essay on poverty is not an hindrance to success

Is Poverty A Hindrance To Success?

Written By:

James Johnstone

Blog Date – Updated:

Poverty – the big problem that every country and everyone in the world faced or is now facing. Someone usually argues that poverty is the biggest hindrance that people have to deal with to succeed as we cannot do anything even go to school without money.

However, is poverty a real hindrance to success?

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The answer is “No”, poverty may be a disadvantage but is not really an obstacle to our success. It is undeniable that having any amount of money will provide people with a higher chance to be successful.

When people have money, everything is easier, their children can receive a better education while studying at famous and expensive universities all over the world. They can have enough budget to start up a company instead of calling for funds from “sharks”, which is usually extremely hard work.

Wealth is not a firm guarantee for the success of everyone; with money, people tend to hit targets more easily but it does not mean they automatically be successful in life.

Children who come from rich families are taught to “think bigger” and have a wider vision when their parents can make their dreams come true. For example, only wealthy kids can invest in stocks and make a profit from them while poor children are busy worrying about what they will eat today, where they will sleep tonight.

When you are poor, you do not even have a chance to go to school and have qualifications or you cannot pay the tuition fee to continue your studies because all of your money is paid for personal necessities such as accommodation, food and clothes. Financial problems have prevented a thousand excellent students from studying at higher education levels.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that poor people cannot become successful. Several people have proved that poor children can still succeed in the future. Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the most successful and popular actors in Hollywood with numerous famous movies like Titanic, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Gatsby, was a poor kid growing up in the countryside of LA.

Being brought up in a poor environment with the existence of drug use and violence around made Leonardo DiCaprio understand the dark side of humanity to represent them excellently in his films. It can be said that coming from a poor family has contributed a big part to his success and was an advantage to him to become the person he is today. Even he has said: “W ho am I to talk about this? It goes back to that neighborhood. It came from the fact that I grew up very poor, and I got to see the other side of the spectrum.”

If you are poor, then try harder and harder to succeed. Poverty is not a hindrance to success but laziness and discouragement are. Determination is the biggest key to become successful, when you are determined, nothing can stop you. Then, poverty becomes a chance for you to learn how to be patient and overcome all the difficulties on your own.

Being poor does not mean you do not have the right to dream and make it come true. If life does not give you an opportunity, then create it!

Opportunities do not come to anyone who just stands there and waits for them, they come to the ones who dare to take action. If you do not have enough money to go to school, then study harder to get scholarships, if you do not have enough money to start up a company, then call for funds from rich people. Every problem has its solution to tackle, work hard to find it.

The real obstacle that poverty brings to people is the wrong conception of success and short vision. Poor people usually think that they are not rich because they come from poor families and their parents cannot pay for their dreams. Or when they find jobs, they will want jobs that are highly paid and also cushy. The problem of poverty is actually the problem of education, people had better be taught to have the courage to follow their dreams and work harder instead of blaming circumstances.

I had one of my friends whose name is Hung, he comes from a poor family that nearly did not have enough money for him to continue his studies at university. However, he overcame this difficulty by studying as hard as he could and excellently got scholarships of $75,000 from four of the most famous universities in the USA – William College, Dartmouth College, Vassar College, Vanderbilt University.

One’s economic background plays a vital role in his or her success; however, poor people can still be successful, and that their poverty does not necessarily prevent them from being successful. Many poor people have succeeded like multi-billionaire Kenny Troutt, Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz, KFC’s founder Harland Sanders.. and thousands of other wealthy people.

Roman Abramovich, a multi-billionaire with stakes in Evraz, Norilsk Nickel, and the UK’s Chelsea soccer team has a net worth of $14 billion, was an orphan growing up in Moscow.

There are a variety of ways for us to escape from poverty and become successful; poverty will never become a hindrance to success when you are determined.

“ The key to success is to focus on goals, not obstacles. “ Unknown

Nothing can beat your will and nothing is impossible, being poor is a chance to learn and train yourself if you know how to take full advantage of it. Believe in yourself that you can do it too when other people can do it. Being determined, take risks and success will come to you.

At Project Sprouts, we realize that we can not solve all the problems of poverty in a situation like this. But we can seek to make a difference in the lives of needy children by giving them school supplies and encouraging them to continue their education; we can give them winter coats, boots, and blankets to help them stay warm during the cold winter months.

Project Sprouts would love to have you be a part of our community and help us to help worthy children in North Vietnam. We cannot solve all the world’s problems, but we can do our part to help poor kids grow by giving school supplies, winter coats, boots, and other supplies.

You can find out more about Project Sprouts by clicking here or go to our give now page to donate by clicking here. As we are a grassroots organization, all funds go to help those in need.

Is poverty a hindrance to success?

Poverty can present significant challenges, such as limited access to education, healthcare, and other resources, which can hinder success. However, it does not make success impossible. Individuals may overcome these obstacles through resilience, hard work, and access to support structures or opportunities.

How can poverty impact access to education?

Poverty can limit access to quality education due to factors such as inability to afford school fees or educational materials, the need to work to support the family, or living in areas with under-resourced schools.

How does poverty affect health, and how might this impact success?

Poverty can lead to poor health due to inadequate nutrition, limited access to healthcare, and living in environments with poor sanitation or high levels of pollution. Poor health can affect school attendance and performance, as well as productivity in later life, potentially hindering success.

Can poverty affect a person’s mindset towards success?

Living in poverty may cause individuals to focus on immediate survival rather than long-term goals, and constant struggle may lead to a sense of hopelessness about future success. However, mindsets can change, especially with access to supportive environments and opportunities.

How does poverty influence one’s social network, and how might this impact success?

Individuals living in poverty might not have access to social networks that provide exposure to various career paths, educational opportunities, or mentorship, which could limit their knowledge about the possibilities for success.

Are there any success stories of individuals overcoming poverty?

Yes, there are many stories of individuals who have overcome poverty to achieve success in various fields. These stories often involve factors such as education, mentorship, personal resilience, and sometimes, luck.

How can access to quality education help overcome poverty’s hindrance to success?

Quality education provides individuals with the knowledge, skills, and qualifications needed to access better-paying job opportunities, thus providing a pathway out of poverty and toward success.

Can government programs help mitigate the hindrance of poverty to success?

Yes, government programs providing healthcare, food assistance, housing, education, and job training can help individuals in poverty overcome some of the obstacles they face in achieving success.

Poverty is not a Hindrance to Success: My Pursuit of Education

essay on poverty is not an hindrance to success

Working towards My Goals in Life

My name is Gegerma Montero. I grew up a life of poverty in remote villages in Danao City, Province of Cebu, Philippines. As a child, my only dream was to go to school and finish my studies. My hope was that one day I could wear a black gown for graduation.

After my graduation from elementary school, all of a sudden my family moved to another city. In Cebu the secondary school was very far from where my family lived in, and my father said education can’t feed me. Instead, it was better to help in farming. I had no choice but to help my father at a very younger age, working like an adult. As I was still young and new to the place, I had no other options.

My cousin who worked in the City as a helper asked me if I wanted to be a working student, I was so happy because I never thought I could work and study at the same time. My mother didn’t oppose my ideas, but the hardest thing was to convince my father. I knew my father would say NO, “Schools are for lazy people, and it’s a waste of money,” he said. I insisted and insisted, I became stubborn and told him I could prove to him that I could study with or without his support. I packed up some of my dresses, putting them in a striped plastic bag and left home with my cousin to the Danao City, while my parents watching me leave.

I worked as a helper for a retired teacher who was teaching in college department of Manto Memorial Foundation College. I had many ups and down as I kept on transferring from one employer to another. During the first three years, I worked in the daytime and studied at night. At the fourth year, I transferred to day class as I had good grades. Thank God, my boss, my mother and my sister support me along the way.

On my graduation ceremony, I was the 3rd honorable student mentioned. At the audience, I saw my very proud father.

I later found work at Cebu Mitsumi Inc. because my dream was to have a college diploma. After I started again in College, I worked and studied in reversed schedule. I was in working at night shift from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am and went to school afterwards. My family is my source of inspiration, which motivated me to work hard. I knew I couldn’t ask from my parents because they also had nothing. I needed to strive by my own, facing any obstacle I met along the way because I wanted to change the lifestyle in the remote villages as it was a hard life. At my last semester, a newly hired production engineer wanted me to shift in day time working schedule. I had no choice but to resign from my work and strive hard to finish my last semester I eventually graduated with an associate degree in Computer Science in 1999.

After graduation, I worked several years in local office as a government employee until 2012, where I was assigned to Department of Education, Danao City Division under my uncle’s supervision. From there I got a chance to leave the office and study housekeeping course until I finished training at a local hotel. Later on, I got a call for a job interview in Manila for Hong Kong, and I grabbed the opportunity to find another job.

Following My Dreams

December 2012 I landed in Hong Kong for the first time, with no idea how my employer looked like. Now I am thankful that although my employer is not perfect, they gave me the opportunity. Up to present, I’m still with them. I normally look after kids, a girl seven years old and a boy almost two years old.

My life in Hong Kong is big difference compared to Philippines. Here I can do everything I want without worrying that someone will report to the boss; here I found a new circle of friends especially in Domestic Workers Empowerment Project at Hong Kong University. I am really thankful to God for everything I have now.

Looking back upon my life, I have worked very hard for my ultimate dream - to have my College Diploma despite many hardships, ups and down, unexplainable mixed feeling that you feel when you received the fruit of your efforts and perseverance. I want the readers to know that poverty is not a hindrance of success. The most important thing is that you have dreams and goals. Knowing what you want and everything will follow step by step.

Last, I believe that education is a lifelong process with no age limit. The best key to success are hardworking and determination. Have Faith and be positive and you will succeed.

Thank you for reading, I know I am not perfect, but I will always try my best. Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2018. My family and I wish you a blissful life.

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After being left with nothing, UP graduate says poverty is a ‘hindrance to success’

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After being left with nothing, UP graduate says poverty is a ‘hindrance to success’

He’s not just another rags-to-riches story.

At 21 years old, Rene Principe graduated from the country’s premier state university with flying colors, but refused to glorify the “extreme poverty” he went through.

Finishing at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman with a degree in Applied Physics is no easy feat. But Principe, who proudly identifies as queer, femme, Kagay-anon, Bisaya, and now an applied physicist, topped it off with a cum laude standing, too.

He was among the 682 cum laude of the 3,778 graduates in UP’s first ever virtual ceremony last Sunday, July 26.

Principe shared online that the poverty everyone believes inspired him to pursue success is “the same poverty that hinders millions of Filipinos access to quality education.” His social media post on Facebook has gathered around 17,534 shares and 54,200 reactions as of writing.

“I refuse to be labeled as the cream of the crop, because I believe Filipinos should stand beside me in this victory, not behind me. I refuse to accept that attaining a college degree is as hard as passing through the eye of a needle; I believe with all my heart that education is a right, not a privilege,” he said in his post.

‘Left with nothing’

Principe, who is the son of a security guard and a vegetable and kakanin vendor, had big dreams of becoming an astronaut when he was only 8 years old. But despite his longing to pursue an education without roadblocks, extreme poverty made it difficult to persist.

Growing up, Principe would eat restaurant leftover scraps from strangers for every meal, while his classmates would enjoy fresh food. He relied on a candle lamp as his source of light for studying as a light bulb was a luxury his family could not afford.

Principe said they were “left with nothing” when they lost their home in Compostela Valley to a fire and had to migrate to Cagayan de Oro.

Adding insult to injury, Tropical Storm Sendong destroyed his family’s home in Cagayan de Oro, forcing them to live in a cramped evacuation center where the queue for food was long and the beds uncomfortable.

Even in college, Principe struggled to make ends meet. In an interview with Rappler, he shared that there were times when his scholarship allowance would get delayed by 3 months, forcing him to take part-time tutorial jobs just to be able to pay for his dorm’s rent and required materials for school.

“Minsan binabagtas ko ang EDSA para lang makapunta sa mga tutor sessions ko right after my classes, then make it all the way home to study pa,” he said.

(I would have to traverse through EDSA just to attend to my tutorial sessions right after my classes, then head back home to study.)

Advocating for ‘Queers in Science’

Despite these challenges, Principe found a passion for science that pushed him to press on.

Entering the field of Applied Physics in college was initially daunting to Principe, because “being queer and being a scientist were alien concepts that’s always been unattainable.”

When he was in Cagayan de Oro, he shared that he never had the courage to embrace his Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE). Growing up, he recalled how some would mockingly limit the role of the LGBTQ+ in society to running a parlor.

When he entered college, however, UP became his safe space. He observed how the university promoted a culture of discourse that eventually allowed him to determine his SOGIE.

In UP, he found a community where students were given the liberty to express themselves however they wanted. Never was Principe discriminated on campus.

But he realized that this is not the case for thousands of other LGBTQ+ all over the Philippines.

Hoping to address the lack of representation in the science sector, he said, “Only a small percentage of our community dares to go there to begin with…. To be able to have an LGBTQ+ in the pool of great scientists can be motivation for all the kids out there who aspire to be scientists as well.”

Principe expressed that he did not want his success to be limited to a personal victory, but instead hoped that his accomplishments meant that the LGBTQ+ community has always had something to contribute to the field of science.

Victory an exception, not the norm

Despite the crushing blows he faced due to poverty and discrimination while growing up, Principe refuses to romanticize what he went through.

Having faced the same plight of millions of Filipinos living in poverty, Principe shared that his victory is “an exception but it is not the norm,” because of the real social, political, and economic conditions that aggravate inequality in the Philippines.

Principe will be working as a junior faculty instructor at the National Institute of Physics for the upcoming semester. With his job, he hopes to add representation to the pool of educators.

“ We need to ensure na mas malawak ang sakop at mas makatao ang steps na iiimplement ng ating educators to cater to the most marginalized students ,” he said, noting that remote learning is inherently anti-poor.

(We need to ensure that our educators will take more humane steps to cater to all students, especially those who are marginalized.)

“ Ang kahirapan ay hindi sangkap, kundi isang malaking balakid sa kaunlaran. Isa ito sa pinakamahalagang aral na napulot ko sa unibersidad (Poverty is a huge hindrance to progress. This is one of the most important things I learned in UP) , ” he added.

Principe said that he doesn’t want his experience to be just another inspirational story to share.

“Let my victory inspire you. but most importantly, let it enrage you,” he said.

He also challenged Filipinos to express their rage over the growing divide between the rich and the poor.

“Let the inaccessibility of our health care enrage you. Let the expensiveness of education enrage you. Let the worklessness and contractualization enrage you. [This] is valid because it is rooted [in] empathy towards the oppressed and the underprivileged,” Principe stressed. – Rappler.com

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Inspiration

Top 35 quotes about poverty to success.

There is no shortage of stories about people rising from poverty to success. These stories have grown in number, especially in the past century. And, they’ll continue to grow in number, so long as they keep inspiring everyday people from all walks of life to strive for their dreams . So, to help fan those flames of achievement, ambition, and the promise of a better future for you and others, we’ve rounded up the most inspiring quotes about poverty to success.

“When There Is Nothing, There Is The Possibility Of Everything.”

Our hope is that these poverty to success quotes will inspire, motivate, and give you hope, that no matter where you come from, or how rough your start, creating a successful life for yourself is possible.

