Abraham Lincoln Quotes

It is in order that each one of you, through this free government which we have enjoyed, have an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence.... It is for this the struggle should be maintained.

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.

America is preeminently the land of great possibilities, of great opportunities, and of no less great probabilities.... We all stand on the great field of renown, with a free and equal chance.... We all have a fair chance and an open field. Long may it so remain.

The old fundamental principles must continue to apply, even in our changing society: Democracy knows neither master nor slave. Equal education opportunities for all, no matter where they come from and no matter who their parents are. Equal access as well when it comes to digitalization.

This is one country. It has become one country because all of us and all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents. We cannot say to ten percent of the population that you can't have that right; that your children cannot have the chance to develop whatever talents they have; that the only way that they are going to get their rights is to go in the street and demonstrate. I think we owe them and we owe ourselves a better country than that.

We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few.

Freedom and opportunity are precious gifts and the purpose of our politics is to expand them, for all our people.

The United States exists as a sovereign nation. 'America,' in contrast, exists as a myth of democracy and equal opportunity to live by, or as an ideal goal to reach.

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

What I find most interesting about the U.S. is this idea of equality.

Where the costs of entry are minimal, there is a wide avenue of opportunity for those with little or nothing, which is why football is just about the most democratic sport of all: African and Brazilian footballers compete on a level playing field with their rich white European counterparts.

You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break.

In this nation, the greatest of all nations, there are no second-class families. That is our great American conviction.

Unless the great majority of Americans not only have, but believe they have, a fair chance, the better American future will be dangerously compromised.

What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal - that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will.

The essence of democracy is its assurance that every human being should so respect himself and should be so respected in his own personality that he should have opportunity equal to that of every other human being to show what he was meant to become.

Without equality there can be no democracy.

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people—women as well as men.

The heart of America is right.

I hope that liberty and equality and opportunity lie within your heart because the hopes of millions of Americans depend on it.

This democracy is shaped by equality of opportunity.

I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.--

Being an American is not easy. It is hard. We are required to keep some serious promises. We are judged by a high standard, ones we crafted for ourselves in the founding documents of the republic, the ones that talk about the equality of all people, the ones that tell us that government is of the people, by the people and for the people. We need to live by this, at home and abroad, and it is just about the only thing we can do to face the hatred of those who want to destroy us. Our best defense is to stay true to who we are. Our best defense is to refuse to live in fear, of them, of ourselves, of anyone.

Public education is the great equalizer of America.

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