Wendy Davis Quotes

I had to succeed. Failure means I would have to be homeless again.

I was living as a young single mom. I was 19 when I was divorced, and my daughter was a year old, and I waited tables here three to four nights a week for several years while I was trying to support myself and my daughter and the day I got that acceptance at Harvard Law School was an unforgettable day.

My mom had not worked a day in her life, and then she woke up when I was 15 and found herself with four children, no job, no money. But she set out and made it all OK for us, and from that, I saw that there's no problem that can't be solved.

After a tumultuous 20-year marriage, my father up and left one day, leaving my mother to raise three boys without the means to do so. And yet somehow she did. At the age of 50, she enrolled in nursing school and became a nurse and worked countless overtime hours and weekend shifts just to give us a fighting chance.

Of all the advantages which come to any young man ... poverty is the greatest.

My mom raised us three boys by herself on welfare. It's not worse than anybody else's life.

I was once a single mother, with very few resources, so I have a special place in my heart for women in difficult situations.

One of the most difficult things everyone has to learn is that for your entire life you must keep fighting and adjusting if you hope to survive. No matter who you are or what your position is you must keep fighting for whatever it is you desire to achieve.

I learned a lot in those first years in Miami, while struggling just for survival, by observing my father's fortitude.

When my mother had four girls, and she could tell her marriage was falling apart, she went back to college and got her degree in music and education.

My dad died when I was three so my mom had to raise four kids on her own, and I think there's a part of me that pulls upon having watched my mom do that our whole lives. She had to make it work.

I grew up in this poor place, with very limited circumstances, at about 16 years of age was sent by my family to work, and instead of remaining in the position into which I was sent, I somehow worked my way out of it without any help from anyone, just luck.

My advice: Don't quit. When I got to New York City, I lived so far below the poverty line, because I didn't give in and get a job at 7-Eleven. I think you can thrive in misery.

It's been very hard, after being mostly a mom, to develop an adult life of my own. And not being married anymore, I have to come up with challenges.

I've had a normal life, but I have struggled to get here. It hasn't been handed to me and it hasn't been easy.

When I started out, I struggled, and I was broke a lot. But I'm glad I struggled, and I'm glad I was broke a lot.

When my trust fund ran out, I panicked. I have a lot of admiration for the kids who come to the big city with nothing and make it.

Precious, she gets hit by life so many different ways and so many times, but she doesn't yield to it. She continues to get up and she continues to struggle for a better life.

It would be nice if we redefined what we meant by 'war story.' If you're making $15,000 a year living in a certain area of Portland, trying to make it with three kids and no husband, that's a kind of war.

I've always been the person to look at any turmoil as temporary. I recall times where my mom was working five and six jobs, and there's still no food in the house.

I was 25 when my first husband walked out of the house and left me with a 10-month-old. And a house payment and a car payment. But suffice it to say I have a lot of love in my life.

My mom tried to not let me see how much we were struggling, but I noticed it. I think that's what made me work harder. I saw how hard she was working, and I just wanted a better life for both of us.

I did a job. I completed my Matric and my Bachelors. I did a marketing job. I worked as a bus hostess. I did a lot of jobs; I struggled a lot. I got out from there. The first thing I did when I got out of Darul Aman was my Matric. Then I did my Bachelors privately; I kept doing it.

I grew up with nothing, and that was my motivation.

All this could go tomorrow, and I would still know how to function, because I never had nothing before. I went through the struggle - it was a rough life.