Michelle Obama Inspires with Memoir ‘Becoming’

Michelle Obama is best known as the United States’ inspirational former First Lady. She wrote in her best-selling memoir, Becoming, and was the December 2018 best book club pick by Oprah. Here we share 21 of her incredible quotes on being a mother, a successful woman, and a true partner to her for POTUS husband, Barack Obama.

Enjoy.

• As it should be: “Do we settle for the world as it is, or do we work for the world as it should be?”

• Authentic voice: There’s power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there’s grace in being willing to know and hear others.

• Belonging: “I am coming down from the mountaintop to tell every young person that is poor and working-class, and has been told regardless of the color of your skin that you don’t belong, don’t listen to them. They don’t even know how they got at those seats.”

• Confidence: “Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude.”

• Evolving: “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.”

• Facing challenges: “You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it’s important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.”

• Failure: Failure is an important part of your growth and developing resilience. Don’t be afraid to fail.

• Go higher: When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level. No, our motto is when they go low, we go high.

• Having it all: “That whole ‘so you can have it all.’ Nope, not at the same time. That’s a lie. And it’s not always enough to lean in, because that s*it doesn’t work all the time.”

• Hear their story: “When somebody walks up to me, don’t look around, don’t look beyond them. Look them in the eye, take in the story.”

• Hungry to succeed: Instead of letting your hardships and failures discourage or exhaust you, let them inspire you. Let them make you even hungrier to succeed.

• Moral compass: I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values. and follow my own moral compass, then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.”

• On your own: “Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.”

• Out of a stuck place: “It was one thing to get yourself out of a stuck place, I realized. It was another thing entirely to try and get the place itself unstuck.”

• Positivity: You have to fill your bucket with positive energy—and if you have people hanging around you that are bringing you down and not lifting you up, whether that’s your ‘boo’ or your best friend—you have to learn how to push these people to the side.

• Possibility of hope: Don’t ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility. Make decisions based on what should happen, not what shouldn’t.

• Protect those freedoms: “You cannot take your freedoms for granted. Just like generations who have come before you, you have to do your part to preserve and protect those freedoms; you need to be preparing yourself to add your voice to our national conversation.”

• Reaching higher: We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.

• Role models: “Strong men, strong men, men who are truly role models, don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful.”

• Something you own: “Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.”

• Use your voice: “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s the power of using your voice.”