So, if you are ready for some encouraging words to help you believe that going from rags to riches is possible for you, then let’s dive in:

BEST QUOTES ABOUT POVERTY TO SUCCESS

1. “Where determination is, the way can be found. – George S. Clason

2. “Poverty was the greatest motivating factor in my life.” – Jimmy Dean

3. “Let us be done with thinking of poverty as a virtue. It is a common vice. If you have been living in financial lack and limitation, you have literally been living in vice. That, too, is the shocking truth about prosperity. But you need not continue living in financial vice. There is a way out.” – Catherine Ponder

4. “Hardships, poverty and want are the best incentives, and the best foundation, for the success of man.” – Bradford Merrill

5. “Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.” – Norman Vincent Peale

quote about poverty to success by norman vincent peale

6. “Poverty and adversity have produced many of the most successful people in the world.” – Dr. T.P. Chia

7. “The first step is clearly defining exactly what it is you’re after, because without knowing that, you’ll never get it.” – Halle Berry

8. “Success, just like poverty is a state of mind . You can become successful instantly with a simple decision and commitment. Long lasting and pronounced success comes to those who renew their commitment to a mindset of abundance every minute, hour, and day.” – Bryant McGill

9. “Nobody is born poor and empty. Each of us have a gift. Talent or intelligence, how we use it to lift our lives, spells our success or failure.” – Ymatruz

10. “It always seems impossible, until its done.” – Nelson Mandela

11. “You have available to you, right now, a powerful supercomputer. This powerful tool has been used throughout history, to take people from rags to riches, from poverty and obscurity to success and fame, from unhappiness and frustration to joy and fulfillment, and it can do the same for you.” – Brian Tracy

12. “There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge. Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.” – Napoleon Hill

13. “Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.” – Doris Day

14. “Diligence produces success and riches. Laziness creates poverty and failure.” – Dr. T. P. Chia

15. “Poverty is not intrinsically a trap, otherwise we would all still be poor.” – Paul Collier

16. “The path to success is through a continuum of mundane, unsexy, unexciting, and sometimes difficult daily disciplines compounded over time.” – Darren Hardy

17. “Success is messy. But so is life. Deal with it. Poverty is messier.” – James Arthur Ray

18. “Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity , than is required to accept misery and poverty.” – Napoleon Hill

19. “Charity is no solution to poverty.” – Muhamad Yunus

20. “It’s not about your resources, it’s about your resourcefulness.” – Tony Robbins

21. “People ought to be as sensible on the subject of Money Getting as on any other subject. Like causes produce like effects. You cannot accumulate a fortune by taking the road that leads to poverty.” – P.T. Barnum

22. “Self-discipline is the No. 1 delineating factor between the rich, the middle class, and the poor” – Robert Kiyosaki

23. “We did live in dire poverty. And one of the things that I hated was poverty. Some people hate spiders. Some people hate snakes. I hated poverty. I couldn’t stand it.” – Ben Carson

24. “Get what you can, and what you get hold, Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold.” – Benjamin Franklin

25. “There is no wealth like knowledge and no poverty like ignorance.” – Buddha

26. “You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.” – Frank McCourt

27. “Poverty is not a disgrace, but it’s terribly inconvenient.” – Milton Berle

28. “Poor choices are the leading cause of poorness” – M.J. Demarco

29. “What lies behind us and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

30. “The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are going.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

31. “Information without execution is poverty.” – Tony Robbins

32. “The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations. – Adam Smith

33. “Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.” – C.S. Lewis

34. “Poverty is not a hinderance to success.” – Philippine Proverb

35. “Poverty is not a circumstance, it’s an attitude .” – Rita Gonzalez

Bonus Poverty to Success Quote

Bonus: Here’s the last and final of these poor background quotes. It’s one of our favorites, and we believe it contains the most potential inspiration for increase aspirations. Here it is:

“That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.” – abraham lincoln –

Final Thoughts

Remember, despite the high life that most successful people seem to be living today, most of them had to face their fare share of struggle and hardship. They had to pay a price for the success they now enjoy. But the great news is, they’ve shown there is a recipe that anyone can follow.

Sure, the end result won’t be exactly the same for everyone. But, it will be similar in that it will get you out of poverty and on track to a more successful life. With that being said, we hope these poverty to success quotes have you doubting your doubts, and eager to pursue the success you deserve and can achieve.

Till next time,

PS – If you enjoyed these poverty to success quotes, then you’ll likely love these self made quotes .

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Motivational Paulo Coelho Quotes About Success

Paulo Coelho is the highly successful and well known Brazilian novelist who wrote one of the best-selling books of all-time; ‘The Alchemist’. He’s also authored 28 additional books, selling over 320 million of those books, and he continues to inspire people from just about every walk of life to this day.

With that said, we’ve gathered some of his most inspiring quotes on success and living one’s dreams to help you get inspired and motivated enough to keep reaching for yours. So, if you’re ready to digest some of the most motivational Paulo Coelho quotes of all time, let’s dive right in:

Best Paulo Coelho Quotes

Inspirational Paulo Coelho Quotes About Success

1. “One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now .” – Paulo Coelho

2. “Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.” – Paulo Coelho

3. “You are what you believe yourself to be.” – Paulo Coelho

4. “Don’t allow your mind to tell your heart what to do. The mind gives up easily.” – Paulo Coelho

5. “You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it is better to listen to what it has to say.” – Paulo Coelho

6. “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure .” – Paulo Coelho

7. “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho

8. “Passion makes a person stop eating, sleeping, working, feeling at peace. A lot of people are frightened because, when it appears, it demolishes all the old things it finds in its path. No one wants their life thrown into chaos. That is why a lot of people keep that threat under control, and are somehow capable of sustaining a house or a structure that is already rotten. They are the engineers of the superseded.” – Paulo Coelho

9. “Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” – Paulo Coelho

10. “All battles in life serve to teach us something.” – Paulo Coelho

11. “They live as if they were never going to die, and die as if they had never lived.” – Paulo Coelho

12. “It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” – Paulo Coelho

13. “Sometimes you have to travel a long way to find what is near.” – Paulo Coelho

14. “If you are brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.” – Paulo Coelho

15. “A mistake repeated more than once is a decision” – Paulo Coelho

16. “The more in harmony with yourself you are, the more joyful you are and the more faithful you are. Faith is not to disconnect you from reality — it connects you to reality.” – Paulo Coelho

17. “I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parent locked me in a mental institution — they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.” – Paulo Coelho

18. “Miracles only happen if you believe in miracles.” – Paulo Coelho

19. “Life has a way of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen at once.” – Paulo Coelho

20. “ Be brave . Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.” – Paulo Coelho

21. “If you want to be successful, you must respect one rule, never lie to yourself.” – Paulo Coelho

22. “If you never take a risk, you will never know what changes you need to make.” – Paulo Coelho

23. “No matter what he does, every person on Earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it.” – Paulo Coelho

24. “What is a teacher? I’ll tell you: It isn’t someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows.” – Paulo Coelho

25. “ God always offers us a second chance in life.” – Paulo Coelho

26. “Don’t waste your time with explanations, people only hear what they want to hear.” – Paulo Coelho

27. “It’s only those who are persistent and willing to study things deeply, who achieve the master work.” – Paulo Coelho

28. “The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and get up eight times.” – Paulo Coelho

29. “You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.” – Paulo Coelho

30. “Whatever you decide to do, make sure it makes you happy.” – Paulo Coelho

31. “What is success? It is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace.” – Paulo Coelho

32. “ Never give up . When your heart becomes tired, just walk with your legs but move on.” – Paulo Coelho

33. “People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.” – Paulo Coelho

34. “When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.” – Paulo Coelho

35. “People always judge others by taking as a model their own limitations, and other people’s opinions are often full of prejudice and fear.” – Paulo Coelho

36. “Dreamers can’t be tamed.” – Paulo Coelho

37. “To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation.” – Paulo Coelho

38. “When you can’t go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward.” – Paulo Coelho

39. “The closer one gets to realizing his destiny , the more that destiny becomes his true reason for being.” – Paulo Coelho

40. “If it is still in your mind, it is worth taking the risk.” – Paulo Coelho

41. “When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change.” – Paulo Coelho

42. “When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” – Paulo Coelho

43. “Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.” – Paulo Coelho

44. “Listen to your heart. It knows all things.” – Paulo Coelho

45. “Stress, anxiety, and depression are caused when we are living to please others.” – Paulo Coelho

46. “Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.” – Paulo Coelho

47. “Success does not come from having one’s work recognized by others. It is the fruit of the seed that you lovingly planted .” – Paulo Coelho

48. “You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.” – Paulo Coelho

49. “Don’t forget, beautiful sunsets need cloudy skies.” – Paulo Coelho

50. “The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.” – Paulo Coelho

The World Is Shaped By Your Example Quote

51. “I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It’s all a question of how I view my life.” – Paulo Coelho

Bonus Paulo Coelho Quote

Bonus: Alright, here is our last and final Paulo Coelho quote to inspire you to find the success you seek. Enjoy:

“If You Don’t Care About What People Think, You Already Passed The First Step Of Success.” – paulo coelho –

There you have it, the best of the best Paulo Coelho quotes on success and staying true to one’s dreams. We hope they inspired you to reflect a little more on the importance taking risks, some of Paulo Coelho’s keys to success, and why you should follow your heart.

PS – If you enjoyed these inspiring Paulo Coelho quotes on success and the importance of following your dreams, then you’ll likely love these quotes on success and achievement , or these truly inspiring quotes on following your dreams .

50 INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT KNOWING YOUR WORTH

So many of us struggle with feelings of self-worth these days. We underestimate our value, we doubt our potential , and question what we bring to the table. We let people walk all over us, allow companies to take advantage of us, and accept relationships that actively diminish us. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can decide at any moment to begin trusting in our own opinions of ourself, vs. the opinions of others. External validation is expendable; meaning, we don’t really need it. All we need is a healthy opinion of ourselves, which is why we’ve pulled together this powerful collection of quotes about knowing your worth.

Our hope is that this collection of know your worth quotes serves as a reminder to you that you are more than the opinions of others, and that you can truly be as valuable and worthy as you set out to be. So, allow these quotes to wash over you, inspire you, and rekindle that silent self-belief that exudes your worth to the world.

BEST QUOTES ABOUT KNOWING YOUR WORTH

1. “You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right here.” – Venus Williams

2. “If you don’t know your own value, somebody will tell you your value, and it’ll be less than you’re worth.”

3. “If you want to improve your self-worth, stop giving other people the calculator.” – Tim Fargo

4. “Know your worth. You must find the courage to leave the table if respect is no longer being served.” – Tene Edwards

5. “A lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinions of sheep.” – Lionel Messi

6. “Only you can make the decision for what you believe your worth is and that will determine how you allow other people to treat you.” – Germany Kent

7. “Know your worth and don’t settle for anything else. You were born to win!” – June Doyle

8. “Knowing your worth and believing that you are indeed worthy is essential for happiness and well-being.” – Tchiki Davis, Ph.D.

9. “When someone treats you like you’re just one of many options, help them narrow their choice by removing yourself from the equation.” – Marc Chernoff

10. “Before you can win, you have to believe you are worthy.” – Mike Ditka

11. “Two things you will never have to chase: True friends & true love.” – Mandy Hale

12. “Anytime you look outside yourself to determine your value, your looking in the wrong place. Look inside you. You know your worth. Your value is inside you.” – Jody Urquhart

13. “Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.” – Christian D. Larson

14. “Just being born makes you worthy enough to be here.” – Oprah Winfrey

15. “To double your net worth, double your self-worth. Because you will never exceed the height of your self-image.” – Robin Sharma

16. “Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.” – Anonymous

17. “If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.” – T. Harv Eker

18. “You are worthy of love and respect. You are beautiful, gifted, and intelligent. Don’t let the storm make you forget it.” – Russell T. Davies

19. “Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.” – Mark Twain

20. “You were not born a winner, and you were not born a loser. You are what you make yourself be.” – Lou Holtz

21. “Dignity will only happen when you realize that having someone in your life doesn’t validate your worth.” – Shannon L. Alder

22. “Don’t give part-time people a full-time position in your life. Know your value and what you have to offer, and never settle for anything less than what you deserve.” – Marc Chernoff

23. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

24. “You’re worthy of being chosen, fought for, and loved. Remember that.” – Mark Groves

25. “The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.” – Orison Swett Marden

26. “When your self-worth goes up, your net worth goes up with it.” – Mark Victor Hansen

27. “Know your worth. Hold your own power. Be you.” – Morgan Harper Nichols

28. “If you know your worth, you will know you are worthy of the beautiful and higher life.” – Anyaele Sam Chiyson

29. “Self-worth comes from one thing – thinking that you are worthy.” – Wayne Dyer

30. “Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.” – Abraham Lincoln

31. “You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” – Brene’ Brown

32. “Because one believes in oneself, one doesn’t try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn’t need other’s approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.” – Lao Tzu

33. “When you start seeing your worth, you’ll find it harder to stay around people who don’t.” – Anonymous

34. “I don’t know why we all hang on to something we’re better off letting go of.” – Meredith Grey

35. “We are what we believe we are.” – C.S. Lewis

36. “Know your worth. People always act like they’re doing more for you than you’re doing for them.” – Kanye West

37 . “A lot of doubt and uncertainty in our lives comes from not knowing that we are worthy.” – Anonymous

38. “What other people think about you has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them.” – Jen Sincero

39. “Be with someone who knows exactly what they have when they have you, not someone who will realize it once they’ve lost you.” – Kevin Hart

40. “There will always be someone who can’t see your worth. Don’t let it be you.” – Mel Robbins

41. “It’s not a bad thing to demand that everyone that comes into your life meet you at your worth. And I ain’t talking money.” – Tyler Perry

42. “The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.” – E.E. Cummings

43. “The only thing that matters in life is your own opinion of yourself.” – Osho

44. “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” – Lucille Ball

45. “If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your self-development.” – Brian Tracy

46. “If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to people’s opinions, you will never be rich.” – Epicurius

47 . “There is no passion to be found in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” – Nelson Mandela

48. “If your life’s worth living, it’s worth recording.” – Tony Robbins

49. “As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

50. “When you know how much you’re worth, you’ll stop giving people discounts.” – Helen Keller

Related: Trust Yourself Quotes

FINAL THOUGHTS

Great job making it to the end of these quotes about knowing your worth. We hope they’ve helped you see yourself in a new and better light than before you got here.

And remember, you are special and unique. You have positive qualities that not everyone can see. But you can see, therefore only you know your value. You are one of a kind and there are undoubtedly things you can do that no one else can do, like be you. So, starting today hold your head up high and go out and get what you’re worth.

That said, if you found any of these quotes inspiring, please share them or the page with someone who may need a few inspiring words at this point in their life.

Till you reach your aims,

PS – If you enjoyed these know your worth quotes then we have a hunch you’ll also enjoy these quotes to help you boost your confidence .

75+ INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT POSSIBILITIES

One of the greatest things about life is that how you perceive it, determines what you can get out of it. If you perceive a world of limitations, that’s what you’ll get. Similarly, if you perceive a world of endless possibilities, that’s what the world will give you. Our mindset and our perspectives matter, which is why we’ve rounded up these inspirational quotes about possibilities.

If you’re looking for some encouraging words to help you shake up your mindset, and renew your perspective that world is yours for the taking, then you’ll love these quotes. So, if you’re ready to start living your life in possibility vs. probabilities, then let’s dive into these quotes about endless possibilities:

BEST QUOTES ABOUT POSSIBILITIES

1. “Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible!” – Audrey Hepburn

2. “You have to be open minded to the possibilities, ‘that I can do this’. Once you shut your mind down to the possibility that it can be achieved, it’s no way it can happen.” – David Goggins

3. “Your mindset is the key that unlocks the doors to unlimited possibilities.” – Anonymous

4. “Imagination belongs to hope. It’s the creative dance of possibility.” – Sharon Weil

5. “If you live your life in possibilities instead of probabilities you have a greater chance of finding happiness.” – Steve Harvey

6. “Potential is not a thing, it’s an idea.” – Eddie Pinero

7. “All things are possible until they are proved impossible and even the impossible may only be so, as of now.” – Pearl S. Buck

8. “You’ve done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.” – Ralph Marston

9. “When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this — you haven’t.” – Thomas Edison

10. “It is the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” – Paulo Coelho

11. “Do not become so attached to any one belief that you cannot see past it to another possibility.” – Christopher Paolin

12. “When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life.” – Eckhart Tolle

13. “If we can see past preconceived limitations, then the possibilities are endless.” – Amy Purdy

14. “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” – Pablo Picasso

15. “The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.” – George Bernard Shaw

16. “When nothing is sure, everything is possible.” – Margaret Drabble

17. “Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” – Mahatma Gandhi

18. “Turn your obstacles into opportunities and your problems into possibilities.” – Roy T. Bennett

19. “I saw all these people around me making all this money and I was like, ‘If they can do i, then I can do it.’ If it’s a possibility for anyone, then it’s a possibility for me.” – Myron Golden

20. “Every new day begins with possibilities.” – Ronald Reagan

21. “I dwell in possibility.” – Emily Dickinson

22. “I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.” – Elon Musk

23. “It’s the way you think about yourself and your possibilities that, more than anything else, determines your successes.” – Brian Tracy

24. “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – St. Francis of Assisi

25. “Anything you want is possible.” – Tyler Perry

26. “You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” – Thomas Merton

27. “No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities-always see them for they’re always there.” – Norman Vincent Peale

28. “The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the buts you use today.” – Les Brown

29. “The Wright brother flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility.” – Charles Kettering

30. “Hope is a passion for the possible.” – Søren Kierkegaard

31. “In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.” – Miguel de Cervantes

32. “What is now proved, was once only imagined.” – William Blake

33. “The possible’s slow fuse is lit by the Imagination.” – Emily Dickinson

34. “The world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome, dubious eggs, called possibilities.” – George Eliot

35. “Nothing in this world is impossible to a willing heart.” – Abraham Lincoln

36. “You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices.” – Deepak Chopra

37 . “I am too much of a skeptic to deny the possibility of anything.” – Thomas Henry Huxley

38. “I love those who yearn for the impossible.” – Goethe

39. “Think bigger. Forget limits. Embrace the idea of endless possibility…. It will change you.” – Marianne Williamson

40. “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope .” – Martin Luther

41. “I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities.” – Whoopi Goldberg

42. “One of the fundamental keys to success and inner peace is allowing yourself to be open to the infinite array of possibilities in your life.” – Wayne Dyer

43. “We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.” – Dale Carnegie

44. “The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.” – Arthur C. Clarke

45. “Whether you believe you can or not, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

46. “One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.” – Abraham Maslow

47 . “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” – Albert Einstein

48. “Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.” – Louis D. Brandeis

49. “There is always tension between the possibilities we aspire to and our wounded memories and past mistakes.” – Sean Brady

50. “I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist.” – Max Lerner

51. “1 year equals 365 possibilities.” – Anonymous

52. “Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the attack.” – Sun Tzu

53. “When you focus on problems, you’ll have more problems. When you focus on possibilities, you’ll have more opportunities.” – Possibility Quote

54. “When you look at the possibilities instead of the problems, the future is filled with endless opportunities.” – Zig Ziglar

55. “The possibilities are endless when you work hard and never give up.” – Anonymous

56. “Tomorrow is filled with as much possibility as you are willing to see.” – Kathyrn Lang

57. “If you embrace possibility thinking, your dreams will go from molehill to mountain size, and because you believe in possibilities, you put yourself in position to achieve them.” – John C. Maxwell

58. “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” – Tommy Lasorda

59. “Believe all the time that.. it’s going to be possible.” – Cristiano Ronaldo

60. “If you believe in yourself, anything is possible.” – Anonymous

61. “A world of possibilities awaits you. Keep turning the page.” – Oprah Winfrey

62. “We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

63. “You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible.” – Deepak Chopra

65. “Life is a journey with almost limitless possibilities.” – Ken Poirot

66. “Behind me is infinite power, before me is endless possibility, around me is boundless opportunity.” – Mac Anderson

67. “Our thoughts and imaginations are the only real limits to our possibilities.” – Orison Swett Marden

68. “The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.” – Ben Herbster

69. “Within us is the unborn possibility of limitless experience. Ours is the privilege of giving birth to it!” – Ernest Holmes

70. “With God, all things are possible.” – Matthew 19:26

71. “All that is within the limits of possibility may and shall be accomplished.” – Jules Verne

72. “Our aspirations are our possibilities.” – Samuel Johnson

73. “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.” – Henry David Thoreau

74. “Positivity = Possibility.” – Grant Cardone

75. “Anything is possible with the right mindset. If you believe in yourself and you sacrifice and dedicate, with the right help you can come back.” – Tyson Fury

76. “Strive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities.” – W.E.B. Du Bois

77. “The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit.” – Jim Rohn

78. “When you hang out with whiners, pessimists, tweakers, bleakers, freakers-outers and life-is-so-unfairers, it’s an uphill climb to keep yourself in a positive headspace. Stay away from people with tiny minds and tiny thoughts and start hanging out with people who see limitless possibility as the reality.” – Jen Sincero

79. “Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you’ll be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” – Golda Meir

80. “When you believe in yourself you believe in possibility.” – Dr. Joe Dispenza

81. “If you can see it in your mind, you will hold it in your hand.” – Bob Proctor

There you have it, the very best quotes about possibilities. We hope they inspired you think and believe beyond what’s been possible for you until now. We hope they’ve encouraged you to open your mind to a future that is filled with endless possibilities.

