Barack Obama: “If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child.”

When we choose, when we make that decision, I do believe – and there is evidence for this – that the world gets incrementally better, and that is a worthy goal and it’s worth fighting for.

I’m going to insist that we can do better than we’re doing right now.

I think when we act on that basis, it doesn't always work out, but over time things do get better.

It is a decision about how do we face and embrace this finite amount of time we have on the planet.