The future rewards those who press on. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on
Spoken byBarack ObamaBorn 1961 · 44th President of the United States, 2009–2017
✓Attribution status: Confirmed word-for-word against the White House transcript — with an ellipsis the quote cards don’t mark.✓Reuse status: Free to reuse
Obama said this at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C., on 24 September 2011. Every word is his and the White House transcript confirms it — but the version that circulates is a condensation: four sentences are silently cut from the middle, and his “I am going to press on” is contracted to “I’m going to press on.”
“The future rewards those who press on. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on” Barack Obama, Remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner, Washington, D.C., 24 September 2011. Note: the widely shared version omits the four sentences about jobs, equality, children and struggling families. Via Quotle.info
Can you use it?
✓ Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.
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In context
Evoking the world of Barack Obama — 44th President of the United States (2009–2017). Theme: "The future rewards those who press on. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
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Provenance
The source
Source
Remarks by the President at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner
Delivered
24 September 2011 · Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.
Released by
The White House, Office of the Press Secretary
Status
U.S. Government work — not copyright protected
So I don’t know about you, CBC, but the future rewards those who press on. (Applause.) With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. (Applause.) I’m going to press on for equality. (Applause.) I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. (Applause.) I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on. (Applause.)
I expect all of you to march with me and press on. (Applause.) Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. (Applause.) Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. We are going to press on. We’ve got work to do, CBC. (Applause.)
condensed on quote sites
The famous four sentences are all here — but not consecutively. Between “the future rewards those who press on” and “I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself” sit four sentences about jobs, equality, children and struggling families. The quote card removes them without an ellipsis.
The same text is independently archived by the University of California’s American Presidency Project ↗, whose 24 September 2011 document carries “the future rewards those who press on,” “I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself” and “put on your marching shoes.”
Contemporary reporting quoted the lines the same weekend: CBS News ↗ covered the speech to roughly 3,000 people and quoted both “the future rewards those who press on” and “I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself.”
The condensation enters through quote aggregators. AZQuotes ↗ renders the stitched four-sentence version with no speech, date or source attached — the form in which most people meet it.
✓Public domain
This is not public domain because of its age — it’s from 2011. It’s public domain because it is a work of the U.S. Government: remarks by the President released by the White House Office of the Press Secretary. The White House site states plainly that “government-produced materials appearing on this site are not copyright protected” ↗. Quote and reuse freely; the courtesy of naming the occasion still applies.
Fact-check
What the quote cards changed
This is the rare famous-name quote that survives scrutiny: Obama really said all of it, in this order, on a datable night. The problem isn’t who — it’s the invisible edit.
✕
WordingThe missing four sentences condensed
In the room, “the future rewards those who press on” is followed by four sentences naming what he intends to press on for: “jobs… equality… the sake of our children… the sake of all those families who are struggling right now.” The popular version deletes all four and closes the gap without an ellipsis, turning a policy argument into a personal-grit slogan. Compare the transcript ↗.
✕
Wording“I’m” vs “I am” misquoted
The closing sentence in the transcript is “I am going to press on” — the uncontracted form, carrying the stress. Quote cards render it “I’m going to press on.” Minor, but it’s a change, and it’s the kind that spreads unchecked once a graphic does.
✕
ContextThe pep-talk framing flattened
It circulates as motivational self-help. It was in fact a defensive, pointed speech to Black political leaders who had criticised Obama over concessions to Republicans and over Black unemployment then running at 16.7 percent, per CBS News ↗ — and its neighbouring lines (“stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying”) drew real backlash.
✕
AttributionBarack Obama correct
No competing claimant, no older source, no fabrication. Every clause is verbatim Obama, confirmed in two independent transcripts of the same 24 September 2011 event, including the American Presidency Project ↗.
✓Verdict: genuine words, edited packaging. Obama said every one of these sentences on 24 September 2011 — but not back-to-back. Read them as delivered ↗ and it stops being a fridge magnet about perseverance and becomes what it was: a president under fire telling his own base he wasn’t going to sulk about it.
Context
Why it mattered
By September 2011 Obama was taking sustained fire from Black political leaders — over concessions to Republicans in the debt-ceiling fight, and over Black unemployment sitting at 16.7 percent, close to double the national rate. Representative Emanuel Cleaver had called a budget compromise a “sugar-coated Satan sandwich”; Representative Maxine Waters complained his bus tour had skipped Black districts. The Phoenix Awards Dinner put him in front of about 3,000 of exactly those people, as CBS News reported ↗.
So he reached for the pulpit. The passage arrives directly after he quotes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on “patient and firm determination,” and it builds — press on for jobs, for equality, for our children, for struggling families — before the turn inward: no time for self-pity, no time to complain. Then the sting: take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes, stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying.
It reads as a slogan about grit. It was a president telling his own base to stop criticising him and start marching.
Read the full story
The next lines are the reason the speech is remembered at all, and they are the ones the quote cards drop. “Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying” drew loud applause in the room and immediate criticism outside it — some heard the bedroom-slippers image as trading on old stereotypes, and some Black lawmakers objected publicly to being told to quit complaining.
That is the real shape of the quotation: not a motivational aside but the hinge of a speech that asked a frustrated constituency to absorb its frustration and keep working. Strip out the four sentences about jobs and equality and struggling families, and you remove the thing he was pressing on for — which is precisely what makes the popular version feel so weightless.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Born 1961 · 44th President of the United States (2009–2017)
Barack Obama served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, the first Black American elected to the office. A former community organizer, constitutional law lecturer and U.S. Senator from Illinois, he built his political rise substantially on his voice — the 2004 convention keynote, the 2008 campaign, and a cadence borrowed openly from the Black church and the civil rights pulpit. That inheritance is audible in this passage, which lands right after he quotes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and which he delivered in a preacher’s rhythm to a room of 3,000.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Primary source — Chicago
Obama, Barack. “Remarks by the President at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner.” Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C., 24 September 2011. The White House, Office of the Press Secretary. Archived at obamawhitehouse.archives.gov.
MLA (9th ed.)
Obama, Barack. “Remarks by the President at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner.” The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 24 Sept. 2011.
APA (7th ed.)
Obama, B. (2011, September 24). Remarks by the President at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner. The White House, Office of the Press Secretary.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The future rewards those who press on. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on’?” Last verified 15 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-future-rewards-those-who-press-on-i-dont-have-time-to