And remember, most people would rather cling to the familiar than take a chance in possibility. But not you! Believe in yourself and in your possibilities.

PS – If you liked these quotes about possibilities then you’ll love these quotes about achieving the impossible .

100+ LIFE GOES ON QUOTES TO KEEP YOU INSPIRED FOR YOUR BETTER FUTURE

If you’re in need of a few words of encouragement or some helpful life goes on quotes, then this page is for you.

Life constantly throws curve balls. Setbacks and major challenges are a part of life. But sometimes, no matter how much we prepare ourselves for those obstacles, they still have the ability to devastate our lives and derail our best plans. And they do, especially for those who are slow to embrace their setbacks, and realize that life always goes on.

With that said, we know that the best way to get back on track and moving towards our better brighter futures quickly, is to keep looking forward, to stay optimistic, and to continually embrace the fact that life goes on. As such, we’ve pulled together this powerful list of Life Goes On quotes to help people stay inspired and hopeful for the promise of a better future.

So, if you are currently experiencing any setbacks in your life, or if things have been looking bleak lately, allow some of these Life Goes On quotes to convince you that your better future is just around the corner, because it is…..

Best Life Goes On Quotes

1. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.” – Robert Frost

2. “Life is like the waves on the ocean, it keeps going.” – Anonymous

3. “If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.” – Paulo Coelho

4. “Things change. Stuff happens. Life goes on.” – Elizabeth Scott

5. “Removing someone out of your life can hurt like a knife but sometimes, it may be the only way for you to survive.” – Mouloud Benzadi

6. “No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.” – Maya Angelou

7. “To help yourself, you must be yourself. Be the best that you can be. When you make a mistake, learn from it, pick yourself up and move on.” – Dave Plezer

8. “Sometimes you’re flush and sometimes you’re bust, and when you’re up, it’s never as good as it seems, and when you’re down, you never think you’ll be up again, but life goes on.” – George Jung

9. “When you lose what you love, remember to stay strong. Look out the window and remember life goes on.” – Drew Chadwick

10. “I walk slowly, but I never walk backwards.” – Abraham Lincoln

11. “You can’t keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on.” – Oprah Winfrey

12. “Regardless of how it goes down, life goes on.” – Rick Ross

13. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein

14. “Remember, whether you choose to move on or stay stuck in the past, life goes on!” – Billy Cox

15. “We can throw stones, complain about them, stumble on them, climb over them, or build with them.” – William Arthur Ward

16. “Mistakes do happen and life goes on.” – Sourav Ganuly

17. “Life goes by too quickly. So laugh, love, and try new things. Forgive, forget and don’t hold grudges.” – Anymous

18. “We take nothing away and we put nothing back, we pass by and we forget; And the sun is always punctual every day.” – Alberto Caeiro

19. “Life goes on, even when you think it can’t. Even when you don’t especially want it to.” – Jan Strand

20. “Life is an operation which is done in a forward direction. One lives toward the future, because to live consists inexorably in doing, in each individual life making itself.” – Jose Ortega Gasset

21. “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” – Seneca

22. “Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” – Herman Hesse

23. “Life goes on, but the scars remain.” – Lil Wayne

24. “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” – Epictetus

25. “You carry on no matter what are the obstacles. You simply refuse to give up — and, when the going gets tough, you get tougher. And, you win.” – Vince Lombardi

26. “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.” – Life Goes On Quote

27. “Keep moving forward.” – Walt Disney

28. “Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.” – Dalai Lama

29. “New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” – Lao Tzu

30. “Life goes on if you’re one of the lucky ones.” – Judy Blume

31. “It’s hard to turn the page when you know someone won’t be in the next chapter, but the story must go on.” – Thomas Wilder

32. “This moment is but another chance to change your life. Cease brooding about the past, realize that life will go on, and go confidently in the direction of your dreams.” – Anonymous

33. “There is no passion to be found playing small — in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” – Nelson Mandela

34. “Do something today for a better tomorrow.” – Anonymous

35. “ It’s never too late to be who you might have been.” – George Eliot

36. “People change and things go wrong but just remember life goes on.” – Mac Miller

37. “God gave us rain to remind us that life will not always be sunny but it will keep going on.” – Anonymous

38. “If something does go wrong, here is my advice… keep calm and carry on.” – Maira Kalman

39. “I’ll be strong, I’ll be wrong, oh but life goes on. Oh, I’m just a girl, trying to find a place in this world.” – Taylor Swift

40. “There’s no time for regrets. You’ve just got to keep moving forward.” – Mike McCready

41. “Even though we have been hurt, we must find a way to get through it, life goes on whether we want it to or not. The world keeps turning no matter how bad we feel. This is why we have to learn how to bounce back and keep moving forward.” – Rashida Rowe

42. “If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

43. “You can’t have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.” – Charles Kettering

44. “Surrender to what is. Let go of what was. Have faith in what will be.” – Sonia Ricotti

45. “Everyday is the opportunity for a better tomorrow.” – Hugh Laurie

46. “Life goes on, and one should look ahead and not backward.” – Sonali Bendre

47. “If you’re not okay, that’s okay. It will happen sometimes. But you have to tell yourself that things will be better tomorrow. Eve if they’re not better tomorrow, keep telling yourself they will be. Because eventually, tomorrow will be better .” – Sam Miller

48. “Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” – Allen Saunders

49. “You can’t stop living just because it hurts. Life goes on and so should you!” – Anonymous

50. “Morning will come, it has no choice.” – Marty Rubin

Halfway There: You’re more than halfway through these life goes on quotes, great job! This next section consists of quotes about life goes on as well, but, they are more focused more on inspiring you. We hope they succeed in doing so.

51. “It’s always darkest before the dawn. So hold on to hope and be strong because it doesn’t last forever this darkness.” – Astrid Alauda

52. “It is not what happens that determines the major part of your future. What happens, happens to us all. It is what you do about what happens that counts.” – Jim Rohn

53. “One thing always sure. Life goes on with you or without you, no matter how much you have seen.” – Lalita Tademy

54. “As life goes on, the more you allow any negativity to consume your thoughts, the less room you have for positivity to enter them.” – Demi Lovato

55. “We can’t become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” – Oprah Winfrey

56. “Head up. Shoulders back. Tomorrow is a new day.” – Anonymous

57. “Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.” – Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe

58. “We cannot control the wind but we can adjust our sails.” – Anonymous

59. “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

60. “Tomorrow the sun will rise on all your doubts.” – Marty Rubin

61. “Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny.” – Steve Maraboli

62. “Life isn’t about waiting around for things that happen tomorrow. It’s about what we do right now while were alive!” – Anonymous

63. “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” – E.E Cummings

64. “Whether you choose to move on from your struggles and enjoy life or waddle in your misery, life will continue.” – Germany Kent

65. “Life goes on. People move on, but God remains on your side.” – Gift Gugu Mona

66. “Accidents happen. Our bones shatter, our skin splits, our hearts break. We burn, we drown, we stay alive.” – Moïra Fowley-Doyle

67. “You cannot be truly humble, unless you truly believe that life can and will go on without you.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana

68. “Empires collapse, civilizations disappear, health deteriorates, and bodies turn to ash, but life will always go on” – Mouloud Benzadi

69. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is to smash my own spiders and get on with my day. There will be another!” – Hoda Kotb

70. “In the end, we all become stories.” – Anonymous

71. “There’s always tomorrow and it always gets better.” – Ariana Grande

72. “If you fail today there is always tomorrow to try again. You always have that second chance tomorrow.” – Avina Celeste

73. “Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can .” – Anonymous

74. “Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forwards.” – Soren Kierkegaard

75. “Mistakes happen and life goes on.” – Sourav Ganguly

76. “Sooner or later we’ve all got to let go of our past.” – Dan Brown

77. “Note to self: Nobody is worth stressing over. Move on, leave people behind and go find yourself. The world is your. Life goes on.” – Anonymous

78. “Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over.” – Guy Finley

79. “Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.” – Roy T. Bennett

80. “You can’t turn the clock back, so you have to look ahead.” – Mel Gibson

81. “The longer your life goes on, the more death you face.” – Patrick Swayze

82. “Trust the wait. Embrace the uncertainty. Enjoy the beauty of becoming. When nothing is certain, anything is possible.” – Anonymous

83. “Don’t forget you’re simply human. It’s okay to have a meltdown, just don’t unpack and live there. Cry it out and then refocus on where you are headed. Life goes on.” – Anonymous

84. “Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.” – Steve Maraboli

85. “The beginning is always today.” – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

86. “Life is about change. Sometimes it’s painful. Sometimes it’s beautiful. But most of the time, it’s both.” – Lana Lang

87. “As long as you’re still alive, you always have the chance to start again.” – Emily Acker

88. “Be strong, because things will get better. It might be stormy now, but it never rains forever.” – Anonymous

89. “Be strong, because things will get better. It might be stormy now, but it never rains forever.” – Anonymous

90. “Through every dark night, there’s a bright day after that, so no matter how hard it get, stick your chest out, keep your head up, and handle it.” – Tupac Shakur

91. “Life doesn’t stop for anybody.” – Kevin Hart

92. “Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction.” – Germany Kent

93 . “… of all things this was the saddest, that life goes on: if one leave’s one’s lover, life should stop for him, and if one disappears from the world, then the world should stop, too: and it never did. And that was the real reason for most people getting up in the morning: not because it would matter but because it wouldn’t.” – Truman Capote

94. “One day the world stopped without any warning, spring didn’t know how to wait, showed up not even a minute late.” – BTS

95. “Nothing is permanent. Not even the end of the world.” – Isaac Marion

96. “The sky is blue, the grass is green and life will go on.” – Aly Aubrey

97. “I will go anywhere as long as it is forward.” – David Livingston

98. “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them — that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Lao Tzu

99. “There is nothing permanent except change.” – Heraclitus

100. “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.” – Richard Bach

Bonus Life Goes on Quote

Bonus: Here is our last and final Life Goes on Quote. We hope it will inspire you to shake off your past, and look forward to the promise of a better future:

“Stop Acting As If Life Is A Rehearsal. Live This Day As If It Were Your Last. The Past Is Over And Gone. The Future Is Not Guaranteed.” – wayne dyer –

Related: Moving On Quotes

We hope you enjoyed these inspirational Life Goes On quotes. Please consider sharing this page or a quote or two with someone who could might appreciate a few encouraging words that life does indeed go on, and that tomorrow is a new day.

With that said, thanks for stopping by.

PS – If you enjoyed our Life Goes On Quotes then you’ll love these inspirational quotes about life and struggles .

50 INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES FROM THE OBSTACLE IS THE WAY

Dream chasing is not for the faint of heart. Not only does it take massive courage to reach for the dreams and goals that many shrug off as impossible, but it also takes grit, tenacity, and an almost god-like will power to see things through. Indeed, success demands the overcoming of obstacles. And having and handful of powerful quotes to inspire you to keep moving forward against all odds is wise. As such, we’ve decided to publish the best The Obstacle Is The Way quotes to inspire you to succeed in the face of failure.

So, if you’re a fellow dreamer, or an aspiring high achiever, these inspiring words will keep you going strong. And if you’re ready to get started, let’s dive in.

50 Best Quotes From The Obstacle is The Way

1. “It’s okay to be discouraged. It’s not okay to quit. To know you want to quit but to plant your feet and keep inching closer until you take the impenetrable fortress you’ve decided to lay siege to in your own life—that’s persistence.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

2. “To argue, to complain, or worse, to just give up, these are choices. Choices that more often than not, do nothing to get us across the finish line.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

3. “Failure shows us the way—by showing us what isn’t the way.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

4. “You know what’s better than building things up in your imagination? Building things up in real life.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

5. “ Uncertainty and fear are relieved by authority. Training is authority. It’s a release valve.” – Ryan, Holiday The Obstacle is The Way

6. “Remember that this moment is not your life, it’s just a moment in your life.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

7. “He knew that to aim low meant to accept mediocre accomplishment. But a high aim, if things went right, create something extraordinary.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

8. “Like Earhart, Rommel knew from history that those who attack problems and life with the most initiative and energy usually win .” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

9. “We talk a lot about courage as a society, but we forget that at its most basic level it’s really just taking action—whether that’s approaching someone you’re intimated by or deciding to finally crack a book on a subject you need to learn.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

10. “Genius often really is just persistence in disguise.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

Obstacle Is The Way Quote on Persistence

11. “It doesn’t matter whether this is the worst time to be alive or the best, whether you’re in a good job market or a bad one, or that the obstacle you face is intimidating or burdensome. What matters is that right now is right now.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

12. “It’s a huge step forward to realize that the worst thing to happen is never the event, but the event and losing your head.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

13. “Problems are rarely as bad as we think—or rather, they are precisely as bad as we think.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

14. “This is one thing all great men and women of history have in common. Like oxygen to a fire, obstacles became fuel for a blaze that was their ambition. Nothing could stop them, they were (and continue to be) impossible to discourage or contain. Every impediment only served to make the inferno within them burn with greater ferocity.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

15. “We blame our bosses, the economy, our politicians, other people, or we write ourselves off as failures or our goals as impossible. When really only one thing is at fault: our attitude and approach .” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

16. “The most harmful dragon we chase is the one that makes us think we can change things that are simply not ours to change.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

17. “It’s supposed to be hard. Your first attempts aren’t going to work. It’s going to take a lot out of you- but energy is an asset we can always find more of. It’s a renewable resource. Stop looking for an epiphany, and start looking for weak points. Stop looking for angels, and start looking for angels. There are options. Settle in for the long haul and then try each and every possibility, and you’ll get there.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

18. “You’ll have far better luck toughening yourself up, than you ever will trying to take the teeth out of a world that is, at best, indifferent to your existence” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

19. “The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

20. “Think progress, not perfection.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

21. “Today most of our obstacles are internal, not external.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

22. “Like any good school, learning from failure isn’t free. The tuition is paid in discomfort or loss and having to start over.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

23. “The good thing about true perseverance is that it can’t be stopped by anything besides death.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

24. “Each time, you’ll learn something. Each time, you’ll develop strength, wisdom, and perspective. Each time, a little more of the competition falls away. Until all that is left is you: the best version of you.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

25. “Where the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

26. “The one way to guarantee we don’t benefit from failure—to ensure it is a bad thing – is to not learn from it.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

27. “Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them.” – Andy Grove, The Obstacle is The Way

28. “Persist in your efforts. Resist giving in to distraction, discouragement, or disorder.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

29. “Failure puts you in corners you have to think your way out of. It is a source of breakthroughs.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

30. “The things that hurt, instruct.” – Benjamin Franklin , The Obstacle is The Way

31. “If you think it is simply enough to take advantage of the opportunities that arise in your life, you will fall short of greatness. Anyone sentient can do that. What you must do is learn how to press forward precisely when everyone around you sees disaster.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

32. “ True will is quiet humility, resilience , and flexibility; the other kind of will is weakness disguised as bluster and ambition. See which lasts longer under the hardest of circumstances.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

33. “Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing and wherever we are going, we owe it to ourselves, to our art, to the world to do it well. That’s our primary duty. And our obligation.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

34. “There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

35. “We forget: In life, it doesn’t matter what happens to you or where you came from. It matters what you do with what happens and what you’ve been given.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

36. “Failure really can be an asset if what you’re trying to do is improve, learn, or do something new.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

37. “No one said you can’t ever cry. Forget ‘manliness.’ If you need to take a moment, by all means, go ahead. Real strength lies in the control or, as Nassim Taleb put it, the domestication of one’s emotions, not in pretending they don’t exist.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

38. “If an emotion can’t change the condition or the situation you’re dealing with, it is likely an unhelpful emotion. Or, quite possibly, a destructive one. But it’s what I feel. Right, no one said anything about not feeling it.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

39. “Death doesn’t make life pointless, but rather purposeful.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

40. “Blessings and burdens are not mutually exclusive.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

41. “How we interpret the events in our lives, our perspective, is the framework for our forthcoming response—whether there will even be one or whether we’ll just lie there and take it.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

42. “First, see clearly. Next, act correctly. Finally, endure and accept the world as it is.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

43. “An entrepreneur is someone with faith in their ability to make something where there was nothing before. To them, the idea that no one has ever done this or that is a good thing.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

44. “The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

45. “Our actions may be impeded . . . but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

46. “Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

47. “There are far more failures in the world due to a collapse of will than there will ever be from objectively conclusive external events.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

48. “You will come across obstacles in life—fair and unfair. And you will discover, time and time again, that what matters most is not what these obstacles are but how we see them, how we react to them, and whether we keep our composure” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

49. “Our perceptions determine, to an incredibly large degree, what we are and are not capable of. In many ways, they determine reality itself. When we believe in the obstacle more than in the goal, which will inevitably triumph?” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

50. “We decide what story to tell ourselves. Or whether we will tell one at all.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

Bonus Obstacle is The Way Quote

“Focus on the moment, not the monsters that may or may not be up ahead.” – Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is The Way

Related: Best Stoic Quotes

There you have it friend, 50 of the best quotes from The Obstacle is The Way . Study these remarkable quotes, and then put them into action in your daily life. Certainly the few gems we shared on this page should be enough to at least get you started on smashing through some of those daily obstacles we all face in life.

