Helen Gahagan Quotes

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.

Every man has a right to be equal with every other man.

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.

Equality is the heart and essence of democracy, freedom, and justice, equality of opportunity in industry, in labor unions, schools and colleges, government, politics, and before the law. There must be no dual standards of justice, no dual rights, privileges, duties, or responsibilities of citizenship. No dual forms of freedom.

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

Because this is a country where everyone deserves the same freedom and opportunities to fulfill their dreams.

Tolerance is carved into the rostrum of the U.S. House of Representatives and intolerance should not be carved into the U.S. Constitution.

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

We are not supposed to be all equal. Let's just forget that. We are supposed to have equal rights under law. If we do that, we have done enough.

Give us equality of enjoyment, equal right to expansion - it is as necessary to our prosperity as yours.

Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it.

Democratic principles are the result of equality of condition.

The purpose of the bill ... is to destroy all these discriminations.

One man’s right is every man’s right.

Stronger than all the armies is the idea whose time has come. The time has come for equality in sharing in government and education, and in employment. It will not be stayed or denied. It is here.

We seek not just freedom, but opportunity … not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result.

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

Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience.

You are the stars and the world is watching you. By your presence you send a message to every village, every city, every nation. A message of hope. A message of victory. The right to play on any playing field? You have earned it. The right to study in any school? You have earned it. The right to hold a job? You have earned it. The right to anyone's neighbor? You have earned it.

The promise of our country is that the rules are fair.

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.

Here everyone is his own master. Civil liberty places all inhabitants on an equal footing. The humble cannot be oppressed by the mighty, nor the poor by the rich.

It is not charity but a right, not bounty but justice, that I am pleading for.

The equal right of all citizens to health, education, work, food, security, culture, science, and wellbeing - that is, the same rights we proclaimed when we began our struggle, in addition to those which emerge from our dreams of justice and equality for all inhabitants of our world - is what I wish for all.

Every single American deserves to be treated equally by their fellow Americans and under the law.