Jose Feliciano Quotes

I grew up in a family that nearly lost everything, but I ended up in the United States Senate because I grew up in an America that invested in kids like me and built a real future for us.

My father worked in a post office and never made probably more than $8,000 a year as an employee of the post office, so when people can rise up from very modest circumstances and do well economically, I think that's a good thing about America, and we should encourage that kind of activity.

And that is that we have never been: a nation of haves and have-nots. We are a nation of haves and soon-to-haves, of people who have made it and people who will make it. And that's who we need to remain.

I was a poor kid. I came from nothing. We didn't have any money; a lot of times we didn't have any food, and now, all of a sudden, I'm a superhero in a Marvel movie? Talk about the American dream, man - I'm living it.

I grew up in poverty, so I thought, 'I want to be a billionaire one day. I'll go and work for Donald Trump. I'll go try to be on 'The Apprentice' and be successful.' But 15 years later, I never would imagine that he, as the president of the United States, would call me a low life.

Having grown up a trailer park kid on welfare and food stamps, becoming jaded is impossible, although now I make a good living, which I'm not ashamed of; when you've been poor, it never leaves you.

Every American deserves a shot at the American dream.

The American Dream - I believe in that cliche because I know what having nothing feels like.

I was born to a single mother and often struggled to find my next meal. With the right opportunities from public education and mentors, I achieved the American dream.

There's no future in being poor.

I'm a product of public housing. My parents grew up poor, but their dream was to own a home.

I came from nothing. I came from the projects and welfare and ended up a millionaire with no frame of reference. I was bound to hit a wall sooner or later.

The poor get bored the same as the rest of us. Their happiness might be as important to them as their health.

I have met hundreds of young people doing just what George Romney did: using a hand up in tough times to become part of the American Dream.

My mom grew up in poverty in Oklahoma - like Dust Bowl, nine people in one room kind of place - and the way she got out of poverty was through education. My dad grew up without a dad, with very little and he also made his way out through education.

The American Dream may be slipping away. We have overcome such challenges before. To recover the Dream requires knowing where it came from, how it lasted so long and why it matters so much.

The United States is no longer first in the world in upward mobility. We can reverse that trend by giving our young children an equal start in life as they begin their journey to fulfill the American Dream.

I grew up with not a lot of money and I definitely shopped at Goodwill. But even in my most unfortunate state, I was really blessed compared to a lot of the rest of the world. I had a really great chance to follow my dreams and have them actually come true.

Everyone must have a shot at the American Dream.

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

If you are poor today, you will always be poor. Only the rich now acquire riches.

There never can be equality of rewards or possessions so long as the human plan contains varied talents and differing degrees of industry and thrift, but ours ought to be a country free from the great blotches of distressed poverty.

The upwardly mobile American is becoming a statistical oddity..

These institutions are generally more skilled at getting rich off those living in the lower economic reaches than they are in preparing them for the job market.

I have found out in later years we [his family] were very poor, but the glory of America is that we didn't know it then.