General, Royal Woman

53 sayings from First Lady Michelle Obama that will give you life

First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated her final birthday at the White House on Tuesday. Our fabulous FLOTUS turned 53 ( and doesn’t look a day over 30). To commemorate this special moment, we’ve gathered 53 of some of our favorite quotes from our favorite Royal Woman and First Lady!

“Choose people who lift you up.”
“Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.”
“When you go low, we go high.”
” Don’t let anyone speak for you and rely on others to fight for you.”
“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.”
“Just do what works for you, because there will always be someone who think differently.”
“Empower yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise.”
“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.”
“I want kids to know: Don’t wait for somebody to come along and tell you you’re special. Because that may never happen.”
“Find people who will make you better.”
“Through my education, I didn’t just develop skills, I didn’t just develop the ability to learn, but I developed confidence.”
“Not being afraid to be wrong – I had to learn how to do that.”
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
“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.”
“What I notice about men, all men, is that their order is me, my family, God is in there somewhere, but me is first.”
“Empower yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise.”
“You have a bad day, you go to bed, you wake up, and you work a little harder.”
“Every scar that you have is a reminder not just that you got hurt, but that you survived.”
“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 that you choose. It’s with the people you surround yourselves with. “
“Instead of letting your hardships and failures discourage or exhaust you, let them inspire you.”
“There is no boy at this age that is cute enough or interesting enough to stop you from getting your education. If I had worried about who liked me and who thought I was cute at your age, I wouldn’t be married to the president of the United States.”
“I watched with Congress on legislation, gave speeches to CEOs, military generals, Hollywood executives; but, I also worked to ensure that my efforts would resonate with kids and family and that meant doing things in a creative and unconventional way.”
“So yea I planted a garden and hula-hooped on the White House lawn with kids; I did ‘mom dancing’ on T.V., I celebrated military kids with Kermit the Frog, I asked folks across the country to wear their alma mater’s t-shirts for college signing day. And at the end of the day, by staying true to the me I’ve always known, I found that this journey has been incredibly freeing because no matter what happened I had the peace of mind of knowing that all of the chatter, the name-calling, the doubting, all of it was just noise. It did not define me.”
“I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values and follow my own moral compass, the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.”
“We should always have three friends in our lives- one who walks ahead who we look up to and follow; one who walks besides us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we cleared the way.”
“Success isn’t about how much money you make; its about the difference you make in people’s lives.”
“You have to practice success. Success doesn’t just show up. If you aren’t practicing success today, you won’t wake up in 20 years and be successful, because you won’t have developed the habits of success, which are small things like finishing what you start, putting a lot of effort into everything you do, being on time, treating people well.”
“I never cut class. I loved getting A’s, I like being smart. I like being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world.”
“To succumb to feelings of disparity and anger only means that in the end we lose. But here’s the thing, our history provides us with a better story, a better blueprint on how we can.”
“There is no magic to achievement. It’s really about hard work, choices, and persistence.”
“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.”
“There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made.”
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.”
“When women and girls rise, their communities and their countries rise with them.”
“Look at the heart. Look at the soul. Look at how the guy treats his mother and what he says about women. How he acts with children he doesn’t know. And, more important, how does he treat you?”
“My happiness is tied to how I feel about myself.”
“My mother always thought me ‘girl you better keep it moving, you better brush it off.”
“Cute’s good. But cute only lasts for so long, and then it’s, ‘Who are you as a person?”
“Words matter. And they matter most to our kids, our young people and the words that we say moving forward, all of us, it matters, which is one of the reasons Barack and I are so supportive of this transition.”
“If we want maturity, we have to be mature. If we want a nation that feels hopeful, then we have to speak in hopeful terms. We have to show love and empathy.”
“If we want smart leaders, we have to be smart voters.”
“Find people who will make you better.”
“I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn…”
“We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.”
“You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.”
“People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.”
“We’re so afraid of each other. Color, wealth, these things that don’t matter still play too much of a role on how we see one another and its sad because the thing that least defines us as people is the color of our skin, its the size of our bank accounts… none of that matters.”
“Let me live my life out loud, so people can then see and judge for themselves. Live it out loud (life), don’t dilute, don’t dial it back , don’t apologize for it, it speaks for itself.”
“If you or your parents are immigrants, know that you are part of a proud American tradition – the infusion of new cultures, talents and ideas, generation after generation, that has made us the greatest country on earth.”
“Just as a professional, you know that if you want to get anything done, you can’t do everything and you’re not going to please everybody.”
“But, as potentially the first African American first lady, I was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations; conversations sometimes rooted in the fears and misperceptions of others. Was I too loud, or too angry, or too emasculating? Or was I too soft, too much of a mom, not enough of a career woman?”
(Would you ever run for office?-Oprah) “No, look that’s one thing I don’t do, I don’t make stuff up, I’m not coy. I’m pretty direct. If I were interested in it, I would say it. I don’t believe in playing games. It’s not something I would do, but it also speaks to the fact that people don’t really understand how hard this is.”
“How hard you work matters much more than how much you make.”
“Being your first lady has been the greatest honor of my life, and I hope I’ve made you proud.”