“We did live in dire poverty. And one of the things that I
hated was poverty. Some people hate spiders. Some people hate snakes. I hated
poverty. I couldn't stand it. My mother couldn't stand the fact that we were
doing poorly in school, and she prayed and she asked God to give her wisdom.
What could she do to get her young sons to understand the importance of
developing their minds so that they control their own lives? God gave her the
wisdom. At least in her opinion. My brother and I didn't think it was that
wise. Turn off the TV, let us watch only two or three TV programs during the
week. And with all that spare time read two books a piece from the Detroit
Public Libraries and submit to her written book reports, which she couldn't read but we
didn't know that. I just hated this. My friends were out having a good
time. Her friends would criticize her. My mother didn't care. But after a while
I actually began to enjoy reading those books. Because we were very poor, but
between the covers of those books I could go anywhere. I could be anybody. I
could do anything. I began to read about people of great accomplishment. And as
I read those stories, I began to see a connecting thread. I began to see that
the person who has the most to do with you, and what happens to you in life, is
you. You make decisions. You decide how much energy you want to put behind that
decision. And I came to understand that I had control of my own destiny. And at
that point I didn't hate poverty anymore, because I knew it was only temporary.
I knew I could change that. It was incredibly liberating for me. Made all the
difference.”
― Ben Carson, M.D.
Retired pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins 
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