87 Growing Up Poor Quotes

Following is our list of growing up poor quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about child poverty.

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Famous Growing Up Poor Quotes

I come from a poor family. - Manny Pacquiao

I come from a poor family. — Manny Pacquiao

I came from abject poverty. There was nowhere to go but up. - Kirk Douglas

I came from abject poverty. There was nowhere to go but up. — Kirk Douglas

I was born poor, I have lived poor, I wish to die poor. — Pope Pius X

Poverty, I realized, wasn't only a lack of financial resources; it was isolation from the kind of people that could help you make more of yourself. — Keith Ferrazzi

I'm scared to death of being poor. It's like a fat girl who loses 500 pounds but is always fat inside. I grew up poor and will always feel poor inside. It's my pet paranoia. — Cher

We were poor when I was young but the difference was that the government didn't come around telling you you were poor. — Ronald Reagan

I grew up as a fairly poor kid in, you know, Toronto, Canada. I don't think I owned any new clothes until I was, like, 15 or something. They were all second-hand and forged from paper. — Paulo Costanzo

Poor is a state of mind you never grow out of, but being broke is just a temporary condition. — Dick Gregory

When you come up in the slums, having nothin make you humble - Kevin Gates

When you come up in the slums, having nothin make you humble — Kevin Gates

Poor people stay poor because they’re afraid of other poor people judging them for trying to get rich. — Alex Hormozi

I was poor white trash, no glitter, no glamour, but I'm not ashamed of anything. — Eminem

Poverty is uncomfortable; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim. — James A. Garfield

Look at me. I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty. — Groucho Marx

The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time. - Willem de Kooning

The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time. — Willem de Kooning

Poverty, first of all was never a misfortune for me; it was radiant with sunlight.. I owe it to my family, first of all, who lacked everything and who envied practically nothing. — Albert Camus

Short Growing Up Poor Quotes

  • You grow up skinny in Canada; in working-class Montreal, you're definitely the underdog. — Jay Baruchel
  • Here we all live in a state of ambitious poverty. — Juvenal
  • Poverty is just a state of mind. — Rahul Gandhi
  • It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty. — Juvenal
  • Poverty is the deprivation of opportunity. — Amartya Sen
  • You're not poor because you don't have money. You're poor if you don't have a dream. — Randy Gage
  • A rich child often sits in a poor mothers lap. — Proverbs

Growing Up Poor Image Quotes

Growing up poor quote Accept both compliments and criticism. It takes both sun and rain for a flower to grow.
Accept both compliments and criticism. It takes both sun and rain for a flower to grow.

Being Poor Quotes

This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor. — John F. Kennedy

Do not judge by appearances; a rich heart may be under a poor coat. - Scottish Proverbs

Do not judge by appearances; a rich heart may be under a poor coat. — Scottish Proverbs

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships. — W. E. B. Du Bois

Growing up poor quote A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.
A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. — Adam Smith

I don't care if you're black, white, straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, short, tall, fat, skinny, rich or poor. If you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you. Simple as that. — Eminem

Happiness and suffering do not depend on being poor or rich, they depend on having the right or wrong understanding in our mind. — Ajahn Chah

Growing up poor quote The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise man grows it under his feet.
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise man grows it under his feet.

Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. — Nelson Mandela

I am a missionary, heart and soul. God had an only Son, and He was a missionary and a physician. I am a poor, poor imitation of Him, or wish to be. In this service I hope to live; in it I wish to die! — David Livingstone

What we would like to do is change the world...by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. — Dorothy Day

Being Negative and Lazy is a disease that leads to pain, hardship, depression, poor health and failure. Be pro active, and give a damn to achieve success! — Phil Heath

Child Poverty Quotes

Child labor perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population growth and other social problems. — Kailash Satyarthi

Few things have more impact than nutrition on a child's ability to survive, learn effectively and escape a life of poverty. — Ann Veneman

You need only do three things in this country to avoid poverty - finish high school, marry before having a child, and marry after the age of 20. Only 8 percent of the families who do this are poor; 79 percent of those who fail to do this are poor. — William Galston

Growing up poor quote Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.
Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.

