Margaret Mead Quotes

If there is a national, secular religion in the United States, it is the belief that America is the Land of Opportunity, that we are a meritocracy, that any kid, no matter who they are, or where they come from, can work hard and move up in the world: that their effort matters.

The world is not a meritocracy, as much as we may like to pretend that it is. And we have a long way to go before we really reward people based on their own merit.

My father values talent. He is colorblind and gender neutral. When Donald Trump is in charge, all that counts is ability, excellence, and effort.

Barack knows the American Dream because he's lived it, and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are or where we're from or what we look like or who we love.

Education levels the playing field, allowing everyone to compete.

The United States was founded on a revolution that abolished the monarchy, aristocracy, titles and primogeniture. Britain may be able in the future to become a more equal and open society while retaining all of these things. But this has yet to be proved.

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.

I see social mobility and equality of opportunity as really successful Canadian values.

America is a meritocracy.

Obama is the splendid fruit of a meritocracy.

If you're willing to work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to move up.

Let's remember what truly unites us. It's a common belief in a better economic future. A belief in a meritocracy.

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 live in a time where it's very much in vogue, constant search for pure utopian equality, and which, on one level, is quite amusingly silly but also on another probably very important.

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

There are few things that define us as a country more distinctly than the idea of the American Dream. The idea that anyone can make it here through hard work and dedication. And that dream rests on giving people here a fair shot.

Britain's great postwar meritocratic experiment was broad-based, but it was in politics that the change was most dramatic.

We'll always focus on creating a society where people who work hard and want to get on in life are rewarded.

Often, when we support the 'right' causes and candidates, we fail to recognize that with progress comes sacrifice. That sacrifice might mean that you are no longer the obvious choice for the job. Your job security may no longer be a given.

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.

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.

I want to lead a nation where anyone who aims high can achieve their dreams.

No matter where you're born in life or what the circumstances are when you're born, like your parents being poor or not connected to power, you have a chance in this country to go as far as your talent and your work will take you.