Lastly, if there is one book we would recommend to all entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, or even big dreamers who find themselves deep into the fire and fury that inevitably follows such pursuits, it would be the book we derived these great quotes from, The Obstacle Is The Way . It definitely is a book every dreamer and achiever should have in their library.

Note: We’re reader supported, if you buy through one of the links above, we may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you.

With that being said, we hope you enjoyed these encouraging quotes. Now get out there and start leveraging this wisdom to turn your toughest trials into your greatest triumphs.

PS – If you enjoyed these The Obstacle Is The Way Quotes, then you’ll like enjoy these Inspirational Quotes About Life and Struggles .

100+ EARL NIGHTINGALE QUOTES TO HELP YOU SUCCEED IN THE WORLD TODAY

Earl Nightingale was a highly influential personality who came to fame in the 20th century. He retired early by the age of 35, pioneered one of the first audio-recordings in the success and self-development industry, and eventually published one the most well thought-out and masterfully narrated success guides ever created. Having discovered the secret to success , and then generously sharing that secret with the rest of the world, his contribution to modern society is for all intents and purposes, unmatched. As such, we aim to ensure his legacy and sage advice continues to change peoples lives. Which is why, we’ve decided to publish this collection of the very best Earl Nightingale quotes from a variety of his best works.

“Earl Nightingale Has Inspired More People Toward Success And Fortune Than Any Other Motivational Speaker On The Planet.” – zig ziglar –

So, if you’re ready to learn from the wise words of one of the world’s most prominent scholars on the subject of success, and learn the very secret to success while you’re at it, then let’s dive into these quotes:

BEST EARL NIGHTINGALE QUOTES

1. “Every one of us is the sum total of his own thoughts.” – Earl Nightingale

2. “People are where they are because that is exactly where they really want to be whether they will admit that or not.” – Earl Nightingale

3. “Your world is a living expression of how you are using and have used your mind.” – Earl Nightingale

4. “Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become reality.” – Earl Nightingale

5. “When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself” – Earl Nightingale

6. “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” – Earl Nightingale

7. “ Our attitude toward life determines life’s attitude towards us.” – Earl Nightingale

8. “It is not what happens to you in life that makes the difference. It is how you react to each circumstance you encounter that determines the result.” – Earl Nightingale

9. “Wherever there is danger, there lurks opportunity; wherever there is opportunity, there lurks danger. The two are inseparable.” – Earl Nightingale

10. “The strangest secret in the world is that you become what you think about.” – Earl Nightingale

Earl Nightingale Quotes on Success

This next batch of quotes is some of Earl’s wisest words on the topic of finding and achieving success. No doubt, all of his advice can be attributed to success, but this next handful of quotes are the most poignant.

With that said, if you’re here in search of success insights then these Earl Nightingale quotes on success will do the trick. Enjoy.

11. “People with goals succeed because they know where they are going.” – Earl Nightingale

12. “Whatever the majority of people are doing, under any given circumstance, if you’ll do the exact opposite, you will probably never make another mistake as long as you live.” – Earl Nightingale

13. “We are all self-made, but only the successful will admit it.” – Earl Nightingale

14. “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.” – Earl Nightingale

15. “Success is not the result of making money; making money is the result of success… and success is in direct proportion to our service.” – Earl Nightingale

16. “A success is anyone who is doing deliberately a worthy predetermined job, because that’s what he decided to do deliberately.” – Earl Nightingale

17. “There is no success without suffering. I think that the word ‘suffering’ was meant to mean tremendous effort and direction.” – Earl Nightingale

18. “Successful people form the habit of doing what failures don’t like to do. They like the results they get by doing what they don’t necessarily enjoy.” – Earl Nightingale

19. “Men credited with all kinds of ability, talent, brains and know how, including the ability to see into the future, frequently have nothing more than the courage to keep everlastingly at what they set out to do. They have that one great quality that is worth more than all the rest put together. They simply will not give up! When a man makes up his mind to do something then it’s only a matter of time. Staying with time takes bulldog persistence. This seems to be the entrance examination to success – lasting success — of any kind!” – Earl Nightingale

20. “We tend to live up to our expectations.” – Earl Nightingale

21. “Your success will always be measured by the quality and quantity of service you render.” – Earl Nightingale

22. “ Successful people are not without problems. They’re simply people who’ve learned to solve their problems.” – Earl Nightingale

23. “Most people tiptoe through life, hoping to make it safely to death.” – Earl Nightingale

24. “A success is the school teacher who is teaching because that’s what she wants to do.” – Earl Nightingale

25. “The only person who succeeds is the person who is progressively realizing a worthy ideal.” – Earl Nightingale

26. “All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.” – Earl Nightingale

27. “Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.” – Earl Nightingale

28. “A person who does not read is no better than one cannot read.” – Earl Nightingale

29. “Any person who contributes to prosperity must prosper in turn.” – Earl Nightingale

30. “A great attitude is not the result of success; Success is the result of a great attitude.” – Earl Nightingale

31. “If the grass is greener on the other side it’s probably getting better care.” – Earl Nightingale

32. “Each of us creates his or her own life largely by our attitude.” – Earl Nightingale

33. “One extra hour of study per day and you’ll be a national expert in five years or less.” – Earl Nightingale

34. “If you don’t have a good model for success, just look at what everybody else is doing and do the opposite.” – Earl Nightingale

35. “Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.” – Earl Nightingale

36. “Plant your goal in your mind. It’s the most important decision you’ll ever make in your entire life.” – Earl Nightingale

37. “The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.” – Earl Nightingale

38. “We must radiate success before it will come to us. We must first become mentally, from an attitude standpoint, the people we wish to become.” – Earl Nightingale

39. “Just one great idea can completely revolutionize your work and, as a result, your life.”

40. “You must radiate success before it will come to you.” – Earl Nightingale

Inspiring Earl Nightingale Quotes

If you’ve never read or listened to any of Earl Nightingales books or audio books, we highly recommend the investment. Quotes are a great starting place to get you accustomed to his line of thinking, but you’ll get the most out of his teachings by studying his material thoroughly.

With that said, here are some of the most inspiring Earl Nightingale quotes we collected during our study. Enjoy.

41. “A person’s discontent can be said to be measured by the distance between what he has and what he wants.” – Earl Nightingale

42. “We will receive not what we idly wish for, but what we justly earn. Our rewards will always be in exact proportion to our service.” – Earl Nightingale

43. “You are now and you do become, what you think about.” – Earl Nightingale

44. “Perseverance is another word for faith!” – Earl Nightingale

45. “Act the part of the successful person whom you’ve decided to become.” – Earl Nightingale

46. “We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light.” – Earl Nightingale

47. “A bad attitude is like a flat tire. You can’t go anywhere till you change it.” – Earl Nightingale

48. “The key that unlocks energy is ”Desire’.’ It’s also the key to a long and interesting life. If we expect to create any drive, any real force within ourselves, we have to get excited.” – Earl Nightingale

49. “Creativity is an expression of our enthusiasm.” – Earl Nightingale

50. “Everything begins with an idea.” – Earl Nightingale

51 . “Work never killed anyone. It’s worry that does the damage. And the worry would disappear if we’d just settle down and do the work.” – Earl Nightingale

52. “Problems are challenges to creative minds. Without problems, there would be little reason to think at all.” – Earl Nightingale

53. “The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for somebody else.” – Earl Nightingale

54. “Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now.” – Earl Nightingale

55. “Your problem is to bridge the gap which exists between where you are now and the goal you intend to reach .” – Earl Nightingale

56. “You’ll find boredom where there is the absence of a good idea.” – Earl Nightingale

57. “There is a time when one must decide either to risk everything to fulfill one’s dreams or sit for the rest of one’s life in the backyard.” – Earl Nightingale

58. “Don’t concern yourself with the money. Be of service … build … work … dream … create! Do this and you’ll find there is no limit to the prosperity and abundance that will come to you.” – Earl Nightingale

59. “Do each day all that can be done that day. You don’t need to overwork or to rush blindly into your work trying to do the greatest possible number of things in the shortest possible time.” – Earl Nightingale

60. “What’s going on in the inside shows on the outside.” – Earl Nightingale

Earl Nightingale Quotes from The Greatest Discovery

Earl Nightingale’s first published book was ‘The Greatest Discovery’ which won him the Napoleon Hill Gold Medal for Literary Excellence. [1] As such, this next batch consists of some of the best Earl Nightingale quotes from his book ‘The Greatest Discovery’. We hope you enjoy this rare collection of inspiring quotes.

If you want to learn more about Earl Nightingale before you dive into this next batch of quotes, this is a terrific place to start here: Who His Earl Nightingale?

61. “The best is never the most popular.” – Earl Nightingale

62. “Using our intuition along with our intelligence as a guide, can be the best way to produce super ideas.” – Earl Nightingale

63. “Planting a problem or question deep in the subconscious by first turning it every which way during an in-depth conscious attempt to solve it, usually results in the answer eventually appearing completely unbidden in our consciousness.” – Earl Nightingale

64. “When can think better, more profitably, and serve more people through ideas than we can ever do physically.” – Earl Nightingale

65. “The ideas we hold should be in concert with our goals, if our goals are to be successfully achieved.” – Earl Nightingale

66. “An idea is the bringing together of known increments to provide a new result.” – Earl Nightingale

67. “Service, we are here to serve each other. And every one of us does who receives anything back in the way of return. Those who do not serve, do not receive anything.” – Earl Nightingale

68. “The greatest thing in the world is the opportunity to be of service to others.” – Earl Nightingale

69. “Attitude comes very close to being everything about success or failure.” – Earl Nightingale

70. “There’s a place for every person who will persevere .” – Earl Nightingale

71. “My habit of muttering to myself, “Stay with it!” had paid off, just as it always does.” – Earl Nightingale

72. “It’s staying with it that separates the winners from the losers.” – Earl Nightingale

73. “A person can have a great education, but if he also has a poor attitude, he will almost certainly fail.” – Earl Nightingale

74. “We are what we repeatedly do, but what we do is a matter of choice.” – Earl Nightingale

75. “We become successful to the extent of our true desires and determination, and we do so by building on our strong points; our forte.” – Earl Nightingale

The Strangest Secret Quotes by Earl Nightingale

Earl Nightingale’s claim to fame and lasting legacy was his creation of the audiobook ‘The Strangest Secret’. We’ve provided a few quotes from this masterpiece in earlier sections; however, this batch focuses on the very Strangest Secret quotes by Earl Nightingale.

76. “Books are filled with ideas, and ideas spur us into action.” – Earl Nightingale

77. “I can determine what I think about, therefore I can determine what I become and what I have.” – Earl Nightingale

78. “Our minds are the gyrocompasses of our lives, we can only go were they direct us, and we are in charge of our minds.” – Earl Nightingale

79. “You will do more good for the rest of the human race enthusiastically going full bore after the things you want, than in any other way, because the only way you can get the things you want is by providing service to others — and the more intense and enthusiastic you are about it, the better will be your service. It’s the way the free-market private enterprise American system works.” – Earl Nightingale

80. “The universal key to success simply put is this… as you think , so shall you become.” – Earl Nightingale

Earl Nightingale Quote About Key To Success

81. “You’ll do best at what you most want to do in the pursuit of your personal goals, in so doing, you’ll provide the maximum service to those you need to help you.” – Earl Nightingale

82. “Ideas are the most important things on earth, and each of us has his or her our own idea factory — it comes as standard equipment at birth.” – Earl Nightingale

83. “Don’t ever say, I’d like to get to the point where I can start taking things easy.” – Earl Nightingale

84. “Our rewards, all the years of our lives, will be in proportion to our service. We are here, we live, in order to serve one another.” – Earl Nightingale

85. “Without ideas, we’d still be sitting in the trees grooming one another.” – Earl Nightingale

86. “There are no guarantees. Don’t confuse opportunity with guarantee.” – Earl Nightingale

87. “It’s best you get rid of that terrible word “security” now, once and for all, there’s no such thing as security as long as you’re alive. Dead you’re secure. Unborn you’re secure. If you’re alive, you’re the very epitome of insecurity.” – Earl Nightingale

88. “People will make you rich, or keep you broke, depending on the way you serve them. You should make up your mind at the outset if you are planning to become a successful entrepreneur , that you are going to make people outside the organization and inside the organization your special concern.” – Earl Nightingale

89. “You can’t lose money on a customer if you treat him or her the way they should be treated.” – Earl Nightingale

90. “Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity.” – Earl Nightingale

91. “The successful person does things. The unsuccessful person has done things done to him or her.” – Earl Nightingale

92. “Life should be an exciting adventure. It should never be a bore. A man should live fully , be alive. He should be glad to get out of bed in the morning. He should be doing a job that he likes to do because he does it well.” – Earl Nightingale

93. “Your success will always be measured by the quality and quantity of service you render.” – Earl Nightingale

94. “There is no fragment of this freedom of ours, that can’t be turned into the success we seek.” – Earl Nightingale

95. “There are no jobs so humble, that they do not have lurking within them the opportunity for greatness and all the success we could possibly want, but it takes that expectant attitude to see it.” – Earl Nightingale

96. “More than any other factor perhaps, the unsuccessful person can usually be identified with a group.” – Earl Nightingale

97. “The person who succeeds in America is the person who sets his or her own wages, goals, and lifestyle.” – Earl Nightingale

98. “The American people can become whatever it is they want to become – the trouble is, they seldom make that decision.” – Earl Nightingale

99. “The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice… it is conformity.”

100. “The unsuccessful person sowing little , reaps little.” – Earl Nightingale

101. “The law is, that our financial return will be in direct proportion to our service.” – Earl Nightingale

102. “If you believe you can enrich yourself by deluding others, you can end only by deluding yourself.” – Earl Nightingale

103. “ Money is the harvest of our production.” – Earl Nightingale

104. “No man can get rich himself unless he enriches others.” – Earl Nightingale

105. “The greatest journey is the journey of the mind.” – Earl Nightingale

Bonus Earl Nightingale Quote

Bonus: Here’s our last and final Earl Nightingale quote. It’s been said in one of the earlier quotes in a different way. But, it’s being rehashed here because we believe it’s one of his best, and it’s the one you’ll stand to gain the most from. So, if you take any quote from this page to run with, this is the one to take, Enjoy.

“We Become What We Think About Most Of The Time, And That’s The Strangest Secret.” – earl nightingale –

There you have it, the most comprehensive collection of Earl Nightingale quotes on the web. We hope the wisdom found in his words inspires you to learn more about this inspiring human.

But most importantly, we hope his quotes will eventually lead to your own serious study of his time-tested philosophy of success.

That said, if you enjoyed these quotes, please share them. Or, if you think there’s a Millennial or Gen Z’er out there who could benefit from the learning of Earl Nightingale’s timeless wisdom, please share these quotes with them as well. Because there’s no doubt, that his success philosophy is one of the best kept secrets of this generation.

