Barack Obama Quotes

I'm a girl from South Carolina. I was raised in a middle class family and decided to major in broadcast journalism and now I'm at the national level and that doesn't happen to most people and I realize that. I know that I'm very fortunate but this great country allowed that to work in my favor.

The American dream is more about opportunity than anything else.

I’ve been on both sides of the American Dream. On the outside – trying to reach it. And on the inside – counting all of my blessings that now add up to a truly wonderful life. But believe me, I wouldn’t be where I am today without help.

Listen, I have lived the American dream, which is something that I am deeply proud of and something that I believe every child in South Carolina or across the country should have the opportunity to do.

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.

You don't need to be born with a silver spoon to reach for the brass ring

We call that the American dream, but in fact, it's a universal dream of a better life that people have all over the world. It is a reminder that every country in the world has rich people. What makes America special is that we have millions and millions of people that are not rich, that through hard work and perseverance are able to be successful.

We are still a country where hard work and perseverance can earn you a better life... Yet we are rightfully troubled that many of our people are still caught in what seems to be a pervasive, unending financial struggle... every American deserves an equal opportunity to achieve success.

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!

This is the place where anybody - like an African American kid raised by a single mom - can be president.

I felt like the luckiest kid in the world. And I was. I was growing up middle-class in a time when growing up middle-class in America meant there would be jobs for my parents, good schools for me to prepare myself for a career, and, if I worked hard and played by the rules, a chance for me to do anything I wanted.

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.

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.

I've worked really hard, but I know people who have worked even harder but didn't have the chances I've had.

I've spent my career trying to help people without connections understand what's going on so that they have a chance of getting a fair shake from the connected and the powerful.

A slave has but one master. An ambition man, has as many as there are people who helped him get his fortune.

When you have to do all the more crappy jobs before, you appreciate all the good work that comes out of that. There are many girls who immediately have a top model career, and there are lots of models who are doing things that aren't as exciting as doing big campaigns and beautiful magazines.

I've been extremely fortunate in my life. So I actually believe that I'm the living embodiment of living the American dream.

Everyone must have a shot at the American Dream.

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.

When it comes to the American dream, no one has a corner on the market. All of us have an equal chance to share in that dream.

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

My presence here is one additional bit of evidence that the American dream need not be deferred.

The American Dream

When I look at myself, I have been - really - a lucky American to end up where I am.