quotations about poverty
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
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
Poverty is the discoverer of all the arts.
APOLLONIUS
De Magia
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
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
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
We're not stupid! We're just poor! And we have a right to insist on this distinction!
ORPHAN PAMUK
Snow
Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.
JAMES BALDWIN
Esquire, April 1960
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
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
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
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
No two things differ more than abstract and actual poverty.
MARY FERRIER
attributed, Day's Collacon
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
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
It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
Confessions
His rawbone cheeks, through penury and pine,
Were shrunk into his jaws, as he did never dine.
EDMUND SPENSER
The Faerie Queene
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
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