PS – If you enjoyed these Earl Nightingale quotes, then there’s a good chance you’ll also stand to benefit from studying the wise words of these success-minded individuals as well:

Napoleon Hill | Zig Ziglar | Bob Proctor | Jim Rohn

75 INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT RESPECT

Respect is a fundamental human need. We all crave respect and admiration from others, and we all have a deep need for self-respect as well. As Maya Angelou once put it, “I think it’s important to respect yourself because if you don’t then nobody else is going to respect you.”

Thus, both having and giving respect is essential to a happy and fulfilling life. It’s the foundation of a healthy self-esteem, a positive self-image, and our ability to give respect to others. Respect is an important part of life, and it’s critical to earn if one is striving for more success and influence in their lives.

So, if you’re looking for a little bit of inspiration and some of the best sayings and quotes about respect, you’ll find both here:

BEST QUOTES ABOUT RESPECT

1. “Respect is earned by action alone, not self-graticulation.” – Paul Combs

2. “Self-respect knows no considerations.” – Mahatma Gandhi

3. “You can’t force someone to respect you, but you can refuse to be disrespected.” – Barb Schmidt

4. “As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others.” – Robert Schuller

5. “I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.” – Albert Einstein

6. “Do not tolerate disrespect, not even from yourself.” – Unknown

7. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

8. “You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.” – Sarah Dessen

9. “Self respect is the fruit of discipline ; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. ” – Abraham Heschel

10. “Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.” – John Herschell

11. “Respect is a two-way street, if you want to get it, you’ve got to give it.” – R.G. Risch

12. “If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.” – John W. Gardner

13. “Blood, sweat and respect. First two you give, last one you earn.” – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

14. “Never respect men merely for their riches, but rather for their philanthropy; we do not value the sun for its height, but for its use.” – Gamaliel Bailey

15. “When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us.” – Arapaho proverb

16. “Respect other people’s feelings. It might mean nothing to you, but it could mean everything to them.” – Roy T. Bennett

17. “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” – Jackie Robinson

18. “One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” – Bryant H. McGill

19. “How people treat you with their karma. How you react is yours.” – Wayne W. Dyer

20. “I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.” – Mahatma Gandhi

21. “There is no respect for others without humility in one’s self.” – Henri Amiel

22. “Be you. The world will adjust.” – Barry Popik

23. “Love yourself enough to surround yourself with people who respect you.” – Anonymous

24. “Life is short, and we should respect every moment of it.” – Orhan Pamuk

25. “A human being is not to be handled as a tool but is to be respected and revered.” – Felix Adler

26. “When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.” – Dalai Lama

27. “The right to be respected is won by respecting others.” – Vasyl Sukhomlynsky

28. “Always respect another’s opinion and another’s point of view.” – Sri Sathya Sai Baba

29. “Responsibility and respect for others and their religious beliefs are also part of freedom.” – Horst Koehler

30. “If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.” – Louis D. Brandeis

31. “One of the surprising things in this world is the respect a worthless man has for himself.” E. W. Howe

32. “Have a big enough heart to love unconditionally, and a broad enough mind to embrace the differences that make each of us unique.” – D.B. Harrop

33. “To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness. ” – Robert Moley

34. “You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.” – Amy Bloom

35. “The fact that someone else loves you doesn’t rescue you from the project of loving yourself.” – Sahaj Kohli

36. “Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.” – Laurence Sterne

37. “Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you or makes you happy.” – Robert Tew

38. “Everyone’s a STAR and deserves the right to twinkle.” – Marilyn Monroe

39 “Respect is how to treat everyone.” – Richard Branson

40. “Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.” – Bruce Lee

41. “Respect is as important as love in a relationship!” – Anonymous

42. “Life is too short to waste your time on people who don’t respect, appreciate, and value you.” – Roy T. Bennett

43. “Respect yourself and others will respect you.” – Confucius

44. “I am who I am. That’s why my friends and peers respect and appreciate me.” – Kevin Hart

45. “The idea of respect is more than just being polite.” – Bruce Glassman

46. “Little people are indifferent. Superior people are caring.” – Maxima Lagac’e

47. “I can be hurt only by people I respect.” – Mary Balogh

48. “I must respect the opinions of others even if I disagree with them.” – Herbert H. Lehman

49. “Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.” – Leo Tolstoy

50. “Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one is idolized.” – Albert Einstein

51. “Respect is earned. Honesty is appreciated. Trust is gained. Loyalty is returned.” – Ed Mylett

52. “Show up early, treat people with respect and perform at the highest levels till the world can’t deny you.” – Grant Cardone

53. “Our lives are a work of art. Plant seeds of love and respect and reap a harvest of prosperity and peace.” – Joan Pillen

54. “We can’t expect to be respected if we can’t respect ourselves.” – Derrick Jackson

55. “Don’t worry what others think of you, be confident and straightforward with decency and others will respect you.” – Lori Greiner

56. “Respect is earned, not demanded.” – Stacy Halls

57. “The respect you give others is a dramatic reflection of the respect you give yourself.” – Robin Sharma

58. “The only authority I respect is the one that causes butterflies to fly south in the fall and north in the springtime.” – Tony Robbins

59. “In many ways, effective communication begins with mutual respect, communication that inspires, encourages others to be their best.” – Zig Ziglar

60. “My company survives because I’ve learned to respect the ideas of people younger than me and recognize when my wisdom is obsolete.” – Robert Kiyosaki

61. “To undermine a man’s self-respect is a sin.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

62. “Service to many leads to greatness, great respect, great satisfaction.” – Jim Rohn

63. “No matter how they’re treating you there is one way to not only their respect, but turn the tables. Excellence.” – David Goggins

64. “The more that you treat your troops with respect, the more they’re going to respect you.” – Jocko Willink

65. “The highest form of self love and self respect is being fit.” – Bedros Keuilian

66. “People don’t have to like you, they have to respect you.” – Kevin O’Leary

67. “The more you respect yourself, the less disrespect you’ll put up with from others.” – Mel Robbins

68. “When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet in his private heart no man much respects himself.” – Mark Twain

69. “Reject rejection! If someone says no, just say NEXT.” – Jack Canfield

70. “Don’t ask for respect. Earn it.” – Robin Sharma

71. “People really do respect those who are willing to speak their truth.” – Wayne Dyer

72. “I don’t want to be liked, I want to be respected. Because if you like me you can throw me away too quick. If you respect me, you may not even like what I was wearing, but you’ll say, “I respect that.” – Ray Lewis

73. “We should respect all people.” – Helen Keller

74. “We do not covet anything from any nation expect for their respect.” – Winston Churchill

75. “You must find the courage to leave the table if respect is no longer being served.” – Mel Robbins

Related: Short Quotes On Life

Bonus Quote on Respect

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“Respect Is One Of The Greatest Expressions Of Love.” – miguel angel ruiz –

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v.9(34); 2023 Aug
PMC10446494

Poverty, not the poor

David brady.

1 University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.

2 WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Berlin, Germany.

This review explains how and why the United States has systemically high poverty. Descriptive evidence shows that U.S. poverty is (i) a huge share of the population, (ii) a perennial outlier among rich democracies, (iii) staggeringly high for certain groups, (iv) unexpectedly high for those who “play by the rules,” and (v) pervasive across various groups and places. This review then discusses and critiques three prevailing approaches focused on the individual poor rather than the systemically high poverty: (i) behavioral explanations “fixing the poor,” (ii) emotive compassion “dramatizing the poor,” and (iii) cultural explanations both dramatizing and fixing the poor. The essay then reviews political explanations that emphasize the essential role of social policy generosity, political choices to penalize risks, power resources of collective political actors, and institutions. This review demonstrates a long emerging but ascending and warranted shift away from individualistic explanations of the poor toward political explanations of poverty.

Recent research changes our understanding of the causes of and policies for reducing systemically high poverty in the U.S.

INTRODUCTION

The historian Michael Katz ( 1 ) writes, “The idea that poverty is a problem of persons—that it results from moral, cultural, or biological inadequacies—has dominated discussions of poverty for well over two hundred years and given us the enduring idea of the undeserving poor.” Scholarship and public debate about American poverty have traditionally focused on contrasting the individual poor against the individual nonpoor. For a long time, the field has highlighted the individual demographic and labor market risks that are more common among the poor. In the process, the field has emphasized the problematic choices, behaviors, cultures, and traits of the poor. It has routinely asked why the poor fail to get married, why the poor do not complete their education, and why the poor do not work. This has implied that the poor are poor because of the “problem of persons”—owing to pathological choices, behavior, cultures, and traits—and this has led to a focus on poor individuals.

This review of the field shows that these tendencies have distracted researchers from the larger and more salient issue of America’s systemically high poverty. A focus on the individual poor has been incapable of providing an accurate understanding of that systemically high poverty. Explaining the systemically high U.S. poverty requires a paradigmatic shift to focus on poverty, not the poor. This paradigmatic shift builds on a long-standing critical undercurrent in and the contested nature of poverty debates ( 2 – 6 ). Such a paradigmatic shift is also likely to lead to more effective anti-poverty policies.

First, this review defines the measurement of poverty. Second, it demonstrates how the United States has systemically high poverty. Third, it critically reviews three prevailing approaches focused on the problem of persons and the individual poor. Fourth, it reviews political explanations of America’s systemically high poverty. Political explanations provide a far more promising direction for American poverty research. This review culminates in showing that a long-needed paradigmatic shift is gaining momentum toward studying poverty, not the poor.

POVERTY MEASUREMENT

Poverty is best defined as a shortage of resources compared with needs ( 7 , 8 ). This review, like a growing consensus of poverty researchers, explicitly avoids the deeply flawed official poverty measure (OPM) because of its well-documented validity and reliability problems ( 1 , 4 , 8 – 11 ). National Academy of Sciences panels in 1995 ( 12 ) and 2019 ( 13 ) both heavily critiqued the OPM. The OPM thresholds are widely understood to be too low, and the family size adjustments are incoherent. The OPM’s income definition ignores taxes and tax credits and inconsistently includes some transfers but omits others. For example, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Old Age Survivor’s Insurance count as income, but the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), housing subsidies, childcare vouchers, and tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) do not. Most of the U.S. government’s transfers to address the coronavirus disease (COVID) pandemic would be ignored by the OPM ( 14 ). Since the 1990s, the EITC and SNAP have grown substantially. In recent years, the CTC was substantially expanded as well. Government spending on each of SNAP, the EITC, and the CTC are now markedly larger than on TANF. Therefore, overtime comparisons based on the OPM are particularly unreliable.

Despite popular impressions, the OPM was problematic from the very beginning. The OPM is often attributed to Orshansky. However, O’Connor [( 4 ), p. 184] explains, “No one was more surprised, though, than Orshansky herself, who had never meant her measures as official government standards. Concerned primarily with suggesting a way to vary the measure for family size, Orshansky took pains to recognize that her work was at best an ‘interim standard,’ ‘arbitrary, but not unreasonable,’ and minimalistic at best.” Katz [( 1 ), p. 116] quotes Orshansky as writing, “‘The best that can be said of the measure,’ she wrote, ‘is that at a time when it seemed useful, it was there.’” The standard of needs underlying the OPM never had a scientific basis ( 1 , 4 ). Using data from the mid-1950s, Orshansky developed a rule of thumb that food amounted to roughly one-third of expenses for typical households. It was never clear that this applied to low-income households, however. Furthermore, the Johnson administration ended up using the “economy food plan,” which was about 25% below the “low-cost food budget” used by Orshansky ( 1 ). The economy food plan was actually only meant for emergencies and on a temporary basis. In addition, in the late 1960s, the government began updating the OPM thresholds using the consumer price index and thus severed the link to the food budget. Katz [( 1 ), p. 116] quotes Orshansky as writing, “This meant, of course, that the food-income relationship which was the basis for the original poverty measure no longer was the current rationale.” Moreover, obviously unlike the mid-1950s, food is certainly far less than one-third of household expenses today. As a result, the OPM effectively ignores the increased costs of crucial needs like childcare and health care, which were less essential or much cheaper when the OPM was created.

Following the overwhelming majority of cross-national poverty research ( 7 , 9 – 11 ), I use a relative measure. A relative measure defines poverty as a shortage of resources relative to needs defined by the prevailing standards of a time and place. Both cross-national and U.S.-specific research show that relative measures better predict well-being, health, and life chances; are more valid for leading conceptualizations of poverty; are more reliable for overtime and cross-place comparisons; and are justified because of the absence of defensible absolute alternatives with fewer problems ( 7 , 8 , 10 , 12 , 15 ). The evidence in this essay mostly uses the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database. The Replication File contains the entire replication code.

Following the overwhelming majority of cross-national poverty research, I also set the poverty threshold at 50% of the median equivalized “post-fisc” household income ( 8 , 10 , 11 ). People are poor if their income is below this threshold. Post-fisc income incorporates taxes, tax credits, and cash and near cash transfers ( 7 ). Income is “equivalized” by dividing by the square root of the number of household members. The poverty thresholds are established with population weights in a given year.

SYSTEMICALLY HIGH POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES

To say that poverty is systemically high is based on at least five patterns. U.S. poverty is (i) a huge share of the population, (ii) a perennial outlier among rich democracies; (iii) staggeringly high for certain groups, (iv) unexpectedly high even among those who “play by the rules,” and (v) pervasive across various groups and places.

A huge share of the population

In 2019, 17.5% of the United States, about 57.4 million, was poor ( 16 ). Compared to more visible social problems, there are far more people in poverty. For instance, Pew Research Center ( 17 ) routinely surveys Americans on the biggest problems facing the nation. Among the most highly mentioned are the affordability of health care, violent crime, illegal immigration, gun violence, racism, and unemployment. There has also been considerable attention on evictions, mass incarceration, and COVID in recent years. Pew has never listed poverty as one of the biggest problems.

Figure 1 makes plain that poverty affects a huge population. Almost 64× as many people experienced poverty as experienced an eviction ( 16 – 25 ). More than 32× as many people were in poverty as incarcerated at one point in time. There were more than 20× as many in poverty as the number of deaths from all causes. All-cause mortality is obviously markedly larger than highly visible causes like from firearms (i.e., there is roughly one firearm-related death for every 1446 people in poverty). The population in poverty is 17× greater than the number of victims of violent crime, almost 10× the number of unemployed, and about 5.5× the number of undocumented immigrants. The number of COVID infections in the first year and the number lacking health insurance were only about half as many as in poverty.

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There are markedly more people in poverty in the United States than are experiencing many far more visible problems.

On balance, some of these are events (e.g., evictions and mortality), while poverty and others (e.g., the incarcerated and uninsured) might be statuses, and some are both (e.g., crime is an event, but being a victim of crime is a status). People cycle in and out of poverty. Analyses with the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and Cross-National Equivalent File reveal that about 45 to 46% of people in poverty are in their very first year of being poor (and another 19 to 25% have only been poor for 2 to 3 years) ( 26 , 27 ). Thus, nearly half of those with the status of poverty experience the event of falling into poverty in a year. An even larger population experiences poverty at least one point in their lives ( 28 ). In recent years, about 61% of Americans have experienced at least 1 year in poverty during their lives ( 27 ). Thus, regardless of whether it is a status or event, poverty affects a huge population.

A perennial outlier among rich democracies

Ample research has established that the United States has high poverty compared to other rich democracies ( 7 , 29 , 30 ). By now, over four decades of LIS data confirm the United States has high poverty compared to Europe. What has become clear only more recently, however, is just how consistently the high U.S. poverty is an outlier among rich democracies. Figure 2 shows the trend in U.S. annual poverty rates from 1980 to 2020. The U.S. rate is consistently near its overtime average of 17% in every year. By far, the clearest “trend” in American poverty is stability at a high level. The U.S.’s stability corrects popular claims of increasing (or declining) poverty. In addition, some incorrectly claim that stability is a by-product of relative measures. This is easily contradicted by substantial overtime changes in, for example, Israel, Luxembourg, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

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For many decades, the United States has maintained consistently higher poverty compared to what is typical in other rich democracies. The solid line represents the annual poverty rate in the United States (1980–2020). The dashed line is the median poverty rate across 19 other rich democracies with data consistently available every 5 years (1985–2020). The vertical lines around the dashed line mark ± one cross-national SD in each year ( 16 ).

Figure 2 compares the United States to the median poverty rate of 18 other peer rich democracies with LIS data every 5 years (1985–2020). The cross-national median represents “normal” or typical poverty for rich democracies. When the United States had a poverty rate near 18% in the mid-1980s, these other rich democracies had a far lower median of 7.7%. Over the entire period, the average median poverty rate in other rich democracies was only 8.8% versus 17% in the United States. Thus, the United States has maintained a poverty rate almost twice as high as peer rich democracies over the past four decades. Poverty in other rich democracies has drifted upward over time, and Israel has had higher poverty than the United States since 2005. Nevertheless, poverty in the typical rich democracy has always remained far below the United States.

Staggeringly high for some groups

The United States carries staggeringly high poverty for some groups. As explained below, there are four major risks to poverty. The four major risk groups in the United States have staggeringly high poverty compared to those risk groups in other rich democracies ( 31 ). Specifically, the poverty rate for people in working-aged households where (i) no one is employed (i.e., joblessness) is 73.6%, (ii) the highest earner lacks a high school degree is 41.4%, (iii) the highest earner is under 25 years old is 31.3%, and (iv) the household is led by a single mother is 39.4%.

