actually researched some of his speeches and found the following 10 Quotes to be most inspiring and convincing, I hope you do too.
10. Generations
"It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today."
9. Purpose
"If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress."
8. Ability
"We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we’ve been told that we’re not ready, or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people. Yes we can."
- Speech following New Hampshire Primary January 8, 2008.
7. Courage
"As Americans, we can take enormous pride in the fact that courage has been inspired by our own struggle for freedom, by the tradition of democratic law secured by our forefathers and enshrined in our Constitution. It is a tradition that says all men are created equal under the law and that no one is above it."
6. Unity
"There is not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America — there is the United States of America"
5. Destiny
"The true test of the American ideal is whether we’re able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them."
- speech, Jun. 4, 2005
4. Potential
"Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential."
3. Values
"If we aren’t willing to pay a price for our values, if we aren’t willing to make some sacrifices in order to realize them, then we should ask ourselves whether we truly believe in them at all."
- quote from his book, "Audacity of Hope" (Chapter 2)
2. Change
"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
- Speech following Super Tuesday results, Feb 5, 2008.
1. Hope
"Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire; what led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation; what led young women and young men to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom’s cause. Hope is what led me here today–with a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas; and a story that could only happen in the United States of America. Hope is the bedrock of this nation; the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us; by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is; who have courage to remake the world as it should be."
- speech, Jan. 3, 2008
Bonus: on himself
"I’m in this race not just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation."
- February 10, 2007 Presidential announcement.
"Change doesn’t come from Washington. Change comes to Washington."
- Speech in Denver, Aug. 28, 2008
Click for the 28-Aug-2008 Denver speech in HD
Check out BarackObama.com and if you are an American, make your vote count right on Nov 4th.
Ladan on 
We now have an empire on our hands far worse than the British.
What great changes has Obama made in his years in the Senate, or his decades in government?
Richard X. Thripp´s last blog post: Photo: Vegetarianism
Really enjoying the site until today’s post. Didn’t see the meshing of your direction. As a new visitor, I have no true grasp of your vista, but it just seemed like a jarring turn after reading your previous articles. Not bad or good but just left me with a ‘oh’ with no place to go.
Really like your insightful and inspirational postings so will return again after a while.
Cheers
Psiplex´s last blog post: All Ever Is
Psiplex, thanks for your feedback! I’m also just experimenting with some posts, maybe it’s the politcal topic.
But let’s face it, the latest 8 years were no pleasure even looking from the outside to politics in the US. It has a huge influence to the whole world. I think Obama would be a huge improvement for the world. I don’t say he fits into the spiritual discussions we had here, of course. Then again I don’t see how a politician/party can express spirituality today without running into problems, especially if there is a campaign running approaching an election.
I think the post fits very well into the area of personal development, as deep as a politician can express it in public (which is also very limited).
This was wonderful post, especially since it comes from an “outsider.” Thanks for pulling together these quotes of change.
We may not all favor Obama, but surely we all value hope and positive change.
Flora Morris Brown, Ph.D.´s last blog post: Money DOES Make Us Happy
Flora, I hope so ;) … and thanks. Although 94% of the readers seem to favour Obama (according to the survey top right).
Great information! I look forward to more inspirational quotes.
James Seay´s last blog post: Changing The World: Volume 1
con men fog our beliefs
maggots joyous in their feast
butterflies remorse to their cocoons
“Quotes of change” and Obama don’t go in the same sentence.
We elect representatives to effect change through government. Representatives vote. On good days, Barak has voted. He has not led.
In 8 years in the Illinois state legislature, 3 years in the U.S. Senate (2 of which he’s been running for president), I challenge anyone to name a piece of major legislation that Barry Obama has sponsored???
In case you have missed the 30 minutes ad on 3 major TV channels, here it is on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtREqAmLsoA
Hope and change. You keep using those words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.
Aha, so what do you think they mean?
Obama is a clever man and I truely admire him and he has shown that anyone from any background can really become president. This is not an attack as I said before I hope he does what is best for the nationa and will give him the benefit of the doubt. But when he says change its a sneaky word to use because if americans really knew a 800 billion dollar stimulus bill would come out of that and the expansion of the government I dont think they would have elected him. I think within the next 4 years we as a nation will be more like socialist France and that is scary to me. Hope is that he will do what is best but doesn’t mean he will do what is right.
Speaking of Barack Obama:
Barack Obama is a racial-minority individual, and in his heart and mind he inevitably does not endorse hate crimes committed by George W. Bush.
George W. Bush committed hate crimes of epic proportions and with the stench of terrorism (indicated in my blog).
George W. Bush did in fact commit innumerable hate crimes.
And I do solemnly swear by Almighty God that George W. Bush committed other hate crimes of epic proportions and with the stench of terrorism which I am not at liberty to mention.
Many people know what Bush did.
And many people will know what Bush did—even to the end of the world.
Bush was absolute evil.
Bush is now like a fugitive from justice.
Bush is a psychological prisoner.
Bush has a lot to worry about.
Bush can technically be prosecuted for hate crimes at any time.
In any case, Bush will go down in history in infamy.
Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993
“GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY” BLOG OF ANDREW YU-JEN WANG
______________________
I am not sure where I had read it before, but anyway, it is a linguistically excellent statement, and it goes kind of like this: “If only it were possible to ban invention that bottled up memories so they never got stale and faded.” Oh wait—off the top of my head—I think the quotation came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.
“You are who you are and where you are in life because of what has gone into your mind. But the good news is, you can change who you are and where you are in life by changing what goes into your mind.”
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There is a monkey State of America….. HAHAHAHAHA nigga
Obama is a politician like others. He has flip flop like any other politicians: So what can Americans do to get Obama elected?
Whooops! Sorry! I must have logged on to a Venezuelan website.
wow – what a Joke. Good thing this blogger is in Germany and doesn’t have voting power in the US.
Interesting that you put Hope as the first in your top 10 list, because yeah that’s what Obama is all about. How do you feel about Obama 2 years later?
Till then,
Jean