May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted, may all your desires be withered into nothingness, that you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God who is the Father, Son and Spirit. — Brennan Manning

It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish. — Mother Teresa

The mother's battle for her child with sickness, with poverty, with war, with all the forces of exploitation and callousness that cheapen human life needs to become a common human battle, waged in love and in the passion for survival. — Adrienne Rich

Growing up poor quote Don't regret growing older. It's a privilege denied to many.
Don't regret growing older. It's a privilege denied to many.

The truth is, the greatest tool to lift children and families from poverty is one that decreases the probability of child poverty by 82%. But it isn't a government spending program. It's called marriage. — Marco Rubio

At the current $5.15 an hour, the federal minimum wage has become a poverty wage. A full-time worker with one child lives below the official poverty line. — Bernie Sanders

The child was diseased at birth, stricken with a hereditary ill that only the most vital men are able to shake off. I mean poverty-the most deadly and prevalent of all diseases. — Eugene O'Neill

Black child poverty is higher. As I write in the epilogue, "Yes we can. No he didn't. President [Barack] Obama didn't push black people backward, but he missed the opportunity to move us forward." — Julianne Malveaux

People Writing About Growing Up Poor

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Juvenal

Juvenal

300 1355
Read quotes by Manny Pacquiao

Manny Pacquiao
quotes on leadership, education and fighting

100 437
Read quotes by Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas
quotes on leadership, life and education

91 775
Read quotes by Pope Pius X

Pope Pius X
quotes on love, death and god

25 1567
Read quotes by Keith Ferrazzi

Keith Ferrazzi

30 115
Read quotes by Cher

Cher
quotes on aging, life and love

118 794

More Growing Up Poor Quotes

Brazil makes up fully one-third of South America’s land, is almost as big as the U.S., and its 27 states equal an area bigger than the 28 EU countries combined; but unlike them it lacks the infrastructure to be as rich. A third of Brazil is jungle, where it is painfully expensive, and in some areas illegal, to carve out land fit for habitation. The government allows slash-and-burn farmers to cut down the jungle and then use the land for agriculture. But the soil is so poor that within a few years crop growing is untenable and the farmers move on to cut down more rainforest. — Tim Marshall

As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don't think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, 'I'm probably no better than you, but I'm certainly your equal. — Harper Lee

I think you have to learn that there's a company behind every stock, and that there's only one real reason why stocks go up. Companies go from doing poorly to doing well or small companies grow to large companies. — Peter Lynch

My views on everything from welfare to a balanced budget to affirmative action can be traced to what Buddy and Helen Watts taught me as a young boy growing up poor but proud in Eufaula. — J. C. Watts

I think evil is our collective shadow. Each one of us has a tendency for the diabolical. If I put you in inhumane conditions, if you're not educated, if you're extremely poor, if you're humiliated, then as a child if you suffer abuse, then you will manifest even when you grow up. — Deepak Chopra

I was so poor growing up...if I wasn't a boy...I'd have nothing to play with. — Rodney Dangerfield

While a few poor countries are catching up with the rich world, the differences between the richest and poorest individuals around the globe are huge and likely growing. — Zygmunt Bauman

What I've found is that country doesn't refer to where you grew up as much as where your heart grows down, where it takes root. Country is a state of mind. I believe what ultimately defines being country is simple: a loving heart, a helping hand, an open mind, poor in spirit. — Clay Walker

When we were growing up, we were so poor that our heritage was the only thing we had. Mama would say, 'Kids, pour more water in the soup. Better days are coming.' — Ashley Judd

I grew up poor in crappy situations various crappy situations. What kept me sane was reading and music. I had so many different literary tastes growing up, be it fiction like Stephen King or Piers Anthony or non-fiction like reading Hunter S. Thompson essays or reading the Beats. I was a huge fan of the Beat movement. — Corey Taylor

