In no other country than ours could such attainment have been possible for the boy whose hands were inured to toil, whose bread was eaten under the hard conditions that poverty imposes, whose only heritage was brain, integrity, lofty ambition, and indomitable purpose.
This quote emphasizes the unique opportunities available in America for individuals from humble backgrounds to achieve greatness.
Share
More from Adlai Stevenson
The practical lesson to be drawn, one for all the ages, is the peril involved in a wife's untimely interruption of the wise observations and sage reflections of her husband.
Politics, the prime cause of fortune's favors to them in the beginning, proved their undoing in the end.
Not to speak of that eye which pierces through all disguises and beholds everything as in the splendor of noon, such secrets of guilt are never safe from detection even by men.
This coming together is no idle ceremony, no unmeaning observance.