Cory Booker Quotes

The anti-elitist values in America, I think, are very destructive to education.

Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.

The idea that there is a meritocracy where anyone from any background really might have the social and economic mobility to rise to the top in Silicon Valley, those are antithetical to a lot of the principles that the Trump administration apparently stands for.

The innovators' spirit of America still exists. However, there is a narrative in America which goes like - you must go to MIT to get your calling card. Or you go to Harvard and then you drop out and then you've made it.

I was very much a product of the public-school system. There was only one other kid in my class who had parents not involved in the stock market or law.

There's a huge gulf between people who can afford to go to drama school and those who can't.

For better or worse, the people who become leaders and decision makers in politics, law and business are going to come from schools like Princeton.

Inherited wealth, that is not what America is based upon.

I don't believe that the American dream should be reserved for those who are born into the elite or somehow have been given an advantage over others. My growing-up experience is probably the most important thing that guides my priorities and my work today.

The Tea Party people say they're angry about socialism, but maybe they're really angry about capitalism. If there's a sense of being looked down upon, it's that sense of failure that's built into a system that assures everyone they can make it to the top, but then reserves the top for only a tiny fraction of the strivers.

Do we believe that there is equal economic opportunity out there in the real world, right now, for each and every one of these groups? If we believed in the tooth fairy, if we believed in the Easter Bunny, we might well believe that.

Our country has become the land of opportunity to those born without inheritance.

Your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.

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

We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American; she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.

Inequality is an inevitable product of capitalist activity, and expanding equality of opportunity only increases it—because some individuals and communities are simply better able than others to exploit the opportunities for development and advancement that capitalism affords.

We live in a system that espouses merit, equality, and a level playing field, but exalts those with wealth, power, and celebrity, however gained.

I think the debate around nepotism is futile because I am an outsider and I know that there is no compensation of talent.

It is actually getting much harder for someone from an ordinary background to break through the ranks. In the period from 1964 to 1997, every single Prime Minister - from Harold Wilson to John Major - was the product of a state school.

I went home every night wondering how to get in the Burnley team. It was, 'You've been brought up nicely, had everything handed to you.' Is that what people think just because I went to private school and played instruments?

I don't have the privilege of choice to say, 'I want to work with you,' and the person will say, 'Yes, come on, I will write a film for you.' It doesn't happen for people like me who come from the outside.

All countries have poor people. Yet it's a very rare country which understands the indignities of poverty, while education systems maintain the status quo. The children of the elite go to the best schools and get the best jobs, not because they are the best. We're not taking advantage of the intellectual power on this planet.

Look, I'm not saying you can't make it if you grew up from a wealthy situation. I mean, a ton of people have.

It says anybody can make it, because we're all on a level playing field. But we're not on a level playing field. That 's precisely the point, and that's what the rich don't want to look at. They don't want to recognize that they're not producing wealth at all. They're hoarding wealth. That's different.

I don't believe in private education.