None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody - a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns - bent down and helped us pick up our boots.

Marshall’s remark punctures the American myth of pure self-making. By invoking the “bootstraps” cliché and then literalizing it—someone “bent down and helped us pick up our boots”—he stresses that individual achievement is typically scaffolded by social support: family care, teachers, mentors, institutional networks (“Ivy League crony”), and even religious educators (“a few nuns”). The line carries an implicit argument about civic responsibility: because success is rarely solitary, a just society should acknowledge interdependence and invest in the conditions that allow others to rise. It also critiques selective amnesia among the successful, who may overlook the advantages and assistance that enabled their own progress.