Nina Shaw Quotes

If you don't allow yourself to change from book to book - take chances - it turns into a dullish job with no health benefits or pension plan and only intermittent paychecks.

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

We believe in the Australian promise; that if you work hard, you won't be left behind.

Everything you want in life has a price connected to it. There's a price to pay if you want to make things better, a price to pay just for leaving things as they are, a price for everything.

Careers can disappear just as quickly as they're made, so I'm in no hurry.

Today, you expand or you are expendable.

Even in its third century, America is still the most meritocratic nation in the world.

Every American wants a clean slate, but nobody wants to lose what they've got.

You really should not do this job unless you're willing to put in that enormous amount of effort. You should not do the job unless you're willing to take risks. And you shouldn't do the job unless you're willing to lose the job, too.

We're Americans. We celebrate success. We just don't want the game to be rigged.

I really do think the things that make our society what it is are under threat. It should be about everyone having the potential to be what they're going to be.

The more that everyone has access to the same educational opportunities, the more society will tend to accept some receiving disproportionate rewards. After all, they themselves have a chance to be winners.

I think we have enough trouble finding community in this country, and sport does provide that. It is a mediocrisy, the greatest mediocrisy. If you're the best, it shows in sports. Nobody can say, 'Well, he's only there because of his connections,' or whatever. In that sense, I suppose it upholds democracy and the best in us.

Education levels the playing field, allowing everyone to compete.

What has always made our country special is that it doesn't matter where you come from; it matters where you're going. Our job is to make certain the pathways are open to both our boys and our girls.

At my job, my manager had a massive heart attack; we had layoffs. It made me realize that nothing is certain, nothing is for sure, and if I'm going to make a move, I gotta make a move now.

This is America. In our country it doesn't matter a lick where you are from, it only matters where you're going.

A free society releases the energies and abilities of people to pursue their own objectives. It prevents some people from arbitrarily suppressing others. It does not prevent some people from achieving positions of privilege, but so long as freedom is maintained, it prevents those positions of privilege from becoming institutionalized; they are subject to continued attack by other able, ambitious people.

Sacrifice - the future has it´s price, and today is only yesterday's tomorrow.

You don't need to come from wealth or privilege to make a difference.

If your only opportunity is to be equal then it is not opportunity.

There is here, what is not in the old country. In spite of hard, unfamiliar things, there is here - hope. In the old country, a man can be no more than his father, providing he works hard. If his father was a carpenter, he may be a carpenter. He many not be a teacher or a priest. He may rise - but only to his father's state. In the old country, a man is given to the past. Here he belongs to the future. In this land, he may be what he will, if he has the good heart and the way of working honestly at the right things.

Punishing achievement isn't gonna help anybody. Trying to equalize people by lowering the people at the top, that's not good. All that is is punitive. Why don't you find a way to elevate people at the bottom?

The problem with putting it all on the line is that it might not work out. The problem with not putting it all on the line is that it will never (ever) change things for the better. Not much of a choice, I think.

There is always something to lose. But maybe more to gain.