POVERTY QUOTES IV

quotations about poverty

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.

MAHATMA GANDHI

attributed, Ve-hayinu Kulanu shamah: And we were all there

Tags: Mahatma Gandhi


If the time ever comes when there is no longer poverty in the world, there will be a wonderful freedom for the higher qualities of the human race.

JOHN DANIEL BARRY

"God's Poor", Reactions and Other Essays


No, madam, 'tis not so well that I am poor, though many of the rich are damned.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

All's Well That Ends Well

Tags: William Shakespeare


It is better to be poor and walk in integrity than to be stupid and speak lies.

SOLOMON

Proverbs 19:1


Men praise poverty, as the African worships Mumbo Jumbo, from terror of the malign power, and a desire to propitiate it.

ALEXANDER SMITH

Alfred Hagart's Household


If the difficulty can be surmounted of persuading the poor to be contented with their portion in this world, there will be little or no trouble in overcoming the reluctance of the rich to prefer their larger share.

RICHARD SHARP

"On Poverty", Letters and Essays in Prose and Verse


Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.

JAMES BALDWIN

Esquire, April 1960

Tags: James Baldwin


It requires a great deal of poetry to gild the pill of poverty, and then it will pass current only in theory; the reality is a dead failure.

MME. DELUZY

attributed, Day's Collacon


The fact is, people work hard and rely on Food Stamps ... to be able to feed their families. When they work full-time they still live in poverty. That's wrong in our nation. Students who are losing hope because of the difficulty of finding jobs in this tough economy. What we need to do, what is best for America, is to raise wages, create jobs, and then we will move forward. Hard-working people are trying their best, but those who hold on to capital are not sharing the wealth, and there is the problem.

SIMONE CAMPBELL

"Nun Responds To Hannity's 'Communist' Comparison: 'Name Calling Is About All That Exists On That Side'", Media Matters for America


The poor, by thinking unceasingly of money, reach the point of losing the spiritual advantages of non-possession, thereby sinking as low as the rich.

E. M. CIORAN

The Trouble with Being Born

Tags: Emil Cioran


No two things differ more than abstract and actual poverty.

MARY FERRIER

attributed, Day's Collacon


An avowal of poverty is a disgrace to no man; to make no effort to escape from it is indeed disgraceful.

THUCYDIDES

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Thucydides


We're not stupid! We're just poor! And we have a right to insist on this distinction!

ORPHAN PAMUK

Snow


Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you -- and full as much heart!

CHARLOTTE BRONTË

Jane Eyre

Tags: Charlotte Brontë


It's simply a national acknowledgement that in any kind of priority, the needs of human beings must come first. Poverty is here and now.... And if we don't respond to it -- we may well wind up sitting amidst our own rubble, looking for the truck that hit us -- or the bomb that pulverized us. Get the license number of whatever it was that destroyed the dream. And I think we will find that the vehicle was registered in our own name.

ROD SERLING

Commencement Address at the University of Southern California, March 17, 1970

Tags: Rod Serling


Poverty palls the most generous spirits; it cows industry, and casts resolution itself into despair.

JOSEPH ADDISON

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Joseph Addison


There is no doubt of course that poverty develops much that is precious in life, not talent or genius alone, but valuable qualities of character. But it does vastly more harm than good. Whenever a man succeeds in spite of poverty we recognize the wonder and eagerly give it acclaim. But the failures resulting from poverty we pass over. Indeed, they are so common as to be almost uninteresting. We speak of them by the bulk.

JOHN DANIEL BARRY

"God's Poor", Reactions and Other Essays


There is a solitude in poverty, but a solitude which restores to each thing its value.

ALBERT CAMUS

"Between Yes and No", World Review, March 1950

Tags: Albert Camus


If you go out into the real world, you cannot miss seeing that the poor are poor not because they are untrained or illiterate but because they cannot retain the returns of their labor. They have no control over capital, and it is the ability to control capital that gives people the power to rise out of poverty.

MUHAMMAD YUNUS

Baker to the Poor


It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Confessions

Tags: Jean-Jacques Rousseau