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Key to success: Vision Key to success: Passion Key to success: Perseverance Key to success: Preparation Key to success: Courage Key to success: Integrity Key to success: The American Dream Keys to success homepage More quotes on Passion More quotes on Vision More quotes on Courage More quotes on Integrity More quotes on Preparation More quotes on Perseverance More quotes on The American Dream


Vince Gill, Country Music Hall of Fame

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Vince Gill

Country Music Hall of Fame

The American Dream to me is, it's a fair chance. I think that's all anybody could ever want and anybody could ever expect. I see an awful lot of people that think they're entitled to things. You've got to earn them, you know. They have to be earned. You're not entitled to -- you know. You parent a kid, and they think they're entitled to every toy on the shelf. And you just go, I don't think so. To me, that's what I'd like to see. The American Dream for me would be a fair chance for everybody, not just the "haves." You see a lot of life where most people are too hung up on the pecking order of things, and not everyone does get a fair chance. It was always my argument with my father about anything was, until there's a level playing field, you can't have a right answer to something. So that would be my definition of the American Dream is a fair chance for everybody.
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Rudolph Giuliani, Former Mayor of New York City

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Rudolph Giuliani

Former Mayor of New York City

I think America discovered something about itself that's there. It isn't as if it was created on September 11 or after. I think America discovered something about itself, about how much we could help each other, how much we care about each other, how much we care about being Americans, how important our freedom and democracy is to us. And we're not going to let people take it away from us or jeopardize it for our children. I think that's been the primary thing that's happened in this country. I think there is much more of an appreciation for what we have, and therefore we're not going to let people jeopardize it. We're not going to let people take it away from us or even attempt to.
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Rudolph Giuliani, Former Mayor of New York City

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Rudolph Giuliani

Former Mayor of New York City

I have just an absolutely unshakeable belief about the value of living in freedom, that people who live in freedom have incalculable strength that they don't display until somebody challenges them and creates the possibility of taking it away from them, and that people who live in freedom prevail over people who live in oppression. And they just will, because they're not going to give this up. Once you give people freedom, they don't willingly give it up. And we've had freedom for a long time, and I think the mission of this country is to try to share it with others, because we realize the more people who live in freedom, the more peaceful the world is going to be.
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Whoopi Goldberg, Actress and Activist

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Whoopi Goldberg

Actress and Activist

Whoopi Goldberg: I am the American Dream. I am the epitome of what the American Dream basically said. It said you could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country. That's exactly what I've done. The great divide between my era and the eras that come after me is that you are not getting the encouragement and the "hands-on" from your government.  A lot of times your teachers have been left out in the cold.  So it's hard for them to focus the way that teachers were focused when I was a kid.  There's not a lot of work out there as there were when I was a kid. We had programs that were set up by the country. So, the fact that you're making it now, makes you 5,000 times the person that those who came before you were. Because we had a lot of help, and there's very little help out there now.
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