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Adversity Horace Quote Analysis

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Quite often you hear that we do not grow without failure; that failure is what teaches us a new skill and how to then succeed. I was not familiar with the quote, “adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant,” by Horace, however I think this quote is true. To me, this means that when someone has some kind of disadvantage, that person can use the challenge to his advantage through self-reflection, determination, and hope. Every person faces an obstacle, usually many and of various degrees of challenge, and although you cannot control the situation, you can control your reaction. Those of us that learn from adversity take our time to figure out how to approach the problem in a new manner. We recognize that one barrier is not a reason to abandon our course. We think outside the box for how to overcome the challenge. We learn from the first failure and we regroup for the next approach. Failure teaches you how to define yourself rather than how others define you. All four of the …show more content…

While she set out to determine if this was indeed possible, the mere obstacle of how to survive with little money allowed her to discover a new talent, empathy. Like many people her responses to how to improve poverty in this country were the popular and generic, “increase minimum wage” and “universal healthcare”. Her time spent living this new life over months of time afforded her a new perspective on the cycle of poverty and how it can drown someone. While a better salary would certainly help, we as a society could learn to be compassionate and empathetic. Ehrenreich’s new path of understanding and respect for anyone less financially fortunate has prompted her to tell us, “at least we should decide, as a bare minimum principle, to stop kicking people when they’re down” (Ehrenreich

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