American Dream Quotes

• The American dream of rags to riches is a dream for a reason - it is hard to achieve; were everyone to do it, it wouldn't be a dream but would rather be reality.

  Robert Fulton

  Dream, Reality, Rags

  164 Copy quote

• The American dream. Those three short, simple words encompass the hopes and aspirations of all the peoples on earth. The words are not only short and simple. They are also fragile.

  Ross Perot

  Dream, Simple, Three

  Ross Perot (1992). “United We Stand: How We Can Take Back Our Country”

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom.

  Maya Lin

  Life, Positive, Dream

  21 Copy quote

• Our job as Americans is to restore that basic bargain that says, if you work hard, if you're willing to meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead. You can get ahead. Doesn't matter what you look like, doesn't matter where you come from. Our middle class, when it's growing, when it's thriving, when there are ladders of opportunity for people to do a little bit better each year and then make sure that their kids are doing even better than them, that's the American dream. That's what we got to fight for. That has to be the north star that guides everything we do.

  Barack Obama

  Dream, Responsibility, Hard Work

  6 Copy quote

• The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Dream, Inspirational Life, Fall

  15 Copy quote

• The American dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.

  Ronald Reagan

  Dream, Freedom, Men

  Ronald Reagan (1993). “Actor, Ideologue, Politician: The Public Speeches of Ronald Reagan”, Greenwood Publishing Group

  40 Copy quote

  Show source

• That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.

  George Carlin

  Funny, Sarcastic, Dream

  George Carlin (1998). “Brain Droppings”, Hyperion

  173 Copy quote

  Show source

• We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Life, Change, Happiness

  Declaration of Independence (1776).

  157 Copy quote

  Show source

• For many, the American Dream has become a nightmare.

  Bernie Sanders

  Dream, Nightmare

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Dream, Today, Faces

  Speech at Civil Rights March in Washington, 28 Aug. 1963, in New York Times 29 Aug. 1963, p. 21

  65 Copy quote

  Show source

• The American Dream is a term that is often used but also often misunderstood. It isn't really about becoming rich or famous. It is about things much simpler and more fundamental than that.

  Marco Rubio

  Dream, Misunderstood, Rich

  11 Copy quote

• The American dream is about achieving happiness. When you become a fire fighter, a police officer or a teacher or a nurse, you know you're not going to become a billionaire. And what my parents achieved working as a bartender and a maid at a hotel after arriving here with nothing, no education, no money. The first words my dad learned in English where I'm looking for a job.You know what my parents achieved? They owned a home in a safe and stable neighborhood. They retired with dignity and they left all four of their children better off than themselves.

  Marco Rubio

  Dream, Teacher, Children

  Source: www.foxnews.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The American Dream is one of success, home ownership, college education for one's children, and have a secure job to provide these and other goals.

  Leonard Boswell

  Dream, Jobs, Children

  25 Copy quote

• The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.

  James Truslow Adams

  Dream, Opportunity, Land

  James Truslow Adams (2017). “The Epic of America”, p.258, Routledge

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every human being has a dream. I think what's special about the American Dream is that it implies, given everything that's happened with the history of America, that there is the opportunity to make your dream come true. So I think America signifies opportunity.

  Audra McDonald

  Dream, Thinking, Opportunity

  Source: www.achievement.org

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sadly, the American dream is dead.

  Donald Trump

  Dream

  Presidential Bid Announcement, www.washingtonpost.com. June 16, 2015.

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• Barack knows the American Dream because he's lived it...and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are, or where we're from, or what we look like, or who we love.

  Michelle Obama

  Dream, Country, Opportunity

  Michelle Obama's Convention Speech, www.npr.org. September 4, 2012.

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the US a child born into a poor family will become a poor adult. The american dream is just that - it is not true, because of the level of extreme inequality.

  Winnie Byanyima

  Inspiring, Dream, Children

  16 Copy quote

• The truth is that I've always been fascinated with wealth in America. To me, it's been about the American dream and the corruption of that dream.

  Leonardo DiCaprio

  Dream, America, Wealth

  "Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio Talk THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, THE DEPARTED, THE AVIATOR, GANGS OF NEW YORK, Jack Nicholson, and Much More". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. February 9, 2014.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm gonna fight, and I'm gonna make something out of nothing. That's pretty much the American dream. So, for me, the realization that I could speak to people like that came first on a small scale. Then it just started happening. I started having this vibration.

  Jay-Z

  Dream, Fighting, People

  Interview with Elvis Mitchell, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 11, 2010.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• America is a melting pot, and education has been a mainspring for our democracy and freedom, a means of providing gifts of knowledge and opportunity to all citizens, no matter how humble their background, so they could climb higher, help build the American dream, and leave a better life for those who follow.

  Ronald Reagan

  Dream, Mean, Humble

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan)., Ronald Reagan, United States. Office of the Federal Register (1982). “Ronald Reagan”

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Most people are looking for security, a nice, safe, prosperous future. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's called the American Dream.

  Lee Iacocca

  Dream, Nice, Prosperous Future

  12 Copy quote

• My fellow Americans, this is an amazing moment for me. To think that a once-scrawny boy from Austria could grow up to become governor of the state of California and then stand here... then stand here in Madison Square Garden and speak on behalf of the president of the United States - that is an immigrant's dream. It is the American dream.

  Arnold Schwarzenegger

  Dream, Growing Up, Motivation

  "Schwarzenegger: No country more welcoming than the USA". Arnold Schwarzenegger's speech at the Republican National Convention in New York City, edition.cnn.com. August 31, 2004.

  56 Copy quote

  Show source

• We need men who can dream of things that never were.

  John F. Kennedy

  Motivational, Dream, Inspiration

  Address Before the Irish Parliament, delivered 28 June 1963, Dublin, Ireland

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• We as Americans are completely obsessed and wrapped up in a lot of the wrong values - looking good, having cash in the bank, being perceived as rich, famous and successful or just being famous... It's the most superficial part of the American dream and who would know better than me? The only thing that's going to bring you happiness is love and how you treat your fellow man and having compassion for one another.

  Madonna Ciccone

  Dream, Successful, Men

  "Madonna's Twisted Values" by Brian Doherty, reason.com. April 24, 2003.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source