Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes

All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent.

Now, as a nation, we don't promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That's an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.

Everyone must have a shot at the American Dream.

This is what America is about when it comes to understanding that it is equal opportunity versus equal achievement. Each and every one of us has the opportunity for greatness in this country.

The American dream, to me, means having the opportunity to achieve, because I don't think you should be guaranteed anything other than opportunity.

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

Those words freedom and opportunity do not mean a license to climb upwards by pushing other people down.

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

Nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions.

Regardless of zip code, talent and IQ are evenly distributed, so we need to make sure that opportunity is evenly distributed, too.

If any one idea can justly be called the American idea, it is that a child's circumstances at birth should not determine the station in life that that child will occupy as an adult.

Education levels the playing field, allowing everyone to compete.

Obama is the splendid fruit of a meritocracy.

I want my kids to grow up in a world where everybody gets a fair shot.

I think this country is genuinely a meritocracy.

People should be able to rise as hard, high as their hard work, their ambition, their talent will take them.

Everybody should have a chance to rise. That's our philosophy in Ohio and that's my philosophy for America.

The American dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.

The condition of your birth doesn't determine the outcome of your life. This is America.

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.

We live in a moment when the dream of equal opportunity is within reach.

We were a land of opportunity. You can never have equal outcomes, but you can have equal opportunity.

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

I think that's what all New Zealanders who are fair-minded want - a good chance for everybody to get ahead, whether it's education or housing.

What is the American dream? The American dream is one big tent. One big tent. And on that big tent you have four basic promises: equal protection under the law, equal opportunity, equal access, and fair share.