My parents were very poor, but we never felt any sense of need or want. It was a very close, loving, tightly-knit family growing up, and I never felt any sense of deprivation or anything like that. — George J. Mitchell

Growing up poor, I never missed out on anything. My parents did a beautiful job of not making me feel like I was lesser than any other kids. — Mila Kunis

I'm from a middle class family. I didn't grow-up rich, but I didn't grow-up poor. Each guy has to stick to his own story. — SonReal

Growing up on a farm taught me a reverence for all forms of life. We were a large and poor farm family, so that meant that we had to kill and eat our animal friends. When you do that you are aware of the sacrifice that someone is making so that you may live. My mother always made sure we were thankful for those precious gifts. — Roger Fouts

A mother! What are we worth really? They all grow up whether you look after them or not. That poor miserable brat of his is growing up, and I certainly licked the hide off her; and she's seen marriage at its worst, and now she's dreaming about 'supermen' and 'great men'. What is the good of doing anything for them? — Christina Stead

For me, growing up in a ridiculously poor family living in dead-end neighborhoods, Superman was a deeply personal icon, one that said you can do anything if you put your mind to it. What he stood for formed the core of who I wanted to be as I grew up, and informed how I view the world and my responsibilities to other people. — J. Michael Straczynski

You can't break poor people mentality. Once you grow up poor, you don't take anything for granted. It can have the negative side also because you can never truly be relaxed. — Will Smith

That same night, I wrote my first short story. It took me thirty minutes. It was a dark little tale about a man who found a magic cup and learned that if he wept into the cup, his tears turned into pearls. But even though he had always been poor, he was a happy man and rarely shed a tear. So he found ways to make himself sad so that his tears could make him rich. As the pearls piled up, so did his greed grow. The story ended with the man sitting on a mountain of pearls, knife in hand, weeping helplessly into the cup with his beloved wife's slain body in his arms. — Khaled Hosseini

We were growing up in West Virginia. Everybody was poor there in the southern part of the state. It was like growing up in the Great Depression from the stories I hear people tell. Everybody was poor and so we didn't know that we were any different from anybody else. — James Green Somerville

The first decade of the twentieth century was not a great time to be born black and poor and female in St. Louis, Missouri, but Vivian Baxter was born black and poor, to black and poor parents. Later she would grow up and be called beautiful. As a grown woman she would be known as the butter-colored lady with the blowback hair. — Maya Angelou

I didn't know I was poor, growing up, because everyone was in the same boat. I couldn't have bikes. It never really bothered me, but I could have any book. I loved school; I loved learning. Yeah, I never cared for possessions. I still don't, really. — Ricky Gervais

My father passed away a few days before my election. This man, an African American born to a poor single mother in 1936 in the South, would worry in the last years of his life that he had better life chances when he was growing up than a young man born in the same circumstances would have today. — Cory Booker

I'm a strong supporter of comfort breeds complacency. Growing up poor I wasn't comfortable, and my mom had to work so hard and I woke up one day and decided I was not going to come home until I could help her pay the bills. — Farrah Gray

I was a child of the '60s basically, which is a real blank. I really started growing up, I think, in the '70s. I'm a glam-rock kid. But Dublin, Ireland in those days was a very dark place, as in it was a very poor, almost third world. Economically, the whole world is going through a recession at the moment. In the '60s, '70s, and the '80s in Ireland was a real recession. It wasn't a pleasant place. — Gavin Friday

We know that kids who grow up in an environment of warmth and support will thrive and function in whatever environment they find themselves. What we need to do is to do more to help poor kids have such an environment. — Alison Gopnik

I came from a background where I was very poor growing up but I have never known poverty. My parents worked hard and they went to bed hungry, but they fed us. Then my father became an ambassador, so I ended up being driven by chauffeurs. And then we became refugees. After that, I looked at it through this "glass" of to have and have not, and at the end of the day, who actually helps, who actually steps up, who is there for you. — Iman Abdulmajid

