Top 450 Michelle Obama Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “If I can have any impact, I want women to feel good about themselves and have fun with fashion.”

— Michelle Obama

102. “The problem is when that fun stuff becomes the habit. And I think that’s what’s happened in our culture. Fast food has become the everyday meal.”

— Michelle Obama

103. “I don’t, as my mom would say, sweat the small stuff in our relationship. Because when I think of day-to-day irritations that you might have with the one you love, they’re nothing compared to the bigger task at hand.”

— Michelle Obama

104. “I know what makes me happy. I pick the clothes that make me happy – sometimes people like them, sometimes they don’t. I try to listen to my own internal guide.”

— Michelle Obama

105. “Sometimes, it’s just easier to say yes to that extra snack or dessert, because frankly, it is exhausting to keep saying no. It’s exhausting to plead with our kids to eat just one more bite of vegetables.”

— Michelle Obama

106. “I love that we can trust Barack to do what he says he’s going to do, even when it’s hard – especially when it’s hard.”

— Michelle Obama

107. “Barack knows the American Dream because he’s lived it – and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are, or where we’re from, or what we look like, or who we love.”

— Michelle Obama

108. “Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down, and trust your insticts. Good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don’t hurt. They’re not painful. That’s not just with somebody you want to marry, but it’s with the friends you choose. It’s with the people you surround yourself with.”

— Michelle Obama

109. “Barack didn’t pledge riches, only a life that would be interesting. On that promise he delivered.”

— Michelle Obama

110. “You don’t have to like your teacher,” she told me one day after I came home spewing complaints. “But that woman’s got the kind of math in her head that you need in yours. Focus on that and ignore the rest.”

— Michelle Obama

111. “Failure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result.”

— Michelle Obama

112. “Barack is one of the smartest people you will ever encounter who will deign to enter this messy thing called politics.”

— Michelle Obama

113. “I know what it feels like to struggle to get the education that you need.”

— Michelle Obama

114. “Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would utilize all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost.”

— Michelle Obama

115. “And let’s be clear: It’s not enough just to limit ads for foods that aren’t healthy. It’s also going to be critical to increase marketing for foods that are healthy.”

— Michelle Obama

116. “Our job is, first and foremost, to make sure our family is whole.”

— Michelle Obama

117. “We all play a role in this democracy. We need to remember the power of every vote. I continue, too, to keep myself connected to a force that’s larger and more potent than any one election, or leader, or news story – and that’s optimism. For me, this is a form of faith, an antidote to fear.”

— Michelle Obama

118. “Inspiration on its own was shallow; you had to back it up with hard work.”

— Michelle Obama

119. “And heaven, as I envisioned it, had to be a place full of jazz.”

— Michelle Obama

120. “There’s no expert on this planet who says that the government telling people what to do actually does any good with this issue, this is going to require an effort on everyone’s part.”

— Michelle Obama

121. “I believe that each of us-no matter what our age or background or walk of life-each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.”

— Michelle Obama

122. “Even my husband is happier when I’m happy. He has always said, “You figure out what you want to do,” because he’s discovered that personal happiness is connected to everything.”

— Michelle Obama

123. “Change happens one person at a time.”

— Michelle Obama

124. “One light feeds another. One strong family lends strength to more. One engaged community can ignite those around it. This is the power of the light we carry.”

— Michelle Obama

125. “The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.”

— Michelle Obama

126. “The easiest way to disregard a woman’s voice is to package her as a scold.”

— Michelle Obama

127. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s the power of using your voice. I tried my best to speak the truth and shed light on the stories of people who are often brushed aside.”

— Michelle Obama

128. “Childhood obesity isn’t some simple, discrete issue. There’s no one cause we can pinpoint. There’s no one program we can fund to make it go away. Rather, it’s an issue that touches on every aspect of how we live and how we work.”

— Michelle Obama

129. “At fifty-four, I am still in progress, and I hope that I always will be.”

— Michelle Obama

130. “And there’s grace in being willing to know and hear others. This, for me, is how we become.”

— Michelle Obama

131. “Women endure entire lifetimes of these indignities – in the form of catcalls, groping, assault, oppression. These things injure us. They sap our strength. Some of the cuts are so small they’re barely visible. Others are huge and gaping, leaving scars that never heal. Either way, they accumulate. We carry them everywhere, to and from school and work, at home while raising our children, at our places of worship, anytime we try to advance.”

— Michelle Obama

132. “My most important title is Mom in Chief.”

— Michelle Obama

133. “Failure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result. It’s vulnerability that breeds with self-doubt and then is escalated, often deliberately, by fear.”

— Michelle Obama

134. “It’s hard to put into words what sometimes you pick up in the ether, the quiet, cruel nuances of not belonging- the subtle cues that tell you to not risk anything, to find your people and just stay put.”

— Michelle Obama

135. “What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end.”

— Michelle Obama

136. “An educational foundation is only part of the equation. In order for creativity to flourish and imagination to take hold, we also need to expose our children to the arts from a very young age.”

— Michelle Obama

137. “I wasn’t going to let one person’s opinion dislodge everything I thought I knew about myself. Instead, I switched my method without changing my goal.”

— Michelle Obama

138. “Kids wake up each day believing in the goodness of things, in the magic of what might be. They’re uncynical, believers at their core. We owe it to them to stay strong and keep working to create a more fair and humane world. For them, we need to remain both tough and hopeful, to acknowledge that there’s more growing to be done.”

— Michelle Obama

139. “To me, with age, everything has gotten better. You have way more control; you know yourself better.”

— Michelle Obama

140. “There’s an age-old maxim in the black community: You’ve got to be twice as good to get half as far.”

— Michelle Obama

141. “Most of us lived in a state of constant calibration, tweaking one area of life in hopes of bringing more steadiness to another.”

— Michelle Obama

142. “Here’s a memory, which like most memories is imperfect and subjective – collected long ago like a beach pebble and slipped into the pocket of my mind.”

— Michelle Obama

143. “We were planting seeds of change, the fruit of which we might never see. We had to be patient.”

— Michelle Obama

144. “The more popular you became, the more haters you acquired.”

— Michelle Obama

145. “The lesson being that in life you control what you can.”

— Michelle Obama

146. “So we know that it’s not enough for us to simply encourage more people to study abroad. We also need to make sure that they can actually afford it.”

— Michelle Obama

147. “I am desperate for change – now – not in 8 years or 12 years, but right now.”

— Michelle Obama

148. “I now tried out a new hypothesis: It was possible that I was more in charge of my happiness than I was allowing myself to be.”

— Michelle Obama

149. “Let me tell you something. For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country, because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”

— Michelle Obama

150. “Even if we give parents all the information they need and we improve school meals and build brand new supermarkets on every corner, none of that matters if when families step into a restaurant, they can’t make a healthy choice.”

— Michelle Obama