Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, born on January 17, 1964, is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 alongside her husband, former President Barack Obama. Raised on the South Side of Chicago and a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Michelle began her career at the law firm Sidley Austin. As first lady, she became a role model and advocated for issues such as poverty awareness, education, and healthy living. Recognized for her fashion sense, she was the first African-American woman in the role. Post-presidency, Michelle has maintained influence, being recognized as the most admired woman in America in Gallup’s 2020 poll for the third consecutive year.
Michelle Obama Quotes
1. “The only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them.”
— Michelle Obama
2. “There is no magic to achievement. It’s really about hard work, choices, and persistence.”
— Michelle Obama
3. “Success isn’t about how much money you make. It’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.”
— Michelle Obama
4. “Choose people who lift you up.”
— Michelle Obama
5. “Women and girls can do whatever they want. There is no limit to what we as women can accomplish.”
— Michelle Obama
6. “Always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody says distract you from your goals.”
— Michelle Obama
7. “The benefits of studying abroad are almost endless.”
— Michelle Obama
8. “You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.”
— Michelle Obama
9. “Value everyone’s contribution and treat everyone with respect.”
— Michelle Obama
10. “As women, we must stand up for ourselves. We must stand up for each other. We must stand up for justice for all.”
— Michelle Obama
11. “When they go low, we go high.”
— Michelle Obama
12. “We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.”
— Michelle Obama
13. “Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.”
— Michelle Obama
14. “You’ve got to make choices that make sense for you because there’s always going to be somebody who’ll think you should do something differently.”
— Michelle Obama
15. “No matter who you are, no matter where you come from, you are beautiful.”
— Michelle Obama
16. “Education is the single-most important civil rights issue that we face today.”
— Michelle Obama
17. “One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.”
— Michelle Obama
18. “Success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.”
— Michelle Obama
19. “There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made.”
— Michelle Obama
20. “No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.”
— Michelle Obama
21. “Walk away from ‘friendships’ that make you feel small and insecure, and seek out people who inspire you and support you.”
— Michelle Obama
22. “Do not die in the history of your past hurts and past experiences, but live in the now and future of your destiny.”
— Michelle Obama
23. “I never cut class. I loved getting A’s, I liked being smart. I liked being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world.”
— Michelle Obama
24. “Hope and change are hard-fought things.”
— Michelle Obama
25. “Don’t let anyone speak for you, and don’t rely on others to fight for you.”
— Michelle Obama
26. “Childhood obesity issue is critically important to me because it’s critically important to the health and success of our kids, and of this nation, ultimately.”
— Michelle Obama
27. “I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.”
— Michelle Obama
28. “Communities and countries and ultimately the world are only as strong as the health of their women.”
— Michelle Obama
29. “To be a good parent, you need to take care of yourself so that you can have the physical and emotional energy to take care of your family.”
— Michelle Obama
30. “We should always have three friends in our lives-one who walk ahead who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we’ve cleared the way.”
— Michelle Obama
31. “We’ve got a responsibility to live up to the legacy of those who came before us by doing all that we can to help those who come after us.”
— Michelle Obama
32. “Find people who will make you better.”
— Michelle Obama
33. “Every girl, no matter where she lives, deserves the opportunity to develop the promise inside of her.”
— Michelle Obama
34. “Don’t be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered.”
— Michelle Obama
35. “How hard you work matters more than how much you make.”
— Michelle Obama
36. “Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we’re going to have to change our traditions, our history; we’re going to have to move into a different place as a nation.”
— Michelle Obama
37. “Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude.”
— Michelle Obama
38. “Just keep focusing on the work that you’re doing. Focus on what’s in front of you today. And don’t read the papers, just go campaign. Just do your thing. Talk to people directly.”
— Michelle Obama
39. “My happiness isn’t connected to my husband’s or my boss’s or my children’s behavior. You have control over your own actions, your own well-being.”
— Michelle Obama
40. “Doing the impossible is the history of this nation. It is how this country was built.”
— Michelle Obama
41. “We have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.”
— Michelle Obama
42. “Being a healthy woman isn’t about getting on a scale or measuring your waistline. We need to start focusing on what matters-on how we feel, and how we feel about ourselves.”