We think we have to prove our allegiance to God by being poor. Many years ago, my own psychic development teacher taught me that to be on a spiritual path meant that you needed to be poor, because that was proving your allegiance to God. So growing up with that kind of teaching from her was a real struggle for me, also. — Echo Bodine

I think that growing up very poor in a very wealthy town gave me a sense of being an outsider, and I hated it when I was growing up. — Moby

We were really poor when I was growing up; my parents, both artists, were bohemians. Life was a desperate struggle, but in service of a high ideal, which is exactly what my photographs are about. — Justine Kurland

When you grow up poor, you have to either work really hard to try and get where you want to be, or you'll just stay put. — Dat Phan

Where else but in America can a poor black man like Michael Jackson grow up to be a rich white woman? — Red Buttons

When were you born, who are your parents, where did you grow up? None of us earns these things. These things were given to us. So when we strip away all of our luck and our privilege, and we consider where we'd be without them, it becomes much easier to see someone who's poor and say, "That could be me." And that's empathy. — Melinda Gates

Many a poor sore-eyed student that I have heard of would grow faster, both intellectually and physically, if, instead of sitting up so very late, he honestly slumbered a fool's allowance. — Henry David Thoreau

Growing up poor, I didn't even have a lunch to take to school. — George Foreman

Given the fact that poverty is growing, more and more Americans are losing health insurance, health care costs are going up, the middle class is shrinking, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing wider. That speaks to the weakness of the opposition. People do not like George W. Bush. But I think it's fair to say that they are not flocking to the Democratic Party, or see the Democrats as a real alternative. — Bernie Sanders

If you grow up poor you're always going to worry about money, no matter how successful or lucky you become. I'm not moaning about what actors get paid - I'm very, very lucky - but the difference between what leading actors get paid and supporting actors get is a lot. — Jason Flemyng

When I was growing up, you were supposed to marry and therefore didn't plan ahead. Planning ahead is one of the few reliable measures of class in the sense that rich people plan for generations forward and poor people plan for Saturday night, and by that measure, women have been lower class. We were less likely to plan ahead because we're more likely to think that who we marry and our children are going to dictate our plans. — Gloria Steinem

While it is probably a poor idea to own actively managed funds in general, it is truly a terrible idea to own them in taxable accounts... taxes are a drag on performance of up to 4 percentage points each year... many index funds allow your capital gains to grow largely undisturbed until you sell... For the taxable investor, indexing means never having to say you're sorry. — William J. Bernstein

We were growing up in West Virginia. Everybody was poor there in the southern part of the state. It was like growing up in the Great Depression from the stories I hear people tell. Everybody was poor and so we didnt know that we were any different from anybody else. — James Green

There was a nobility in poverty when I was growing up. My mom was poor but she was planting roses and she was cleaning the steps, you know what I mean. You didn't feel sorry for yourself. — Ricky Gervais

My parents came from a poor background and worked their way up because of education. They saw it as a way to succeed. So they cared about me getting straight A grades when I was growing up. — Jennifer Garner

And when you're poor, you grow up fast. — Billie Holiday

I did not grow up in poverty. But I did grow up with a poor boy's sense of longing, in my case not for what my family had never had, but for what we had had and lost. — Mohsin Hamid

There are saints in the Roman Curia, among the cardinals, priests, religious, sisters and laity. They work hard, and also do things that are often hidden. I know some who concern themselves with feeding the poor or who give up their free time to work in a parish. As always, the ones who aren't saints make the most noise ... a single tree falling makes a sound, but a whole forest growing doesn't. — Pope Francis

Poor people of all colors are getting poorer and our communities are getting more toxic. There is a misconception that to grow our economy we will have to do business as usual, because cleaning up the environment, mitigating climate change is just too costly. Well, I say the business of poverty is just too expensive a bill for humanity to pay any longer. — Majora Carter

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