Beyond risk groups, the best example of staggeringly high poverty is for certain ethno-racial minorities ( 32 , 33 ). One conservative estimate is that Black, Latino, and Native Americans have poverty rates about twice as high as white Americans ( 9 ). That staggeringly high poverty skews the U.S. overall poverty rate. White and Asian Americans do not have exceptionally high poverty rates compared to most rich democracies. In turn, much of America’s systemically high poverty is simply due to staggeringly high poverty for ethno-racial minorities. To put the scale of Black poverty in perspective, one conservative estimate is that roughly 25× as many African Americans are in poverty annually as are incarcerated at one point in time ( 10 ).

Figure 3 illustrates this with child poverty. Black children have a poverty rate of 33.5%, Latino children are at 29.8%, and Native American children are at 29.4%. No rich democracy has anywhere near as high of child poverty rates as these three ethno-racial groups. The next highest child poverty rates are for Israel and Spain at about 22%, and no rich democracy has exceeded 26.1% in over four decades of LIS data. By contrast, white and Asian American children have poverty rates close to the cross-national median of 10.8% (vertical line). White child poverty is lower than child poverty in Canada and France. Thus, the United States has systemically high poverty partly because of staggeringly high poverty for some ethno-racial minorities alongside cross-nationally typical child poverty rates for white and Asian Americans.

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Poverty rates for Black, Latino, and Native American children are staggeringly high compared to child poverty rates in other rich democracies as well as Asian American and white children in the United States. By contrast, white and Asian American children exhibit poverty rates similar to children in most other rich democracies. The dots represent each group or country, and the 95% confidence intervals on those estimates are shown as spikes. The vertical dashed line is the median child poverty rate across 30 rich democracies. For the United States, estimates are based on 2016–2020 data, and, for other rich democracies, estimates are based on most recent available data ( 16 ).

This staggering racial inequality in poverty was even worse historically. As Fig. 4 shows, Black child poverty was near 50%, and Latino child poverty was above 45% in the 1980s. Worse, the staggeringly high Black child poverty in the 1980s was an increase compared to the 1970s ( 34 , 35 ). Furthermore, Black and Latino child poverty have only descended to near 30% recently. Most Black and Latino adults today grew up experiencing truly extraordinarily high poverty during childhood compared to any rich democracy in over four decades of the LIS. These child poverty rates were so overpowering that ethno-racial minority children have experienced lifelong disadvantages that both shape subsequent risks and drive high young adult poverty even net of risks ( 36 ).

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The poverty rate for Black and Latino children has consistently been markedly higher than for white children in the United States. Child poverty rates peaked in the mid-1980s, when Black and Latino child poverty rates were even more staggeringly high at near 50%. The top solid line is for Black children, the dashed line is for Latino children, and the dotted line is for white children. The 95% confidence intervals are shown as error bars ( 16 ).

Unexpectedly high for those “playing by the rules”

It is well known that the four major risk groups have particularly high poverty rates in the United States ( 31 ). More unexpected, however, is that U.S. poverty is also quite high among people not in the risk groups. Such people have met standard expectations of socioeconomic achievement. Thus, U.S. poverty is high even among those who play by the rules in terms of work, education, marriage, and parenthood.

Figure 5 shows poverty rates for non-risk groups among working-aged households ( 31 ). The overall poverty rate for the United States (i.e., 16.8%) and median of 31 rich democracies (i.e., 10%) are used as benchmarks. Working-aged households always have lower poverty than the overall population as poverty is higher at the ends of the life cycle. However, at 15.3%, U.S. working-aged households have a higher poverty rate than the cross-national median overall poverty rate. Employed households usually have far lower poverty because joblessness is the strongest predictor of poverty. However, employed households in the United States have a poverty rate of 12.1%, above the cross-national median. While households led by someone lacking a high school degree are obviously disadvantaged, U.S. households led by a high school graduate still have a high poverty rate of 12.8%. At 9.4%, U.S. coupled (i.e., married or cohabiting and working-aged) households have poverty rates close to the cross-national median. Non-young U.S. households (i.e., led by someone aged 25+) have a high poverty rate of 14.4%. Last, even if people meet all the mainstream expectations and have zero risks, fully 7.4% of them are in poverty.

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Poverty rates in the United States are much higher than in other rich democracies. This is the case for the overall population, among working-aged households (HHs) and for groups that have met standard expectations of socioeconomic achievement (e.g., employment, education, marriage, age, and risks). Cross-national (CN) median is the cross-national median across 31 rich democracies. The vertical dotted line is the cross-national median poverty rate for the overall population. The dots represent poverty rates for various groups. Confidence intervals for U.S. estimates are shown as spikes but are too small to be visible ( 16 ).

Most Americans are not in the major risk groups. Most play by the rules. Dramatically more people are in employed (94.8%) than jobless working-aged households (5.2%). Clear majorities are in working-aged households led by someone with at least a high school degree (91.2%) and are in coupled/married households (63.0%). As a result, a substantial share of the population in poverty is not in the risk groups. The best example is that more than three times as many people are in working-poor households (9.7% of population) as jobless poor households (3.2% of population) ( 37 ). Hence, most of the population in poverty is similar to the U.S. population in terms of employment, age, family structure, and education. As I explain below, this severely constrains how much poverty can be reduced by reducing the size of the risk groups.

Pervasive across various groups and places

U.S. poverty is often viewed as confined to highly disadvantaged risk groups or concentrated inner city poor neighborhoods. The reality, however, is that high poverty is common across groups and places ( 38 ). Figure 6 shows the poverty rates for several groups and places. Again, these rates are compared against the cross-national median overall poverty rate. Poverty is especially high among those under aged 18 and 65+, in the South, central cities, and rural areas. However, U.S. poverty is also above the cross-national median among working-aged adults (18 to 64), among both adult women and men, in all four regions, and in large cities (i.e. Metropolitan Statistical Areas), moderate cities (>100,000), and the suburbs. Therefore, U.S. poverty is systemically high partly because it is high across groups and places.

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Poverty rates in the United States are much higher than in other rich democracies for a wide variety of groups and places. This is the case for various age groups, adult women and men, and geographical regions and places. The top dot and the vertical dotted line are the cross-national median poverty rate for the overall population. The dots represent poverty rates for various groups and places. Confidence intervals for U.S. estimates are shown as spikes but are too small to be visible ( 16 ).

PREVAILING APPROACHES TO THE INDIVIDUAL POOR

Unfortunately, American poverty research has not traditionally aimed to explain the question of the systemically high poverty in the United States. Rather, the prevailing approaches have focused on the individual poor. This partly reflects America’s uniquely strong individualistic ideology ( 1 , 4 , 10 , 39 ). This section critically reviews three of the prevailing approaches in American poverty research: (i) behavioral explanations that imply “fixing the poor,” (ii) emotive compassion narratives that imply “dramatizing the poor,” and (iii) cultural explanations that imply both dramatizing and fixing the poor.

Fixing the poor

First, behavioral explanations aim to “fix the poor.” This approach posits counterproductive behavior as the key mechanism causing individuals to be poor. These behaviors are risks or demographic and labor market individual characteristics that are more common among the poor. The four major risks are joblessness, low education, young headship, and single motherhood ( 31 ). According to behavioralists, the poor are poor because they exhibit a greater “prevalence” (i.e., share of the population) of such risks ( 40 – 42 ). For behavioralists, the principal anti-poverty strategy is to reduce prevalences of risks ( 43 ).

In this view, behavior is driven by choices/incentives, culture, and traits: Almost the only causal pathway from choices, culture, and traits to poverty is through behavior. As a result, many concentrate on altering the choices, cultures, and traits of poor individuals. This presumes that disproportionately poor groups have disproportionately problematic or even pathological behavior ( 35 ). In turn, behavioralists devote considerable effort to scrutinizing and documenting welfare disincentives that lead to problematic behavior ( 44 ).

According to this literature, poverty also has feedback effects, which reproduce poverty. Researchers argue that poverty imposes a cognitive burden, present bias, and stress, which reduces bandwidth, which then purportedly encourages counterproductive poverty-increasing behavior ( 45 – 47 ). For instance, Shah and colleagues ( 48 ) use laboratory experiments to simulate scarcity in games like Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud, and Angry Birds. On the basis of such experiments, they claim that this explains why (p. 682) “The poor often behave in ways that reinforce poverty.”

Public commentary also routinely advances behavioral explanations. Sawhill’s ( 49 ) “success sequence” is based on her contention that “Those who graduate from high school, wait until marriage to have children, limit the size of their families and work full-time will not be poor.” Academics often offer such behavioralist public commentary as well ( 2 ). The American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution convened two “bi-partisan” “consensus groups” of eminent academics on poverty ( 50 , 51 ). Both concentrate overwhelmingly on risks and behavior. The 2015 plan emphasizes marriage, delayed parenthood, employment, and education. The plan’s first recommendation is to “promote a new cultural norm surrounding parenthood and marriage.” The 2022 version similarly advocates, “marriage is the best path to favorable outcomes…marriage offers the most reliable way” (p. 22).

Despite being prominent, behavioral explanations cannot explain the systemically high U.S. poverty. This is demonstrable using Brady and colleagues’ ( 31 ) “prevalences and penalties” (PP) framework, which describes and assesses the risks of poverty ( 9 , 52 , 53 ). Prevalences are the share of the population with a given risk, which has been the focus of behavioralists. Penalties are the greater probabilities of poverty associated with a risk. Among other topics, the PP framework has been applied to interstate and historical variation in poverty ( 54 , 55 ), child poverty before and after the Great Recession ( 56 ), and immigrant child poverty ( 57 ). Research with the PP framework identifies three critical limitations of behavioral explanations.

First, prevalences cannot explain macrolevel variation in poverty ( 58 , 59 ). If the prevalences could explain systemically high U.S. poverty, then the United States should have high prevalences of joblessness, low-education, young headship, and single motherhood. However, the United States actually has below average prevalences compared to other rich democracies ( 31 ). Across 29 rich democracies, the United States has the 20th highest prevalence of at least one risk. The United States is also below average in the two paramount risks: joblessness and low education. Furthermore, despite vast cross-national variation in poverty, there is little cross-national variation in prevalences as all rich democracies have similar prevalences ( 31 ). As a result, if the United States had cross-national median prevalences for young headship, low education, joblessness, or all four major risks, U.S. poverty would increase, not decline. If prevalences could explain U.S. poverty, then poverty should have declined as a result of the marked historic decline of the risks of low education, joblessness, and young headship ( 31 ). However, poverty has been stable at a high level since the 1970s. U.S. poverty would be higher if the U.S. returned to historic prevalences of young headship, low education, joblessness, or all four risks.

Behavioralists routinely ask why the poor fail to get married, why they do not complete their education, and why they do not work (or why they do not open bank accounts or why they fail to sign up for welfare programs) ( 42 , 47 , 49 ). The reality is that the United States actually has cross-nationally below average prevalences and those prevalences have declined considerably over time. Thus, U.S. residents tend to make fewer such choices and engage in fewer such behaviors than in other rich democracies or even the United States historically. Every country has a share of its population making such choices and engaging in such behavior ( 60 ). Because most Americans play by the rules, the better question is why so few current U.S. residents fail to do so. Because most Americans are not in the risk groups, reducing the size of the risk groups cannot substantially reduce the systemically high U.S. poverty (see Fig. 5 ).

Second, the causality between behavior and poverty is questionable. The effects of risks are almost always not causally identified, and risks are certainly also endogenous to poverty ( 36 ). Any coefficient for a risk of poverty is confounded with other risks and other characteristics that are also associated with poverty. All of this artificially inflates the coefficients and exaggerates how much risks matter. Closely related, behavioralists routinely fallaciously imply that “who is poor” explains “why there is poverty” [for critiques of this logic, see ( 2 , 5 , 61 )].

The PP framework reveals that risks are actually unreliable predictors of poverty. If risks were reliable predictors, then one would expect that the penalties of risks to be similar over time and across countries. In the past several decades within the United States, however, the association between single motherhood and child poverty has declined substantially ( 62 , 63 ). Conversely, the association between joblessness and poverty has increased and become more important than single motherhood ( 54 , 57 , 62 , 64 ). Across rich democracies, the relationships between risks and poverty vary widely and are often quite weak. There is far more cross-national variation in penalties than in prevalences. For instance, in 16 of the 29 rich democracies, single motherhood does not even significantly predict working-aged poverty ( 31 ). Research shows that the United States is exceptional and atypical for having the highest penalties of any rich democracy ( 31 ).

This shows how studying only the one country, the United States, where risks are most strongly associated with poverty has biased impressions about the causal relationship between risks and poverty. The United States is not a universal case and is only one of many countries. As Smeeding and colleagues [( 30 ), p. 162] point out, the U.S. poverty literature “rests on an inherently parochial foundation, for it is based on the experiences of only one nation.” The United States is an outlier for the dependent variable because of its systemically high poverty and an outlier because of its highest penalties. Generalizing about the relationship between risks and poverty based on an outlier suffers from selection biases just like any sample selection bias ( 65 ). The researcher does not know what conditions in the outlier U.S. setting are interacting with the risk to augment the penalty ( 66 , 67 ). The researcher does not know how much poverty is due to the risk itself or highly contingent interactions between the risk and the setting ( 6 ). Ultimately, any impression about the relationship between risks and poverty based solely on the United States is biased because the United States is an outlier. This problem is exacerbated if one only studies poor neighborhoods or very poor groups in the United States ( 6 ).

Third, behavioralists mostly focus on prevalences and neglect the more salient penalties. However, there is far more variation in penalties than prevalences ( 31 ). The United States does not stand out for having high prevalences but does stand out for having the highest penalties among rich democracies. Furthermore, reducing penalties would reduce poverty more than reducing prevalences ( 31 ). Penalties, therefore, provide a far better explanation of America’s systemically high poverty than prevalences. All of this supports the political explanations below.

Dramatizing the poor

A second prevailing approach aims to elicit emotion and compassion through humanizing narratives built on ethnography and intensive interviews ( 68 – 70 ). With granular detail of the daily struggles of the poor ( 70 , 71 ), this approach offers vivid, often shocking, descriptions of poor individuals ( 72 – 74 ). The emphasis is often on the desperation and suffering of extremely poor individuals stuck in impossible situations, often in places of concentrated extreme poverty ( 68 , 75 ). Books in this approach routinely have evocative titles like On the Run , $2.00 A Day , Living the Drama , American Dream , and Gang Leader for a Day .

Desmond and Western ( 69 ) argue that this “new direction” emphasizes “poverty is morally urgent…an affront to dignity.” Desmond and Western even go so far as to say, “Esteeming dignity encourages a humanizing social analysis, where researchers are sensitized to the capacity for love, creativity, and imagination in their subjects. The principle of human dignity also shifts the poverty debate away from income redistribution ” (emphasis added). This is noteworthy given that political explanations discussed below tend to emphasize redistribution as necessary and perhaps more salient than almost any other cause of variation in poverty ( 76 ).

Compared to behavioralists, this approach has clear advantages. It reveals the exceptionally constrained and near impossible “choices” that poor people have to make, which humanizes the poor. Such narratives of the poor’s actual daily lives ( 70 ) are surely more construct valid than laboratory experiments using video games ( 48 ) or textbook assumptions about welfare disincentives. This approach also implies an intuitive theory about causes and solutions. By humanizing and dignifying the poor, this literature uses narratives to get readers to become sympathetic. Such sympathy is then expected to set the agenda for anti-poverty policies (e.g., shifting politicians away from punitiveness). This implies that a lack of humanization is a critical cause of why the United States has systematically high poverty. Below, I revisit whether this is a convincing political theory of poverty.

No matter the intent to humanize, this approach still ends up focused on why certain dramatized individuals are poor—their life history, unfortunate circumstances, or counterproductive behavior that caused such dire straits—rather than why the United States has systemically high poverty. To paraphrase Matt Bruenig, one cannot simply “collect a bunch of personal stories and then zoom out” to an effective theory of poverty. It does not follow that compassion or moral urgency clarifies what causes poverty or how we should intervene on it. Many have tremendous compassion for the poor but maintain an individualistic theory of the causes of and solutions for poverty. Dramatizing individual poor people may even obscure that the actual cause of the plight of these individuals is the systemically high poverty. Concretely, there are three main limitations to dramatizing the poor.

First, this approach overemphasizes the unrepresentative groups of the poor. It is fair to view texts as representations of the poor, and one should scrutinize whether texts accurately represent those in poverty ( 2 , 77 , 78 ). Unfortunately, this literature disproportionately represents the poor as visible, stigmatized, minoritized, and perhaps “exotic” groups. For instance, unlike the heterogeneous recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children, DeParle ( 73 ) highlights three unrepresentative young Black single mothers with high fertility and multiple partners, who move from Chicago to Milwaukee for more generous welfare benefits and become addicted to crack cocaine. Contrary to the representation by Goffman ( 74 ), the overwhelming majority of those in poverty are not Black adolescents with outstanding warrants. Contrary to Bourgois ( 72 ) and one of the eight cases by Desmond ( 68 ), the overwhelming majority of those in poverty do not sell drugs. Contrary to the one of the eight of cases by Desmond ( 68 ), most people in poverty do not spend nearly their entire welfare benefits on a lobster dinner. This approach may lean on the theory that humanizing narratives will evoke compassion for such groups. However, mischaracterizing the population in poverty and overrepresenting exotic subgroups also fuels unflattering stereotypes about the poor. Such unflattering misrepresentations are likely to backfire and have even larger adverse political consequences ( 2 , 77 , 78 ).

