William Graham Sumner Quotes

Mr. Lincoln's elevation shows that in America every station in life may be honorable; that there is no barrier against the humblest; but that merit, wherever it exists, has the opportunity to be known.

The important issue is not how much inequality there is but how much opportunity there is for individuals to get out of the bottom classes and into the top. If there is enough movement upward, people will accept the efficiency of the markets. If you have opportunity, there is a great tolerance for inequality. That has been the saving grace of the American system.

We are an aspirational society. We believe that circumstances of your birth do not determine your outcome. You shouldn't have to be born to wealthy parents or the right zip code to be successful and do great things in our country!

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

Everyone must have a shot at the American Dream.

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

That is what made America great: that everyone had the opportunity to be a winner. And I think it's still there. I'm certainly a beneficiary of it.

America is a meritocracy.

Obama is the splendid fruit of a meritocracy.

England is still a place where a naughty boy who comes from nothing can live his dream.

Our country was built upon the idea that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can achieve the 'American dream' and create a better future for your children.

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.

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

The American dream means that you have the chance to work hard, get an education and do great things for yourself, for your kids. The great thing in American is it doesn't matter what your last name is, doesn't matter if you're wealthy.

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.

The erosion of equal opportunity is among the greatest threats to our exceptionalism as a nation. But it also provides us with an exciting and historic opportunity: to help more people than ever achieve the American Dream.

I'm convinced that if the same opportunities were made available to everybody, people would want to better their lot in life.

How well you do in life shouldn't depend on how well your parents did.

The thing about frontiers, it allows the individuals who are best, whether they're men or women or minorities or whatever, to step to the top. So in traditional societies, old world societies, in the United Kingdom if you would; if you were born into the right stratus, the right class, you had the ability to succeed.

You know, as Secretary of State, I've been privileged to represent this great country, and I know its strengths, and I know its challenges. One of its strengths is the belief - here and abroad - that this is a place where you get ahead on merit. It doesn't matter where you came from; it matters where you're going.

I think that's still what the American Dream means: that with perseverance, with hard work, you can become something, that the classes won't prevent you from becoming, that there's a movement up that ladder with hard work.

The American Dream is of individual upward mobility, not social progress toward uniformity.

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