Barack Obama

For America to succeed in the 21st century, we must have the most dynamic, educated workforce in the world.

I'm here to make sure that we talk about and then work towards giving every child every chance in life.

So giving a raise to $9 an hour would have a real impact on the standard of living for families like that.

Hopefully, we will all draw inspiration from this and remember why it is that we're lucky to be living in the greatest nation on Earth.

That's who we are; that's in our DNA.

Every member of Congress who agrees with the President that our nation is strong only when we have a thriving middle class should be strongly supportive of this effort.

Perfection has never been our goal.

I know the awardees would agree that this honor belongs not just to themselves, but to everybody who supports them.

We want to help seed more and more partnerships.

We may not be able to help everybody, but if we help a few, then that propels progress forward.

The single most important thing is unconditional love for your child.

Thank you for all that you do to make our communities and our country stronger.

If we do that, I'm confident that we will write the next great chapter in our American story.

In this country, we look out for one another.

In America, we have the benefit of living in this big and diverse nation.

As the President has often said in the past, there are important steps we can take as a country to keep guns out of the wrong hands and get weapons of war off the street.

A child's zip code should never determine her destiny.

The average worker who would benefit from a rise in the minimum wage to $9 an hour brought home 46 percent of his or her household's total wage and salary income in 2011.

Today we honor you, we celebrate you, and most of all, we have a chance to say thank you.

If you're willing to work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to find a good job.

We must also recognize that it's not enough to debate the role of government in reducing violence.

That's wrong, and we should fix it.

The head of a household of four who has a full-time, minimum wage job is actually raising his family below the poverty line.

Thank you for your extraordinary service and I'm so glad that we had an opportunity to visit once again before you move on to even better things.

I want to extend the warmest greetings to my good friend, President Napolitano, on a return visit to the White House.