Figure 7 reveals that such stereotypical groups are actually a small share of the population in poverty. Among those in poverty, the share in single mother households (18.5%) is much smaller than the share in coupled working-aged households (29.4%). Only about 2.1% of poor people are in young single mother households. Among those in poverty, about three times more are in employed than jobless households (57.2% versus 19%). There are also more than two times as many poor people in households led by someone with at least a high school degree than someone without (58.2% versus 24.8%). Ethno-racial minority adolescents are perhaps the most dramatized poor. However, Black and Latino adolescents amount to only 3 and 5.5% of people in poverty. Black and Latino adolescents in the highly studied inner cities are merely 1.4 and 2.3% of people in poverty. Far fewer are in poor neighborhoods. People with multiple risks (e.g., low educated, jobless, and young single mothers) are frequent in this literature. However, there are more than four times as many poor people with zero or one risk versus those who have 2+ risks (80.3% versus 19.7%). Last, a crude estimate is that about 4% of the population in poverty is homeless. This estimate uses the national point in time count for 2019 and follows Evans and colleagues [( 79 ), p. 924], “the point-in-time estimate understates annual exposure by a factor of almost four.”

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Stereotypical groups actually represent a small share of the U.S. population in poverty. The typical groups in poverty actually exhibit few risks and are a much larger share of the U.S. poverty population. The dots represent the share of the U.S. poverty population. Confidence intervals for U.S. estimates are shown as spikes but are too small to be visible ( 16 ).

The reality is that people in poverty look similar to the United States as a whole. If one were to construct a composite “typical” poor person in the United States based on the most common populations in multiple categories, it would be a white, 35- to 45-year-old woman, with a high school education, in a coupled and employed household with no children, and living in a metropolitan area in the South. It is important to stress that acknowledging the reality of the population in poverty should not downplay that, as Figs. 2 and and3 3 show, Black and Latino children have staggeringly high poverty. However, concentrating so disproportionately on such groups misrepresents the typical people in poverty.

Figure 7 also reveals how dramatizing the poor provides a weak basis for reducing poverty. Even if these stereotypical risk groups have a high probability of poverty, that does not mean reducing the size of these groups will substantially reduce overall poverty. Because these stereotypical risk groups are unexpectedly small, poverty would remain systemically high even if such risks were eradicated. For instance, Native American child poverty is staggeringly high. However, even if Native American child poverty was eliminated completely, the United States would maintain systemically high poverty. To reduce the systemically high U.S. poverty, we need to understand not only who is more likely to be poor but also who is in poverty.

Second, dramatizing the poor disproportionately focuses on symptoms rather than underlying causes. The clearest example is the enormous attention on eviction. Recall, Fig. 1 shows that almost 64× as many people were in poverty as were evicted in 2019. For this reason alone, eviction is simply not one of the more salient causes of poverty. In addition, even if eviction has a salient causal effect reproducing or exacerbating poverty (and such evidence has been thin), eviction is far more a symptom than a cause. If incomes were higher, the threat of eviction would be lower. Therefore, the more important question is why so many have low incomes and why there is systemically high poverty, not why people with low incomes are more likely to be evicted. It seems reasonable to question whether the enormous attention on eviction or other symptoms crowd out attention to the more salient and underlying causes of poverty (see political explanations below).

Third, dramatizing the poor ends up downplaying effective social policies. Because this literature prioritizes eliciting compassion about the suffering of the extremely poor, it has an incentive to make poverty seem as bad and evocative as possible. This is partly accomplished by discounting evidence that social policies are reducing poverty. Unfortunately, this fuels a false impression of futility that social policies do not reduce poverty, what can be called the fallacy of intractability. By accurately incorporating social policies, we more accurately characterize the population in poverty and accurately reveal that social policies are effective.

Edin and Shaefer’s ( 75 ) celebrated $2.00 A Day measures extreme poverty at the remarkably low threshold of $730 a year. Edin and Shaefer claim that there was a marked growth in $2/day poverty; the growth was exacerbated by the 1996 welfare reform; the growth was especially worse among single mothers with children; and there are notably high numbers with less than $2 per day. The problem is that they measure household income as only cash income and omit some welfare transfers as well as taxes and tax credits. In particular, they omit SNAP, which is actually a critically effective social policy for extreme poverty. By contrast, Brady and Parolin ( 11 ) set a more reasonable threshold and measure income comprehensively. They show that Edin and Shaefer mischaracterize the rates of and trends and population in extreme poverty. Most people in extreme poverty are childless adults, and SNAP substantially reduces extreme poverty for single mothers with children. While children are actually underrepresented among the extreme poor, Edin and Shaefer even mischaracterize which children are extremely poor ( 80 ). Rather than children in single mother households, the biggest group is in households headed by immigrants. The reason for this is that immigrant households have far greater difficulty accessing SNAP, which, again, is the critical social policy for reducing extreme poverty.

Cultural explanations

Cultural explanations are one of the most prominent behavioral theories. Here, I am referring specifically to the argument that a problematic or pathological culture causes counterproductive behavior and risks that cause poverty. Furthermore, poverty feeds back into and reinforces that problematic culture, often intergenerationally ( 81 ). Like fixing the poor, culturalists require behavior as the mechanism between culture and poverty. Like dramatizing the poor, culturalists highlight the granular daily experiences and meanings of the poor.

Cultural explanations have been around seemingly forever ( 1 , 4 ). After the 1960s, however, cultural theories justly received tremendous criticism for flawed generalizations about poor people, ethno-racial minorities, and developing countries ( 6 , 82 , 83 ). Some attribute the subsequent decline of cultural explanations to political controversies around them (e.g., the Moynihan Report) especially in the 1970s ( 35 ). However, such a partisan narrative elides and minimizes that cultural explanations suffered from substantial logical and evidentiary problems. Those problems are a far more plausible source of its downfall ( 1 , 2 , 4 , 6 , 84 ).

Cultural explanations were always hopelessly endogenous: If culture caused poverty and poverty caused culture, then what causes the systemically high poverty in the first place? Cultural explanations usually suffered from sample selection biases, as they concentrated on poor people or poor neighborhoods without comparison groups. Cultural explanations often stereotyped the deviant or pathological values and behaviors of disadvantaged groups. Worse, those stereotypes were often based on the subjective biases of elite white male academics. Ample evidence has long shown that it is false that the poor have anti-marriage ( 83 , 85 ) or anti-school values ( 86 ). Culturalists almost never compared their account against rival theories. Scholars rarely showed evidence that culture mattered net of other causes or how the magnitude of any cultural effects compared against other causes. Rather than adolescent Black males lacking soft skills ( 87 ), ample evidence shows extensive racial discrimination by employers. Rather than the poor being ignorant about college pathways ( 71 ), highly segregated and lower quality schools and toxic environments likely undermine educational attainment ( 36 ). It is possible that culture does not matter net of such factors, which plausibly have even larger effects.

Moreover, culturalists never really even attempted to explain systemically high poverty. By narrowly focusing on some selectively chosen specific poor group, cultural explanations notoriously routinely neglected the political causes discussed below. Indeed, cultural explanations habitually omitted the historical and institutional contexts underlying systemically high poverty. For the most part and for many, such problems and critiques were persuasive ( 1 , 2 , 4 , 6 , 83 , 84 ).

Hence, it was surprising that, in 2010, the New York Times reported, “‘Culture of Poverty’ Makes a Comeback” ( 88 ). Highly publicized Harvard University sociologists were advocating for cultural explanations of poverty again. Even more surprising, these “new culturalists” did not really address the critiques of prior cultural explanations. Instead, a narrative was constructed about the courage of these Harvard sociologists in overcoming political correctness in being willing to touch what Harding [( 71 ), p. 5] called the “third rail of scholarship on urban poverty.” Massey claims, “We’ve finally reached the stage where people aren’t afraid of being politically incorrect” ( 88 ). Small refers to themselves as a “new generation of scholars without the baggage of that debate” ( 88 ). Their 2010 Annals issue “Reconsidering culture and poverty” has been among the most highly cited pieces of poverty research in recent decades.

The new culturalists adopt rhetorical strategies to distinguish their approach from older cultural explanations ( 89 ). They use euphemistic vocabulary of scripts, schema, and frames rather than the older values and norms ( 90 ). They stress that culture is not homogenous, pathological, or deviant but heterogeneous and adaptive ( 71 ). They also stress that culture has a probabilistic rather than deterministic relationship with poverty.

Nevertheless, the new culturalists ultimately recreate the same argument that problematic culture causes problematic behavior, which causes poverty ( 81 , 89 ). I add italics to substantiate this point. Small and colleagues’ [( 90 ), p. 6] aim is “explicitly explaining the behavior of low-income population in reference to cultural factors” and demonstrating “processes and mechanisms that lead to the reproduction of poverty ” (p. 23). Small and colleagues [( 90 ), p. 15] write, “Rather than causing behavior, frames make it possible or likely .” However, there really is no difference between “cause” and “make possible or likely.” Small and colleagues [( 90 ), p. 23] further claim culture, “should become central to our understanding of the production and reproduction of poverty and social inequality .” Harding [( 71 ), p. 14] writes, “Variation in repertoires…will lead to divergent behaviors, and it is in this way that culture plays a causal role in influencing action .” Vaisey [( 91 ), p. 96] argues culture “might have an ‘ exogenous explanatory power’ that serves to inhibit socioeconomic success .”

In one of the most influential new culturalist studies, Harding ( 71 ) argues that cultural heterogeneity causes poverty-increasing behavior. Harding interviews 60 Black and Latino adolescent boys and conducts “surgical fieldwork” (p. 14) in three mainly poor Black neighborhoods in Boston. While discounting that his race, sex, and class constrain interviewing or interpretation (pp. 16, 20, 265), Harding (p. xii) dismisses political explanations that imply “victims of structural forces beyond their control” and derides implying “individuals floating like feathers buffeted by winds produced by economic and social forces beyond their control.”

Harding argues “model shifting” between and “simultaneity” of good and bad, and “dilution” of good cultural scripts, frames, and schemas cause boys to not use condoms and resist commitment to girls, engage in violence, and “produce ignorance about how to successfully navigate educational institutions” (p. 226). While disavowing homogenous values and norms, the argument ends up in the same place as older cultural arguments. “Ghetto-specific cultural models” (pp. 6, 243), “negative role models” (pp. 67, 241), and “level expectations” (pp. 57, 61). The text mainly concentrates on mean differences in culture/behavior of disadvantaged Black/Latino boys/neighborhoods versus unobserved non-disadvantaged boys and neighborhoods. In poor neighborhoods, “cross-cohort socialization” (p. 72) exposes boys to “ways of thinking about problems, solutions, and decisions that are sometimes at odds with mainstream or middle class convention” (p. 91), which “affects adolescent decision making and behavior” (p. 104). Similarly, “Adolescent boys who have little or no relationship with their fathers, the norm in poor neighborhoods, are particularly susceptible to the influence of older peers” (p. 104). Ultimately, “Heterogeneity in cultural lifestyles and orientations can be understood as the failure of more middle-class or mainstream-oriented residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods to control behavior in their communities” (p. 244).

Despite euphemistic vocabulary and sidestepping prior critiques, the new culturalists face the same problems as the old ( 83 , 84 ): endogeneity, selection biases, subjective biases, lack of contrast against rival explanations, lack of comparison groups, etc. Ultimately, the new culturalists compound the problems of both fixing and dramatizing the poor. Like fixing the poor, the new culturalists cannot explain the systemically high poverty that sets the stage for their studies. For instance, they cannot explain what fundamentally causes the staggeringly high poverty of Black and Latino adolescent boys in concentrated poor neighborhoods. In addition, the new culturalists do not address that the problematic behaviors they emphasize (e.g., single motherhood) are often unreliable predictors of poverty. They also do not address that the penalties attached to such behaviors can be politically moderated. Nor do they acknowledge that penalties are lower in every other rich democracy except the United States. Like dramatizing the poor, the new culturalists fixate on symptoms more than underlying causes. The new culturalists also overrepresent stereotypical poor groups and misrepresent the population in poverty.

POLITICAL EXPLANATIONS OF SYSTEMICALLY HIGH POVERTY

According to political explanations, power, policies, and institutions are the pivotal cause of poverty ( 10 , 76 , 92 ). Indirectly, power and institutions cause policy, which causes poverty. Power and institutions also reinforce each other. Rather than presuming that risks cause poverty like behavioralists, political explanations emphasize that policy and institutions moderate the relationship between risks and poverty. Contrary to prevailing approaches, political explanations provide a far better account for why the United States has systemically high poverty. Political explanations see individuals as poor largely because of that systemically high poverty.

While the three prior approaches have traditionally prevailed ( 3 , 4 ), political explanations have risen in prominence in recent decades. Before roughly 2000, there were few studies that would be explicitly labeled as political explanations. Partly, this rise occurred because of marked advances in cross-national income data and especially the LIS database ( 7 ). Such data enabled scrutiny of taxes and transfers as well as variations in policies and institutions. If a researcher only ever studies one political context, then the horizons of explanation are constrained because of selection bias. If one only studies the United States, without comparison to other countries, then this leads to a sample selection bias where one cannot answer why the United States has comparatively high poverty. To paraphrase Lipset ( 93 ), poverty scholars who only know one country, know no country.

Political explanations recognize that poverty normally occurs in a context of sufficient or even abundant resources rather than scarcity. Societies usually have sufficient resources that, if they were distributed more equally, then poverty could be reduced. Even during famines, as Sen ( 94 ) famously explained, resources are available nearby. This is why famines are almost always prevented in well-functioning democracies. Similarly, in rich democracies, there are abundant resources. The problem is that resources are not well-distributed, and poverty, therefore, is due to distribution not scarcity ( 95 ). Because distributions are almost always shaped by politics, poverty is actually a political problem ( 3 , 10 , 92 ). The political problem is more consequential than how the poor behave in response to some artificially imposed scarcity [cf. ( 48 , 71 )].

Political factors are often included within “structural” explanations ( 4 , 5 , 95 – 99 ). Both structural and “political” explanations shift away from individual risks to contextual causes of poverty. However, I draw a meaningful distinction between structural explanations (emphasizing demographic and labor market contexts) and political explanations (emphasizing policies, power and institutions). It may be best to label structural explanations as emphasizing demographic and labor market contexts (e.g., deindustrialization) and not vacuously using “structure” as a catchall for every social force above an individual. It may then be best to label political explanations as emphasizing policies, power, and institutions. This distinction clarifies that institutions and policies more strictly reflect politics than demographic and labor market contexts. As Brady [( 76 ), p. 168] remarks, “While structuralists view poverty as the unfortunate byproduct of contextual factors that overwhelm what can be done, political accounts view poverty as the willfully chosen outcome of state (in)action when something could be done.”

In his genius metaphor, Rank ( 5 ) illustrates his structural vulnerability theory with a game of musical chairs. A scarcity of chairs (e.g., good jobs), not the individuals’ quickness at seizing a chair (i.e., behavior), explains why someone is left without a chair (i.e., poor). A political explanation would instead say that there is not so much a scarcity as a distribution problem. Rather than too few chairs, one person is laying across and hoarding three, several chairs are disrepaired and piled nearby in the corner, and someone is then told that they have no place to sit because of what is disingenuously framed as a scarcity.

Within political explanations, there have been at least four concrete themes. I now elaborate on each.

The essential role of social policy generosity

The strongest and most robust generalization to emerge from recent decades of political research on poverty is that social policy generosity is a requirement for low poverty. At the risk of hyperbole, there has never been a country in the modern history of capitalist democracies that accomplished sustainably low poverty without a large welfare state. Consistently, across a variety of samples of countries, years, and states, there is a clear, strong, and robust negative relationship between the welfare state and poverty ( 10 , 29 , 92 , 100 – 111 ). The powerful role of social policy was made very clear by how U.S. poverty declined during COVID. Because the U.S. government extended unemployment insurance, expanded the CTC, and provided stimulus and relief payments, poverty was considerably lower ( 14 ).

Generous social policies reduce poverty regardless of whether one measures social policy generosity as formally legislated social rights ( 112 , 113 ), as the amount of welfare transfers actually received ( 102 , 107 , 114 ), or as the totality of welfare spending ( 10 , 105 ). “Generosity” is shorthand for the combination of ways equality-enhancing social policies are more universal and have high replacement rates, lower eligibility thresholds, and high coverage ( 112 , 113 ). Generosity also often refers to constellations of dimensions of welfare programs, such as universalism and high levels of “transfer share” ( 102 ).

