"The audacity of hope ~
"That was the best of the American spirit, I thought ~ having the audacity to believe despite all the evidence to the contrary that we could restore a sense of community to a nation torn by conflict; the gall to believe that despite personal setbacks, the loss of a job or an illness in the family or a childhood mired in poverty, we had some control ~ and therefore responsibility ~ over our own fate.
"It was that audacity, I thought, that joined us as one people.  It was that pervasive spirit of hope that tied my own family's story to the larger American story, and my own story to those of the voters I sought to represent."

Obama thinks about what Benjamin Franklin wrote to his mother, explaining why he had devoted so much of his time to public service:  "I would rather have it said, He lived usefully, than, He died rich."
Obama writes, "That's what satisfies me now, I think ~ being useful to my family and the people who elected me, leaving behind a legacy that will make our children's lives more hopeful than our own."

~  BARACK OBAMA, The AUDACITY of HOPE, 2006. THOUGHTS ON RECLAIMING THE AMERICAN DREAM, Random House, Inc.. "Sometimes, working in Washington, I feel I am meeting that goal.  At other times, it seems as if the goal recedes from me, and all the activity I engage in ~ the hearings and speeches and press conferences and position papers ~ are an exercise in vanity, useful to no one.
"When I find myself in such moods, I like to take a run along the Mall.  Usually I go in the early evening...After dark, not many people are out ~ perhaps a few couples taking a walk, or homeless men on benches, organizing their possessions.  Most of the time I stop at the Washington Monument, but sometimes I push on, across the street to the National World War II Memorial, then along the Reflecting Pool to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, then up the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial...."I look out over the Reflecting Pool, imagining the crowd stilled by Dr. King's mighty cadence, and then beyond that, to the floodlit obelisk and shining Capitol dome.
"And in that place, I think about America and those who built it.  This nation's founders, who somehow rose above petty ambitions and narrow calculations to imagine a nation unfurling across a continent."