Top 450 Michelle Obama Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “Life was teaching me that progress and change happen slowly. Not in two years, four years, or even a lifetime. We were planting seeds of change, the fruit of which we might never see. We had to be patient.”

— Michelle Obama

152. “My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‘blackness’ than ever before.”

— Michelle Obama

153. “Oh, I can’t play soccer, and I’m not a great swimmer. I won’t drown, but you won’t see me doing laps in a pool.”

— Michelle Obama

154. “I knew from my own life experience that when someone shows genuine interest in your learning and development, even if only for ten minutes in a busy day, it matters. It matters especially for women, for minorities, for anyone society is quick to overlook.”

— Michelle Obama

155. “What I’ve learned is this: All of them have had doubters. Some continue to have roaring, stadium-sized collections of critics and naysayers who will shout I told you so at every little misstep or mistake. The noise doesn’t go away, but the most successful people I know have figured out how to live with it, to lean on the people who believe in them, and to push onward with their goals.”

— Michelle Obama

156. “And I come here as a daughter, raised on the South Side of Chicago – by a father who was a blue-collar city worker and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me.”

— Michelle Obama

157. “And the first thing we have to do is vote. Hey, no, not just once in a while. Not just when my husband or somebody you like is on the ballot. But in every election at every level, all of the time.”

— Michelle Obama

158. “It hurts to live after someone has died. It just does.”

— Michelle Obama

159. “Optics would always rule our lives.”

— Michelle Obama

160. “I try to have no absolute nos. I love french fries, I like a good burger, and I like pie. And that’s okay.”

— Michelle Obama

161. “Don’t worry about what candidates have done or said, just vote for the Democrats. Then, afterwards, you can go eat fried chicken.”

— Michelle Obama

162. “I like to talk about my obsession with french fries because I don’t want people to think that ‘Let’s Move’ is about complete, utter deprivation. It’s about moderation and real-life changes and ideas that really work for families.”

— Michelle Obama

163. “Her goal was to push us out into the world. “I’m not raising babies,” she’d tell us. “I’m raising adults.”

— Michelle Obama

164. “It’s always positive to hear how many people are willing to step up – whether it is the employment community, mental health community, or medical community.”

— Michelle Obama

165. “What I want to say, then, is stay vigorous and faithful, humble and empathetic. Tell the truth, do your best by others, keep perspective, understand history and context. Stay prudent, stay tough, and stay outraged. But more than anything, don’t forget to do the work.”

— Michelle Obama

166. “I try to be thoughtful about spreading the wealth: young designers. Mixing things up is important to me.”

— Michelle Obama

167. “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction.”

— Michelle Obama

168. “We can aim to create a culture, where kids ask for healthy options instead of resisting them.”

— Michelle Obama

169. “I tell my kids, ‘I am thinking about you every other minute of my day.’”

— Michelle Obama

170. “I joke that I stick with the job because it covers my insurance, but the reality is that my career has always been very important to me.”

— Michelle Obama

171. “I was not raised with wealth or resources or any social standing to speak of.”

— Michelle Obama

172. “I’ve always been a closet jock. With exercising, the more you do it, the more you get into it. And the more you see results, the more you’re pushing for the next level.”

— Michelle Obama

173. “My mother maintained the sort of parental mind-set that I now recognize as brilliant and nearly impossible to emulate – kind of unflappable Zen neutrality... She wasn’t quick to judge and she wasn’t quick to meddle. Instead, she monitored our moods and bore benevolent witness to whatever travails or triumphs a day might bring... When we’d done something great, we received just enough praise to know she was happy with us, but never so much that it became the reason we did what we did.”

— Michelle Obama

174. “Everything was not lost. This was the message we needed to carry forward. It’s what I truly believed. It wasn’t ideal, but it was our reality – the world as it is. We needed now to be resolute, to keep our feet pointed in the direction of progress.”

— Michelle Obama

175. “My sense is that being a First Lady is a full-time job, but I’ll know more when the time comes.”

— Michelle Obama

176. “We have to make sure that our kids still feel good about themselves no matter what their weight, no matter how they feel. We need to make sure that our kids know that we love them no matter who they are, what they look like, what they’re eating.”

— Michelle Obama

177. “Read books by people whose perspective is different from yours, listen to voices you haven’t heard before, look for narratives that are new to you. In them and with them, you might end up finding more room for yourself.”

— Michelle Obama

178. “I’ve always tried to make sure that what I do really connects with the broader agenda of what my husband is trying to do.”

— Michelle Obama

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

— Michelle Obama

180. “Ultimately this issue is on us. We’re the ones who make the decisions about what our kids eat.”

— Michelle Obama

181. “At the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values, and your vision, and the life experiences that make you who you are.”

— Michelle Obama

182. “It was painful, but time pushed us all forward.”

— Michelle Obama

183. “People want to feel hopeful.”

— Michelle Obama

184. “We need to support Mary Burke for Governor!”

— Michelle Obama

185. “We all need to start making some changes to how our families eat. Now, everyone loves a good Sunday dinner. Me included. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is when we eat Sunday dinner Monday through Saturday.”

— Michelle Obama

186. “They were me, as I’d once been. And I was them, as they could be.”

— Michelle Obama

187. “The unknown is where possibility glitters.”

— Michelle Obama

188. “I believe that each of us carries a bit of inner brightness, something entirely unique and individual. A flame that’s worth protecting. When we are able to recognize our own light, we become empowered to use it. When we learn to foster what’s unique in the people around us, we become better able to build compassionate communities and make meaningful change.”

— Michelle Obama

189. “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

190. “Child hunger and child obesity are really just two sides of the same coin. Both rob our children of the energy, the strength and the stamina they need to succeed in school and in life. And that, in turn, robs our country of so much of their promise.”

— Michelle Obama

191. “I’ve learned that it’s harder to hate up close.”

— Michelle Obama

192. “We’re going to have to change our traditions, our history.”

— Michelle Obama

193. “You can be a good mom and still work out, get your rest, have a career – or not. My mother encouraged me to find that balance.”

— Michelle Obama

194. “My mother’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, her intelligence reflected in my daughters.”

— Michelle Obama

195. “Time, as far as my father was concerned, was a gift you gave to other people.”

— Michelle Obama

196. “It is my hope that our garden’s story-and the stories of gardens across America-will inspire families, schools, and communities to try their own hand at gardening and enjoy all the gifts of health, discovery, and connection a garden can bring.”

— Michelle Obama

197. “Grief and resilience live together. I learned this not just once as First Lady but many times over.”

— Michelle Obama

198. “If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others. I wasn’t interested in slotting myself into a passive role, waiting for Barack’s team to give me direction.”

— Michelle Obama

199. “A word now about the bar exam: It’s a necessary chore, a rite of passage for any just-hatched lawyer wishing to practice, and though the content and structure of the test itself vary somewhat from state to state, the experience of taking it – a two-day, twelve-hour exam meant to prove your knowledge of everything from contract law to arcane rules about secured transactions – is pretty much universally recognized as hellish.”

— Michelle Obama

200. “You don’t really know how attached you are until you move away, until you’ve experienced what it means to be dislodged, a cork floating on the ocean of another place.”

— Michelle Obama