Betty Boothroyd Quotes

In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another.

All men will commence in their present rank and promotion will be open to all men alike, without any distinctions or qualifications, political or otherwise.

Everyone is born equally capable but lacks equal opportunity.

I did not want to be the best black man of the year; I wanted to be the best man of the year.

I have no respect for the passion of equality, which seems to me merely idealizing envy - I don't disparage envy, but I don't accept it as legitimately my master.

Now we Democrats believe that America is still the country of fair play, that we can come out of a small town or a poor neighborhood and have the same chance as anyone else, and it doesn't matter whether we are black or Hispanic, or disabled or women.

The liberal ideal is that everyone should have fair access and fair opportunity. This is not equality of result. It's equality of opportunity. There's a fundamental difference.

My feeling is, having lived in different classes, that people want equality of opportunity... that's the thing that makes me despair: the idea that people aren't given equality of opportunity.

Equal opportunity for all, special privilege for none.

In America, opportunity and equality are not a zero-sum game

Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions — it only guarantees equality of opportunity.

In a country where there is no privileged class, genius and industry may attain the highest honors.

Nobody voted for me on account of my origins. People voted for me because of what I am and what I stand for.

We are building a country where a person's prospects are determined by their own initiative and hard work and not by the color of their skin, place of birth, gender, language, or income of their parents.

I think this country is genuinely a meritocracy.

We know that equality of individual ability has never existed and never will, but we do insist that equality of opportunity still must be sought.

Fairness is not the end result, it's the opportunity. And everybody in America today has the opportunity to get ahead.

If we try to engineer outcomes, if we overturn tradition to make everyone the same, we ruin society. If we upset tradition to allow for an equal shot at the starting gate, everyone wins, except for the charlatans and would be dictators.

No band is special, no player royalty.

Everybody has equal opportunity, and I think that is true for everything.

We came equals into this world, and equals shall we go out of it.

If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.

I want to be elected on my own ability. Only then do you have progress... People should not use race as a basis for labelling me.

The tech and tech media world are meritocracies. To fall back to race as the reason why people don't break out in our wonderful oasis of openness is to do a massive injustice to what we've fought so hard to create.

I've always felt that, in America, we're all equal. I don't care what you make or what kind of car you drive. You're not better than me.