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Maya Angelou
Poet and Historian
Maya Angelou: The dream of Martin Luther King, for me, represents the best the human being can hope for -- a world of peace, of development, a world of respect, a world where all men and women are valued, none higher than the other, none lower than the other because of his or her color or his or her race or his or her religion or cultural persuasion. That is the best we can hope for. And so when we speak of the dream, I think if Martin Luther King said he had a dream, I think this is the dream of America. This is us at our best.
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Maya Angelou
Poet and Historian
Maya Angelou: I don't know if we have really realized the dream yet. With the recent escalation of hate and violence and racism, I don't think it's fair to say that the dream has been realized. I think what we are obliged to do, rather, is continue to remember the dream, and continue to tell the children -- all our children -- that this is what has been dreamed for them. I think it is imperative that we take small black children and small white children and small Spanish-speaking children and small Asian children, take them into our laps, take them into our classrooms, take them into our homes, into the churches and synagogues and temples and mosques, and tell them that this is their country, it belongs to everyone equally. This is important. Tell them that they have already been paid for. It is very important for them to know that, so that they can feel, "Oh, the welfare of this country depends upon me thinking, and thinking deeply, and thinking correctly, and thinking fairly." This is important.
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Robert Ballard
Discoverer of the Titanic
I think everyone is unique. We know that. The only way you find out what you are is by trying everything, and then at some point you take what you are, which is unique. Don't ever try to mimic anybody, because you will only be second best. You can never outshine the thing you are trying to mimic, so don't ever do that. Don't idol worship. Finally, be yourself. Then you are going to be really unique and exciting. People are going to beat a path to your door if you polish your inner self.
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Gary Becker
Nobel Prize in Economics
Gary Becker: My parents were both immigrants. So if you ask, my mother came when she was six months, but she liked to feel that she was European, she wasn't an American. My father, clearly, came to this country when he was 14 and it was for a dream to get employed. I've always been a very strong proponent of immigration and the like, because I think the American Dream is real. We provide the opportunities for people. I came from an uneducated family, as I said, no books in the house. But the opportunities provided by this country were enormous, and that's why I feel so patriotic, so proud to be an American. You won't catch me attacking. I mean the U.S. makes a lot of mistakes, but I won't attack America, because I think it's a great country, and I think it's continued to provide for opportunity for people and there's no country in the world that provides these kind of opportunities. So I think it's a real dream, and what we and the younger generations have to do is continue that dream, that people from all walks of life can succeed. It isn't the contacts you have, it isn't the networks you have, although they count. But if you're willing to work hard enough and keep your mind on a goal, and willing along the way to take criticism, that the chances that you'll succeed, for everybody, is considerable. And that to me is the American Dream.
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