In a compelling recent example, Alper and colleagues ( 115 ) show that both social rights and welfare spending enhance poverty reduction and reduce poverty after taxes and transfer. Social policies reduce poverty through taxes and transfers and publicly provided services. Innovative research shows that, if we monetize publicly provided health insurance, then the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare substantially reduced poverty ( 116 , 117 ) and economic insecurity ( 118 ). Social policy generosity is also the product of both the legislation and implementation of such policies. In turn, the execution of social policy and the administrative burdens imposed on potential recipients of social policies clearly influence how generous social policies actually are on the ground ( 78 , 114 , 119 – 121 ). Closely related, racial disparities in implementation and discrimination in access to generous social policies are key drivers of racial inequalities in poverty ( 32 , 122 , 123 ).

These patterns go far beyond the internal validity of identifying the local causal effect of a specific social policy ( 44 , 100 , 124 , 125 ). The literature has built an externally valid generalization that generous welfare states have lower poverty. The evidence has accumulated across a wide variety of cross-national as well as within-nation studies, and the pattern has cemented especially as cross-national income and poverty data have matured. Particularly important for this review, social policy generosity is, presently, the best explanation for why America has systemically high poverty ( 10 ).

As an illustration, Fig. 8 replicates prior analyses of poverty across rich democracies ( 10 , 105 , 115 ). Figure 8 shows results from a fixed-effects (for country and year) model of all 20 rich democracies with data in the OECD and LIS from 1980 to 2019. The predicted values in Fig. 8 show that social welfare spending as a percent of gross domestic product has a significant negative relationship with poverty rates. As is by now well-established, as social policy generosity increases, poverty declines.

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There is a strong and significant negative relationship between poverty rates and social welfare spending. The actual U.S. poverty rates are very well predicted by the fact that the United States has low levels of social welfare spending. The solid downward-sloping line is the predicted poverty rates [95% confidence intervals (CIs) are shown as error bars]. The estimates are based on a two-way fixed-effects model (country and year) of poverty rates on social welfare spending and its square (as a percent of gross domestic product).

Figure 8 also overlays markers for the actual U.S. minimum, median, and maximum poverty rates. This shows that the high actual poverty rates of the United States fall almost exactly into line with the model’s predicted poverty rates. The United States has systemically high poverty because it has low social welfare spending. The United States is always in the upper left part of the figure. This confirms the United States is a perennial outlier, both in terms of high poverty and low social welfare spending. This demonstrates that one will misunderstand poverty if one only studies the United States.

Political choices to penalize risks

Behavioralists and culturalists contend that individual counterproductive choices explain why some individuals are poor and other individuals are not. By contrast, political explanations contend that states make political choices about which risks will be protected and which will not. By “political choices,” I mean a realistically nuanced “decision” by a polity to act or not. Sometimes, politicians do deliberate in proverbial smoke-filled rooms for policy that worsens poverty (e.g., a few Senators’ choice to not continue President Biden’s expanded CTC or state legislatures’ choice to not expand Medicaid). Of course, political choices also include public opinion, agenda setting, and other processes. The point is that policies and penalties are not inevitable, and not acting is a choice just like acting is a choice.

According to the PP framework, countries politically decide how much to penalize risk groups. Behavioralists and culturalists presume a mechanical, automatic link between individual risks and individual poverty and, therefore, emphasize reducing the prevalences of risks. By contrast, political explanations stress that the relationships between individual risks and poverty vary tremendously across political contexts. This variation in penalties is politically manipulable. Therefore, political explanations emphasize reducing penalties ( 31 ).

As mentioned above, that penalties vary more and matter more to poverty has now been demonstrated by research across rich democracies and the United States over time ( 126 ). For instance, single motherhood has been arguably been the most well-studied risk by behavioralists and culturalists. Across 29 rich democracies, Brady and colleagues ( 31 ) find more than three times as much variation in single motherhood penalties as prevalences. Similarly, Nicholson ( 54 ) finds that, while interstate variation in single motherhood prevalences was stable 1993–2016, interstate variation in single motherhood penalties more than doubled. Moreover, the United States does not stand out for having a high prevalence of single motherhood. Rather what makes the United States stand out is having the highest penalty for single motherhood ( 127 , 128 ).

Such variation and, especially, the extremely high penalties for single motherhood and other risks in the United States have been convincingly linked to politics. The United States politically chooses to penalize single mothers and other risk groups far more than other rich democracies. Variation in social policy generosity moderates the single motherhood penalty for child poverty and for poverty among families with children ( 128 ). Variation in social policy also moderates the penalties attached to the more salient risks of low education and joblessness ( 31 ). Because penalties matter more to poverty than prevalences, social policy is a critical factor explaining the relationships between risks and poverty. Moreover, that the United States has such exceptionally high penalties reinforces how unusual the U.S. case is and how studying only the United States biases conclusions about poverty.

Power resources of collective political actors

Underlying and causing generous social policies, collective political actors mobilize less advantaged classes into “power resources” ( 10 , 103 , 108 , 129 – 131 ). According to power resource theory, labor unions and leftist parties unite workers and voters around shared interests and ideology to push for generous social policies ( 37 , 132 , 133 ). The mobilization of the less advantaged is pivotal because the default distribution of political power in a capitalist democracy favors elites and business ( 134 ). Hence, it is essential for the working class and poor to bond together and attract some of the middle class to gain any real political power. Power resource theory thus provides a theory of the income distribution, with the welfare state as a principal mechanism and collective political actors as the underlying fundamental cause ( 10 , 108 , 129 ).

Poverty is lower where and when Left parties have controlled government, unionization is higher, and women are a greater share of parliaments ( 10 ). Countries with higher unionization have significantly lower working poverty and lower poverty overall ( 133 , 135 – 140 ). For example, Pineda-Hernández and colleagues ( 141 ) analyze 24 developed countries from 1990 to 2015. They demonstrate that centralized collective bargaining systems, greater bargaining coverage, and higher unionization significantly reduce working-age poverty after taxes and transfers. They conclude that this is mostly because of the political strength of these power resources in promoting more generous social policies.

This pattern holds across U.S. states as well ( 37 , 101 , 140 ). Using the PSID 1976–2015, VanHeuvelen and Brady ( 142 ) provide the first individual-level longitudinal analysis of household-level union membership and state-level unionization and poverty. Both union membership and state unionization have statistically and substantively significant negative relationships with relative and anchored working and working-aged poverty. Household union membership and state unionization significantly negatively interact, augmenting the poverty-reducing effects of each. Higher state unionization also spills over to reduce poverty among nonunion households. These powerful effects of unions are notable because, as VanHeuvelen and Brady write, “American poverty research largely neglects labor unions.” Compared to the enormous attention on eviction for example, I conjecture that low unionization is a more salient cause of poverty.

The focus on political actors inverts the traditional emphasis. Rather than yet another study of the choices of the individual poor, the field needs more study of the choices of political actors who have power over the poor ( 10 , 131 , 143 – 146 ). Rather than the marked and evocative experiences or culture of exaggerated unrepresentative poor groups, the field needs more study of the routine and banal ways in which powerful actors exclude those in poverty. Whether collective political organizations, individual policy-makers, or street-level bureaucrats, the poverty literature needs more attention to how political actors drive the amount of poverty in society ( 2 , 10 , 95 ). For example, the poverty governance literature demonstrates how health care workers ( 146 ), police ( 144 , 147 ), welfare case workers ( 78 , 120 ), and local community leaders ( 145 ) regulate the poor ( 134 ).

A focus on political actors also invites skepticism about the political theory implicit in dramatizing the poor. Even if humanization triggers some sympathy, it seems unrealistic that sympathy will displace the ideologies and interests that normally motivate political actors. Even if humanization inspires those already sympathetic, getting political adversaries to read such narratives seems unlikely. On some level, political actors reflect public opinion. However, while there is no evidence that the United States has comparatively low levels of compassion, vast evidence shows the American public has a uniquely strong individualistic ideology ( 1 , 4 , 10 , 39 ). Moreover, it has never really been proven that poverty scholarship—dramatizing, humanizing, or otherwise—actually has much influence on policy-makers or public opinion.

Institutions

In addition to the mobilization of collective political actors, the politics of poverty is a function of institutions such as laws and regulations ( 106 , 108 ). Consistent with U.S. poverty being stable at a high level, inequalities tend to be slow-moving and do not respond promptly to electoral changes. There is path dependency to poverty, and, to understand the institutional sources, we need a long-time horizon of causes and effects. Institutions reflect the residue of the power of collective actors in the past, and institutions remain consequential even without active maintenance by collective actors ( 103 , 108 ). A strong version of institutionalism would claim that established institutions dominate over contemporary politics to lock in poverty. A weaker version of institutionalism would claim that established institutions guide how and when politics can shape poverty.

Some of the classic institutions that have been convincingly linked to poverty include slavery ( 148 , 149 ), federalism ( 38 , 150 ), electoral systems ( 10 , 103 ), democratization ( 132 ), colonialism ( 151 ), and criminal justice ( 144 , 152 ). One extensive literature is on labor market institutions ( 105 ). Poverty is significantly lower where wage bargaining is coordinated, centralized, and corporatist, and employment contracts are protected ( 133 , 135 – 138 , 153 ). There is also evidence that poverty is lower where minimum wages are regulated at a higher level ( 154 – 156 ). Recently, there has been growing interest in how institutional variation in eviction and housing laws shape poverty [e.g., ( 157 )].

Institutions in terms of citizenship laws and rules greatly influence immigrant poverty ( 57 , 158 ). Baker and colleagues ( 9 ) find that nativity and citizenship explain the largest share of Latino-white and Asian-white poverty gaps. Baker and colleagues demonstrate that high immigrant poverty is not attributable to behavior. Rather, citizenship laws and their enforcement prevent access to social policies ( 80 , 158 ), constrain employment rights and labor market opportunities ( 119 ), and limit residential opportunities and decisions ( 159 ). As a result of these institutional processes and not because of behavior, poverty among immigrants is quite high in the United States. Immigrants could be the most understudied population in poverty in the United States. Recall, it is actually children of immigrants, not single mothers, who are most vulnerable to extreme poverty ( 80 ).

Figure 9 displays poverty rates by immigration characteristics (again, benchmarked with overall poverty). Immigrant-led households in the United States have a poverty rate of 22.1%. This is high compared to poverty among the overall population and among nonimmigrant households. This is also high compared to immigrant households in other rich democracies. Compared to the overall U.S. population, citizen immigrant households actually have similar poverty. What really stands out is the notably high 28.4% poverty rate of noncitizen immigrant households.

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Poverty rates for immigrant-led households in the United States are higher than poverty rates for the overall population and for households led by nonimmigrants. Across rich democracies, immigrant-led households have higher poverty rates than nonimmigrant households. U.S. noncitizen immigrant–led households have much higher poverty rates than all these groups. CN median is the cross-national median across 24 rich democracies. The vertical dotted line is the cross-national median poverty rate for the overall population. The dots represent poverty rates for various groups. Confidence intervals for U.S. estimates are shown as spikes but are too small to be visible ( 16 ).

There is convincing evidence that institutions drive the staggeringly high poverty of ethno-racial minorities ( 99 , 150 ). Perhaps the canonical literature is on state-supported segregation ( 160 , 161 ). Massey and Denton ( 34 ), for instance, show how federal, state, and local governments and the federalism embodied in all three using or withholding power made countless political choices to institutionalize residential and school segregation. States facilitated (or even subsidized) segregation and under-enforced discrimination law. All of this concentrated poverty, undermined mobility out of poverty, and exacerbated the interaction of race and poverty. Whereas residential preferences of individual whites (and others) are relevant, the state’s role in institutionalizing segregation and discrimination demonstrates political processes driving poverty ( 162 ).

In a compelling demonstration of how powerful institutions are, Baker ( 163 ) shows that racial inequalities in poverty in the U.S. South are influenced by historical racial regimes (HRRs). HRRs capture myriad state-level historical racist institutions of slavery, sharecropping, politicians’ opposition to integration, and disenfranchisement devices. Southern states with a higher HRR score tend to have higher poverty. However, this pattern is much more pronounced for racial inequalities in poverty. While white poverty is uncorrelated with HRR, Black poverty and racial inequalities in poverty are strongly positively associated with a state’s HRR. Using multilevel models, Baker demonstrates that HRR exacerbates Black disadvantages in poverty. Using decompositions, Baker shows that HRR explains much of the Black-white poverty gap.

As is probably clear by now but should be underlined, institutions provides a clear path to emphasize racism in theories of poverty. Political explanations in general and institutions in particular explicitly embrace that systemically high poverty, especially the staggeringly high poverty of ethno-racial minorities, is driven by racism. This contrasts sharply with the three prevailing approaches, which rarely explicitly incorporate racism. For example, Small et al. ( 90 ) have only one mention of “racism” (and zero of discrimination), and it regards how young men perceive racism affected them. Harding [( 71 ), p. 19] has only one index entry for racism, and it is where he dismisses structural explanations: “social forces far beyond their control – racism…”. Contrasted with classics like Massey and Denton ( 34 ) or Ryan ( 6 ), the field appears to have shifted away from racism. Relatedly, new culturalists have a habit of dismissively putting “blaming the victim” in pejorative quotes as if it was not the serious critique it is.

Political explanations reject blaming the staggeringly high poverty of ethno-racial minorities on their behavior or culture. Rather, political explanations emphasize that historical and present state policies—such as slavery, federalism, electoral systems, colonialism, criminal justice, and segregation—are pivotal to racial inequalities in poverty ( 3 , 9 , 123 , 148 , 163 , 164 ). Racism obviously also exists in and drives variation in social policy ( 32 , 78 , 122 ), the penalties for risks ( 33 ), and the power of collective political actors ( 101 ). Racism within all of these political factors provides a more persuasive account of racial inequalities in poverty than behavior or culture.

CONCLUSIONS

To fully understand poverty in the United States, the field should center attention on the systemically high poverty. U.S. poverty affects a huge share of the population, is a perennial outlier among rich democracies, is staggeringly high for certain groups, is unexpectedly high for those who play by the rules, and is pervasive across various groups and places. Unfortunately, American poverty research has traditionally not prioritized the understanding of the systemically high U.S. poverty and has instead concentrated on poor individuals. American poverty research has focused on the problem of persons and the poor, not poverty. The field has devoted disproportionate attention to behavioral explanations fixing the poor, emotive compassion dramatizing the poor, and cultural explanations both dramatizing and fixing the poor. This review argues that prevailing approaches cannot explain the systemically high poverty in the United States. Partly as a result, prevailing approaches are unlikely to provide effective policies to address the causes of poverty.

Instead, this review advocates for political explanations and reviews research framing poverty as a political problem and a matter of distribution. Political explanations focus on poverty, not the poor. Political explanations emphasize the essential role of social policy generosity, political choices to penalize risks, power resources, and institutions. Because political explanations provide a better explanation of the causes of the systemically high U.S. poverty, political explanations are far more likely to lead to effective policies.

To conclude, this review is far from the first to criticize the individualistic problem of persons. Historians and critics of American poverty research have long challenged its individualism and argued for structural and political perspectives ( 1 – 6 , 15 , 93 , 96 ). Readers may recognize that the themes in this review reflect a long-standing critical undercurrent in and the contested nature of perennial poverty debates ( 76 ). What this review documents, however, is the emergence and ascendance in empirical evidence of systemically high U.S. poverty and its underlying political causes. Political explanations have greater potential and should be prioritized because they have proven more effective at explaining the systemically high U.S. poverty. In turn, this review has aimed to chart a long-term, albeit long overdue and still emerging, justified paradigmatic shift in the social science of poverty. Hence, this review aims to crystalize an ascendant theme to focus on political explanations and poverty, not the poor.

Acknowledgments

I thank S. Beduk, M. Bruenig, G. Burgos, M. Mahutga, J. Manza, Z. Parolin, E. Schwitzgebel, J. Seim, A. Ravenelle, and E. Zuckerman. The paper also benefited from discussions following presentations at the Center for Poverty Research at the University of California, Davis; the London School of Economics and Political Science; the sections on Social Inequality and Stratification and Social Policy of the German Sociological Association; and the Inland Empire Poverty Symposium.

Author contributions: D.B. takes sole responsibility for all parts of this study.

Competing interests: The author declares that he has no competing interests.

Data and materials availability: The replication code and replication data are available at the OSF Project page: https://osf.io/e3tbm/ and also the Harvard Dataverse: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/7XQHOE . All other data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the materials cited herein.

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Is Poverty A Hindrance To Success?

Table of Contents

Is poverty a hindrance to success?

How can poverty impact access to education?

How does poverty affect health, and how might this impact success?

Can poverty affect a person’s mindset towards success?

How does poverty influence one’s social network, and how might this impact success?

Are there any success stories of individuals overcoming poverty?

How can access to quality education help overcome poverty’s hindrance to success?

Can government programs help mitigate the hindrance of poverty to success?

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Poverty, not the poor

INTRODUCTION

POVERTY MEASUREMENT

SYSTEMICALLY HIGH POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES

A huge share of the population

A perennial outlier among rich democracies

Staggeringly high for some groups

Unexpectedly high for those “playing by the rules”

Pervasive across various groups and places

PREVAILING APPROACHES TO THE INDIVIDUAL POOR

Fixing the poor

Dramatizing the poor

Cultural explanations

POLITICAL EXPLANATIONS OF SYSTEMICALLY HIGH POVERTY

The essential role of social policy generosity

Political choices to penalize risks

Power resources of collective political actors