Original artwork, not a still
Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.
— 2008 Harvard University Commencement Address
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The speaker insists poverty means fear, stress, sometimes depression and countless small humiliations. Rising out of it through one's own effort is worth being proud of, but only fools, the speaker says, romanticise poverty itself. The words reject sentimental views of hardship.
Context reviewed
