Quotes By Author: Barack Obama

“At some fundamental level, religion does not allow for compromise. It insists on the impossible. If God has spoken, then followers are expected to live up to God’s edicts, regardless of the consequences. To base one’s life on such uncompromising commitments may be sublime; to base our policy making on such commitments would be a dangerous thing.”

“How does the saying go? When two locusts fight, it is always the crow that feasts.’Is that a Luo expression?’ I asked. Sayid’s face broke into a bashful smile. We have a similar expression in Luo,’ he said, ‘but actually I must admit that I read this particular expression in a book by Chinua Achebe. The Nigerian writer. I like his books very much. He speaks the truth about Africa’s predicament. the Nigerian, the Kenya – it is the same. We share more than divides us.”

“faith doesn’t mean that you don’t have doubts… [you] still experience the same greed, resentment, lust, and anger that everyone else experienced… the lines between sinner and saved [are] more fluid; the sins of those who come to church are not so different from the sins of those who don’t… You [need] to come to church precisely because you [are] of this world, not apart from it; rich, poor, sinner, saved you [need] to embrace Christ precisely because you had sins to wash away… that religious commitment did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for economic and social justice, or otherwise retreat from the world…”

“No one is exempt from the call to find common ground.”

“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.”