In celebration of President Barack Obama’s 55th birthday, we pulled together 55 quotes that we think best demonstrate his global citizenship. Happy Birthday, Mr. President! 

  1. We can end global poverty and hunger within our lifetimes.
  2. In the 21st century, the best anti-poverty program around is a world-class education.
  3. I'm pretty sure that if we had more women in charge things would work better.
  4. My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.
  5. With passion and courage, women have taught us that when we band together to advocate for our highest ideals, we can advance our common well-being and strengthen the fabric of our nation.
  6. Because when women have equal futures, families and communities and countries are stronger.  When they get an education that means their children are getting an education.  This is a fact.
  7. Let girls learn.  Let girls learn so they can help start new ventures and drive economies.  Let girls learn so that they can invest in their communities.  Let girls learn so they can be safe from violence and abuse.  Let girls learn so they can realize their dreams.  
  8. As the wealthiest nation on Earth, I believe the United States has a moral obligation to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition, and to partner with others.
  9. We can’t ask a child to feed her mind when she can barely feed her stomach.
  10. So let’s sustain this progress.  Let’s make hunger history.

    Image: Flickr: The White House
  11. I believe that by 2030, we can bring electricity to over 60 million African homes and businesses.  And that will be transformative for the entire continent.
  12. And we are proving that countries don’t have to choose between expanding access to power and combating climate change.
  13. We can roll back the pollution that we put in our skies, and help economies lift people out of poverty without condemning our children to the ravages of an ever-warming climate.
  14. Someday, our children, and our children's children, will look at us in the eye and they'll ask us, did we do all that we could when we had the chance to deal with this problem and leave them with a cleaner, safer, more stable world?
  15. We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change, and the last generation that can do something about it.
  16. Women and girls make extraordinary contributions every day across all fields of human endeavor, including in business, education, sports, art, science, agriculture, parenting, and governance.  Without these contributions, economies would collapse, communities would fail, and families would fall apart.
  17. Our vision is within reach -- the first AIDS-free generation.
  18. The world is interconnected, and that demands an integrated approach to global health.
  19. If the body is strong, if communities are strong, if nations are strong, then their immune systems are a little bit stronger.
  20. We have to change our mindsets and start thinking about biological threats as the security threats that they are.

    Image: Flickr: The White House
  21. When women have an education, when women have a job, their children are more likely to get an education, their families are healthier and more prosperous.
  22. Now, as a nation, we don’t promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That’s an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.
  23. All of us are born equal and we’re all connected.
  24. The millions of refugees who have resettled here through the years have brought similar dreams of a better tomorrow.  Each has enriched the diverse mosaic that is America.  Their lives and their many accomplishments stand as a clear rebuke to the bigotry and brutality they fled, and serve as a powerful example of the human will to endure, hope, and achieve.
  25. Women’s opportunities are expanded and our nation is stronger when all of our citizens have accessible, affordable health care.
  26. Protecting and assisting refugees is a part of our history as a Nation, and we will continue to alleviate the suffering of refugees abroad, and to welcome them here at home, because doing so reflects our American values and our noblest traditions as a Nation, enriches our society, and strengthens our collective security.
  27. For through the citizens of every conceivable ancestry who make this city their own, we see living proof that opportunity can be accessed by all, that what unites us as human beings is far greater than what divides us, and that people from every part of this world can live together in peace.
  28. So the United States continues to be the world’s largest donor of humanitarian aid -- and it will remain so as long as I'm President.
  29. The burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together. Partnership among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.
  30. When we recognize our interconnectedness and the fundamental dignity and equality of every human being, we help to build a world that is more accepting, secure and free.

    Image: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
  31. When people can start their own businesses, it helps individuals and families succeed.
  32. And entrepreneurship is what gives people like you a chance to fulfill your own dreams and create something bigger than yourselves.
  33. So development isn't charity.  It's one of the smartest investments we can make in our shared future -- in our security and our prosperity.
  34. No point in doing easy stuff.
  35. As we’ve seen from South Korea to Chile to Botswana, the developing nation of today can end up being the engine of global growth tomorrow.
  36. 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.
  37. It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was al-Qaeda. We will not sacrifice the liberties we cherish or hunker down behind walls of suspicion and mistrust.
  38. In the face of evil, we must summon our capacity for good.  In the face of hate, we must love.  In the face of cruelty, we must live with empathy and compassion.  We must never be bystanders to injustice or indifferent to suffering.
  39. In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?
  40. If you care about human dignity, if you care about reducing violence and terrorism, if you care about fighting climate change, if you care about addressing inequality and creating trade and prosperity that works for all and not just some, then you’re going to have to pay attention to development.

    Image: The White House Instagram
  41. We take the world that's been given to us and we try to make it just a little bit better, and then somebody else picks it up and they do their part.
  42. And as long as I am President, and well after I'm done being President, I will keep fighting for the education and housing and health care and jobs that reduce inequality and create opportunity here in the United States and around the world. Because this is not just the job of politicians; this is work for all of us.
  43. If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.
  44. And so let the skeptics and cynics know development works.  Investing in public health works.  We can break the cycle of poverty.  People and nations can rise into prosperity.
  45. Many children are just one mosquito bite away from death.  And that is a moral outrage.  It is a profound injustice. It is literally a matter of life and death, and now the world must act.  We cannot leave people behind.
  46. We know that when we invest in women and girls, we are not only helping them, we are helping the entire planet. A future in which all women and girls around the world are allowed to rise and achieve their full potential will be a brighter, more peaceful, and more prosperous future for us all.
  47. This next chapter of development must also unleash economic growth -- not just for a few at the top, but inclusive, sustainable growth that lifts up the fortunes of the many.

    Image: Twitter: The Atlantic
  48. Ultimately, everything comes down to the constant perseverance, the courage, the tenacity, the vision of citizens like you, making sure not only you exercise your right to vote, but that in between elections you are part of a constant movement in your local communities, or at the national level, or at an international level, to bring about the kind of change from which all of us in this room have benefitted because of the labors of somebody who came before us.
  49. We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges.
  50. And we commit ourselves -- as nations, as one world -- to the urgent work that must be done...  To ending the injustice of extreme poverty.  To upholding the inherent dignity of every human being.  Whatever it takes.  We can’t let them down.  And with your help, we won't.
  51. We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.
  52. We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths –- that all of us are created equal –- is the star that guides us still.
  53. I've said this before, I will keep repeating it:  One of the best measures of a nation’s success is how it treats its women.
  54. If you had to choose a moment in history to be born, and you didn’t know ahead of time who you were going to be, you’d choose now.
  55. Together, we can eradicate extreme poverty and erase barriers to opportunity.

Editorial

Demand Equity

55 Quotes That Prove President Barack Obama Is a Global Citizen

By Annika Reno  and  Tom Guettler