“The American Dream can come in many different ways for many different people. It doesn't have to come in the way they explain it to you. Now, the American Dream can come if a guy hits the lottery. Who in the world thought he would hit a lottery? That's the American Dream for him. But I look at it from day one, moving up the ladder, and moving up the ladder. Now you get to the top of the ladder and you have to look back. How did you get to that ladder? To me, that's the American Dream.”

—  Willie Mays

Academy of Achievement Interview (1996)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The American Dream can come in many different ways for many different people. It doesn't have to come in the way they e…" by Willie Mays?
Willie Mays photo
Willie Mays17
Baseball player 1931

Related quotes

Kate Bush photo

“It's no good for you baby
It's no good for you now
Keep looking up for the ladder.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, The Red Shoes (1993)

Barack Obama photo

“We may come from different places and have different stories, but we share common hopes, and one very American dream.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Source: 2015, Supreme Court Decision on Marriage Equality (June 2015)
Context: I know that Americans of goodwill continue to hold a wide range of views on this issue. Opposition in some cases has been based on sincere and deeply held beliefs. All of us who welcome today’s news should be mindful of that fact; recognize different viewpoints; revere our deep commitment to religious freedom. But today should also give us hope that on the many issues with which we grapple, often painfully, real change is possible. Shifts in hearts and minds is possible. And those who have come so far on their journey to equality have a responsibility to reach back and help others join them. Because for all our differences, we are one people, stronger together than we could ever be alone. That’s always been our story. We are big and vast and diverse; a nation of people with different backgrounds and beliefs, different experiences and stories, but bound by our shared ideal that no matter who you are or what you look like, how you started off, or how and who you love, America is a place where you can write your own destiny.

Abraham Joshua Heschel photo

“This is the predicament of man. All souls descend a ladder form heaven to the world. Then the ladders are taken away. Once they are in this world, they are called upon from heaven to rise, to come back. It is a call that goes out again and again. Each soul seeks the ladder in order to ascend above; but the ladder cannot be found. Most people make no effort to ascend, claiming, how can one rise to heaven without a ladder? However, there are souls which resolve to leap upwards without a ladder. So they jump and fall down. They jump and fall down, until they stop. Wise people think that since no ladder exists, there must be another way. We must face the challenge and act. Be what it may, one must leap until God, in His mercy, makes exultation come about.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

"No Religion is an Island", p. 266
Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

Lewis H. Lapham photo

“Seeking the invisible through the imagery of the visible, the Americans never can get quite all the way to the end of the American dream.”

Lewis H. Lapham (1935) American journalist

Source: Money And Class In America (1989), Chapter 1, The Gilded Cage, p. 28

Fred Dibnah photo

“(Whilst demonstrating how to ladder a chimney) "As you get a bit higher up, the holes have a tendency to get a bit deeper; I think it's called fear"”

Fred Dibnah (1938–2004) English steeplejack and television personality, with a keen interest in mechanical engineering

Unsourced

Chuck Palahniuk photo

“If you haven’t already noticed, all my books are about a lonely person looking for some way to connect with other people.
In a way, that is the opposite of the American Dream: to get so rich you can rise above the rabble, all those people on the freeway or, worse, the bus.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories (2004)

Richard Nixon photo

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

Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America

1960s, First Inaugural Address (1969)

John C. Wright photo

““What can you do?”
“I can bring you in dream to one who dreams of you.”
“Will that help me?”
“No. But you will come, because you will hope that it will.””

John C. Wright book Orphans of Chaos

Source: Orphans of Chaos (2005), Chapter 23, “Dreams and Desires” Section 1 (p. 305)

Donald J. Trump photo

“[When the government says] 'everybody gets equal pay,' you get away from the whole American Dream.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

An unequal answer about equal pay (19 November 2015)
2010s, 2015

“For a woman, love is the highest dream, and if a man promises to build a ladder tall enough to reach it, she believes him, hikes up her skirt, and follows him to the stars.”

Adriana Trigiani (1970) American film director

Source: The Shoemaker's Wife

Related topics