— Michelle Obama
43. “Learning through the arts reinforces critical academic skills in reading, language arts and math and provides students with the skills to creatively solve problems.”
— Michelle Obama
44. “I was too worried about the grades and I should have been more worried about learning.”
— Michelle Obama
45. “Wounded Warriors tell me they’re not just going to walk again, they’re going to run, and they’re going to run marathons!”
— Michelle Obama
46. “Good health is multifaceted – it’s physical, it’s internal, it’s my diet, and my emotional state. It’s all tied in together.”
— Michelle Obama
47. “Grief and resilience live together.”
— Michelle Obama
48. “I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life who taught me about quiet strength and dignity.”
— Michelle Obama
49. “For me exercise is more than just physical, it’s therapeutic.”
— Michelle Obama
50. “Friendships between women, as any woman will tell you, are built of a thousand small kindnesses… swapped back and forth and over again.”
— Michelle Obama
51. “The arts can enrich all of us in this nation as individuals. The arts can enrich all of our communities and the country. And the arts can connect us to each other like nothing else can.”
— Michelle Obama
52. “For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.”
— Michelle Obama
53. “Be passionate about something and lean to that strength.”
— Michelle Obama
54. “If we truly believe that every girl in every corner of the globe is worthy of an education as our own daughters and granddaughters are, then we need to deepen our commitment to these efforts.”
— Michelle Obama
55. “People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.”
— Michelle Obama
56. “Good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don’t hurt.”
— Michelle Obama
57. “Am I good enough? Yes, I am.”
— Michelle Obama
58. “He’s always asking: ‘Is that new? I haven’t seen that before.’ It’s like, Why don’t you mind your own business? Solve world hunger. Get out of my closet.”
— Michelle Obama
59. “I am only as good as my children are.”
— Michelle Obama
60. “There’s a power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there’s a grace in being willing to know and hear others. This, for me, is how we become.”
— Michelle Obama
61. “All of us are driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won’t do – that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.”
— Michelle Obama
62. “My message to women: Do what makes you feel good, because there’ll always be someone who thinks you should do it differently. Whether your choices are hits or misses, at least they’re your own.”
— Michelle Obama
63. “We need all hands on deck, and that means clearing hurdles for women and girls as they navigate careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.”
— Michelle Obama
64. “It’s all a process, steps along a path. Becoming requires equal parts patience and rigor. Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there’s more growing to be done.”
— Michelle Obama
65. “It’s all about patience and persistence – you often have to expose a child to a new food numerous times before he or she will begin to like it. So keep trying!”
— Michelle Obama
66. “I have never been proud of America my entire adult life.”
— Michelle Obama
67. “The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it. Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.”
— Michelle Obama
68. “My goal is to be a great-looking 70-year-old! I won’t mind being 70, but I want people to say, “You’re 70?””
— Michelle Obama
69. “I can make choices that make me happy, and it will ripple and benefit my kids, my husband, and my physical health. That’s hard for women to own; we’re not taught to do that.”
— Michelle Obama
70. “I tell this to my girls all the time: This journey we’re on is a once–in–a–lifetime opportunity.”
— Michelle Obama
71. “Do we settle for the world as it is, or do we work for the world as it should be?”
— Michelle Obama
72. “Whether an illness affects your heart, your leg, or your brain, it’s still an illness, and there should be no distinction.”
— Michelle Obama
73. “We were so young, so in love, and so in debt.”
— Michelle Obama
74. “My happiness is tied to how I feel about myself.”
— Michelle Obama
75. “What I tell my kids is, ‘I’m preparing you for college and for life. So, having independence, knowing how to set your own boundaries, figuring out how to make that balance. We still have screen-time rules.’”
— Michelle Obama
76. “You’ve got to be twice as good to get half as far.”
— Michelle Obama
77. “In our house we don’t take ourselves too seriously, and laughter is the best form of unity, I think, in a marriage.”
— Michelle Obama
78. “Service is a limitless opportunity, it is the reason why we breathe.”
— Michelle Obama
79. “I felt sometimes like a swan on a lake, knowing that my job was in part to glide and appear serene, while underwater I never stopped pedaling my legs.”
— Michelle Obama
80. “Happiness for me is when my kids are good and when my family is whole.”
