William Petty Quotes

Our goal is a classless society.

In a country where there is no privileged class, genius and industry may attain the highest honors.

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

Human beings are no longer born to their place in life

In America, opportunity and equality are not a zero-sum game

In a thriving economy, birth need not be destiny.

Obama is the splendid fruit of a meritocracy.

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

Now, as a nation, we don't promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That's an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.

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

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.

Economic inequality is less troubling if you live in a country where any child, no matter how humble his or her origins, can grow up to be president.

This is what America is about when it comes to understanding that it is equal opportunity versus equal achievement. Each and every one of us has the opportunity for greatness in this country.

The American dream, to me, means having the opportunity to achieve, because I don't think you should be guaranteed anything other than opportunity.

Equality of opportunity means the achievers must be allowed to achieve.

I am not a product of privilege, I am a product of opportunity

When people are educated, class distinction disappears.

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

Nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions.

Regardless of zip code, talent and IQ are evenly distributed, so we need to make sure that opportunity is evenly distributed, too.

If any one idea can justly be called the American idea, it is that a child's circumstances at birth should not determine the station in life that that child will occupy as an adult.

As Americans, I think we really believe that with the meritocracy that exists in our country, the equality of opportunity is so important to the foundation of our culture and our society.

Education levels the playing field, allowing everyone to compete.

America is a meritocracy.

I think this country is genuinely a meritocracy.