QuoteProject
We didn't have money all the time to do laundry. A lot of the time, we didn't have soap or hot water. We were smart kids academically, but we'd go to school smelling.
Viola Davis
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects on the struggles of poverty and the resilience of children despite difficult circumstances.

Viola Davis shares a personal memory from her childhood that highlights the challenges faced by her family due to financial hardships. Despite not having basic necessities like money for laundry, soap, or hot water, her family valued education and intelligence, demonstrating the determination and strength of character that can arise from difficult situations. This quote emphasizes that one's circumstances do not define their intellect or potential.

Themes

PovertyStruggleResilienceEducationDetermination

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about overcoming adversity, this quote can illustrate the power of resilience in children's lives.

More from Viola Davis

The more I'm pushed in a position of leadership and I know I have to be the mouthpiece for so many other people who can't speak for themselves, the more confidence I'm gaining.
Viola DavisRead
What excites me is just taking some time to breathe in life. The mundane is very exciting.
Viola DavisRead
I don't care if someone is new to acting or experienced in acting: you always learn something from them. It's just like people in life - whether they're young or middle-aged or old, you always learn something from someone.
Viola DavisRead
I don't see a lot of narratives written where a woman who looks like me gets to be beautiful and sexualized and upwardly mobile, middle-class, funny, quirky. They're very seldom written.
Viola DavisRead
And that's what people want to see when they go to the theater. I believe at the end of the day, they want to see themselves - parts of their lives they can recognize. And I feel if I can achieve that, it's pretty spectacular.
Viola DavisRead
There's no prerequisites to worthiness. You're born worthy, and I think that's a message a lot of women need to hear.
Viola DavisRead

Similar quotes

A life that is worth writing at all is worth writing minutely.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
I like living, breathing better than working... Each second, each breath is a work which is inscribed nowhere, which is neither visual nor cerebral. It's a kind of constant euphoria.
Marcel DuchampRead
For I dance And drink and sing, Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing. If thought is life And strength and breath And the want Of thought is death Then am I A happy fly If I live Or if I die
William BlakeRead
Whimsy doesn't care if you are the driver or the passenger; all that matters is that you are on your way.
Bob GoffRead
Everything grows rounder and wider and weirder, and I sit here in the middle of it all and wonder who in the world you will turn out to be.
Carrie FisherRead
The act of living had been enjoyable; at some point when I was not paying attention, it had turned into a different sort of experience, to whose grimness I had grown so accustomed that I now took it for granted.
Paul BowlesRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Viola Davis | QuoteProject