— Michelle Obama
81. “I never thought I’d be on Sesame Street with Elmo and Big Bird. I’m still thrilled. I’m on a high.”
— Michelle Obama
82. “If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others.”
— Michelle Obama
83. “I think that people are tired. They’re tired of the same old kind of politics. People want a new tone to politics.”
— Michelle Obama
84. “When I’m unhappy with something, people know because I don’t want to hold on to it. I’d rather deal immediately with the stuff that bothers me, so using my network – my girlfriends, my husband, my mom – I talk a lot, I vent.”
— Michelle Obama
85. “Exercise is really important to me – it’s therapeutic. So if I’m ever feeling tense or stressed or like I’m about to have a meltdown, I’ll put on my iPod and head to the gym or out on a bike ride along Lake Michigan with the girls.”
— Michelle Obama
86. “And then there’s this guy, Barack Obama, who lost – I could take up a whole afternoon talking about his failures, but – he lost his first race for Congress, and now he gets to call himself my husband.”
— Michelle Obama
87. “I always want to be on the cusp of being in the best shape that I can be.”
— Michelle Obama
88. “Together, we can help make sure that every family that walks into a restaurant can make an easy, healthy choice.”
— Michelle Obama
89. “The beauty of my job is that I get to see more of that America. And that feeds me.”
— Michelle Obama
90. “I think that mentoring is such a critical part of the role I can play in my position. I see how little bits of exposure and big bits of exposure really change my girls significantly, and I want that for more girls around the country and the world.”
— Michelle Obama
91. “If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here. I guarantee you that.”
— Michelle Obama
92. “There is nothing more important to this nation’s future than investing in our young people.”
— Michelle Obama
93. “I am a sleeper. When you wake up at 4:30 in the morning to do a workout, you’re sleepy at 8 in the evening. By 10 o’clock at the latest, I’m in bed.”
— Michelle Obama
94. “We explain when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you do not stoop to their level. Our motto is when they go low, you go high.”
— Michelle Obama
95. “When I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.”
— Michelle Obama
96. “For every door that’s been opened to me, I’ve tried to open my door to others.”
— Michelle Obama
97. “Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child – 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
98. “If I can have any impact, I want women to feel good about themselves and have fun with fashion.”
— Michelle Obama
99. “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
100. “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
101. “Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there’s more growing to be done.”
— Michelle Obama
102. “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
103. “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
104. “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
105. “Barack didn’t pledge riches, only a life that would be interesting. On that promise he delivered.”
— Michelle Obama
106. “Barack is one of the smartest people you will ever encounter who will deign to enter this messy thing called politics.”
— Michelle Obama
107. “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
108. “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
109. “Our job is, first and foremost, to make sure our family is whole.”
— Michelle Obama
110. “I know what it feels like to struggle to get the education that you need.”
— Michelle Obama
111. “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
112. “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
113. “And heaven, as I envisioned it, had to be a place full of jazz.”
— Michelle Obama
114. “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
115. “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
116. “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
117. “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
118. “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
119. “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
120. “My most important title is Mom in Chief.”
— Michelle Obama
121. “And there’s grace in being willing to know and hear others. This, for me, is how we become.”
— Michelle Obama
122. “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
123. “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
124. “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
125. “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
126. “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
127. “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
128. “To me, with age, everything has gotten better. You have way more control; you know yourself better.”
— Michelle Obama
129. “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
130. “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
131. “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
132. “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
133. “Failure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result.”
— Michelle Obama
134. “The lesson being that in life you control what you can.”
— Michelle Obama
135. “I am desperate for change – now – not in 8 years or 12 years, but right now.”
— Michelle Obama
136. “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
137. “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
138. “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
139. “Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down, and trust your instincts. 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
140. “Bullies were scared people hiding inside scary people.”
— Michelle Obama
141. “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
142. “My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‘blackness’ than ever before.”
— Michelle Obama
143. “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
144. “The more popular you became, the more haters you acquired.”
— Michelle Obama
145. “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
146. “Inspiration on its own was shallow; you had to back it up with hard work.”
— Michelle Obama
147. “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
148. “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
149. “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
150. “It hurts to live after someone has died. It just does.”
— Michelle Obama
