Charles B. Rangel Quotes

The fundamental, longtime American attitude has been to ask not where a person comes from but what are his personal qualities. On this basis men and women migrated from every quarter of the globe. By their hard work and their enormously varied talents they hewed a great nation out of a wilderness. By their dedication to liberty and equality they created a society reflecting man's most cherished ideas.

In grade school I was taught that the United States is a melting pot. People from all over the world come here for freedom and to pursue a better life. They arrive with next to nothing, work incredibly hard, learn a new language and new customs, and in a generation they become an integral part of our amazing nation.

I appreciate America as the land of opportunity. It's the land where you can see your dreams come true if you work hard. My parents are American.

America is always attracting people, from all over the earth.

I really feel that my life story is a continuation of the Great American Dream - the immigrant who comes to this country and is allowed to excel. How many other countries would let me do that?

Now we understand much more clearly. why people from all over the world want to come to New York and to America. It's called freedom.

I was born in an enemy country. Only in America can someone who came from that beginning do what I am doing. It would never happen in Germany or Japan.

America was and is the immigrant's dream.

This is one country. It has become that way because all people who have come here had an equal right to develop their talent.

Part of America's genius has always been its ability to absorb newcomers, to forge a national identity out of the disparate lot that arrived on our shore.

The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores

New York is celebrated as a leader in our nation's quest for progress because ours is a city built by the labor of a thousand different shades and accents.

We need to remain a nation that doesn't just welcome but that celebrates legal immigrants who come here seeking to pursue the American Dream.

The United States of America became the envy of the world because we welcomed the best and brightest minds from anywhere on the planet and gave them the opportunity to succeed.

Toronto is a very multicultural city, a place of immigrants, like my parents.

London is the most multicultural, mixed-race place on Earth.

One of America's strengths has always been its openness to the new: both new ideas and new people.

I've always loved New York City and the idea of a cultural exchange: the immigrants coming to America.

No country in Europe has a larger proportion of men and women of immigrant descent, mainly from the African continent and mainly Muslim: an estimated six to seven million of them, or more than 10% of the population.

The conventional wisdom is that people come to the United States, and immigration is so great, and they say, 'America, what a great country.' And a lot of that is true.

The first time I saw America was from my perch on the mast of a Spanish naval ship, where I could spot the Statue of Liberty reaching proudly into the open, endless American sky.

It's the story of New York. Storefronts change and languages change, but at the end of the day, people come here to find opportunity like my family did.

My family's story isn't special. What's special is the America that makes our story possible. Ours is a nation like no other, a place where great journeys can be made in a single generation. No matter who you are or where you come from, the path is always forward.

To be an American is to be part of the world because America, all the people of the world come to America.

Our theme for this year's festivities, Dreams and Challenges of Asian Pacific Americans, speaks to the many generations of Asian Pacific Americans who worked hard to overcome economic hardship, racism and other barriers in their pursuit of the American dream.