quotations about poverty
Rags, which are the reproach of poverty, are the beggar's robes, and graceful insignia of his profession, his tenure, his full dress, the suit of which he is expected to show himself in public.
CHARLES LAMB
Essays of Elia
Small leisure have the poor for grief.
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
"The Witch's Daughter"
How reprehensible it is when those blessed with commodities insist on ignoring the poor. Better to torment them, force them into indentured servitude, inflict compulsion and blows--this at least produces a connection, fury and a pounding heart.
ROBERT WALSER
The Tanners
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
WOODY ALLEN
Without Feathers
The two poorest men in the world are buckled together at the opposite sides of the circle. The man who has so much money that he does not know what to do with it and the man who has no money at all touch each other, as you will find; and one is about as poor as the other.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
In a change of government, the poor change nothing but the name of their master.
AESOP
"The Ass and the Old Shepherd", Aesop's Fables
Poverty is to happiness what appetite is to food--poverty enables us to enjoy the simplest pleasures; appetite, the simplest fare.
CHARLES EDWARD JERNINGHAM
The Maxims of Marmaduke
It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty as God's will when you yourself have warm clothes and plenty of food and medical care and a roof over your head and no worry about the rent. But if you want them to believe you--try to share some of their poverty and see if you can accept it as God's will yourself!
THOMAS MERTON
Seeds of Contemplation
Poverty is a virtue which one can teach oneself.
DIOGENES OF SINOPE
Stobaeus