Chris Rock Quotes

I want to prove that you don't have to come from Oxford University or Rada - and you don't have to have parents that support you - to succeed.

Circumstances have rarely favored great men. A lowly beginning is no bar to a great career. The boy who works his way through college may have a hard time of it, but he will learn how to work his way in life, and will usually take higher rank in school and in after life than his classmate who is the son of a millionaire.

Barack himself is very much a regular guy, not a silver spoon, incredibly smart, but, you know, he's a scholarship kid, made good use of the resources that were available to him, worked incredibly hard.

There is no obstacle in the path of young people who are poor or members of minority groups that hard work and preparation cannot cure.

I was taught that in this country if you work hard, you can do anything, and I don't see a lot of those principles in children's books today.

I went to school and made good grades and went to college. So I was afforded an opportunity through my parents' hard work that most people don't have.

Hard work and a good education will take you further than any government program.

A man with a silver spoon may get his share of supporters, but he can never be an inspiration for somebody! Patience and hard work are the key to every man's success.

The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.

And to the C students, I say, you too, can be President of the United States

And I say to you C students, you too can become President of the United States.

Every person has to keep in mind that they can grow up and reach the top, no matter where they are born, whether it's in Russia, in Ukraine, in Europe; they've still got the opportunity to show their talent and the culture of their people.

That's the spirit of America, right? Anybody from any background can make it anywhere with enough hard work.

You don't have to be born wealthy and have an aristocratic last name or have connections or all these things. If you have a dream, you can believe in something and work hard and struggle and fight for it and still have a chance to succeed.

I think that kids who are at smaller schools or don't have offers from big schools can look at my story and continue to work hard. I preach to them that it doesn't matter where you come from: it matters how you play and how you apply yourself.

People don't rise from nothing.

Abraham Lincoln comes from nothing, has no education, no money, lives in the middle of nowhere on the frontier. And despite the fact that he suffers one tragedy and one setback after another, through sheer force of will, he becomes something extraordinary: not only the president but the person who almost single-handedly united the country.

Outside of the family, education is the greatest determinant of social mobility.

There are people who are surprised at my politics and being a conservative and the rest of it. But the truth of the matter is, to my knowledge, I have never been overlooked or turned down for anything that I wanted to do that was being offered to me.

We know that Texas is more than a state. Texas has always been a promise. The promise that where you start has nothing to do with how far you can come.

My mother's passion for something more, to write a different destiny for a dirt-poor farmer's daughter, was to shape my entire life.

All I really had was my talent. Without that I wouldn't be welcome at the White House.

I got my degree. More importantly, I got a key to American opportunity. That's who we are - a nation that rewards ambition with opportunity. Where hard work can lead to success, no matter where you start.

The great doctors all got their education off dirt pavements and poverty - not marble floors and foundations.

I suggest that those groups whose culture and values stress delayed gratification - education, hard work, success, and ambition - are those groups that succeed in America, regardless of discrimination.