Quotes about poverty and the poor

"For every talent that poverty has stimulated it has blighted a hundred."

Gardner, John W. on poverty and the poor   

"Poverty is uncomfortable; but 9 times out of 10 the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and be compelled to sink or swim."

Garfield, James A. on poverty and the poor   

"Four specters haunt the Poor -- Old Age, Accident, Sickness and Unemployment. We are going to exorcise them. We are going to drive hunger from the hearth. We mean to banish the workhouse from the horizon of every workman in the land."

George, David Lloyd on poverty and the poor   

"Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune, he had not the method of making a fortune."

Gray, Thomas on poverty and the poor   

"The best way to help poor people is to not be one of them."

Harrington, Bob on poverty and the poor   

"That the poor are invisible is one of the most important things about them. They are not simply neglected and forgotten as in the old rhetoric of reform; what is much worse, they are not seen."

Harrington, Michael on poverty and the poor   

"Poverty in itself does not make men into a rabble; a rabble is created only when there is joined to poverty a disposition of mind, an inner indignation against the rich, against society, against the government."

Hegel, Georg on poverty and the poor   

"You lose your manners when you're poor."

Hellman, Lillian on poverty and the poor   

"I want there to be no peasant in my kingdom so poor that he cannot have a chicken in his pot every Sunday."

Henry IV on poverty and the poor   

"Poverty must have many satisfactions, else there would not be so many poor people."

Herold, Don on poverty and the poor   

"Oh, God! that bread should be so dear! And flesh and blood so cheap!"

Hood, Thomas on poverty and the poor   

"In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land."

Hoover, Herbert Clark on poverty and the poor   

"We have not yet reached the goal but.. we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty shall be banished from this nation."

Hoover, Herbert Clark on poverty and the poor   

"It is no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be."

Hubbard, Kin on poverty and the poor   

"Do not ask the name of the person who seeks a bed for the night. He who is reluctant to give his name is the one who most needs shelter."

Hugo, Victor on poverty and the poor   

"We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition."

James, William on poverty and the poor   

"It is easy enough to say that poverty is no crime. No; if it were men wouldn't be ashamed of it. It is a blunder, though, and is punished as such. A poor man is despised the whole world over."

Jerome, Jerome K. on poverty and the poor   

"This mournful truth is everywhere confessed, slow rises worth by poverty depressed."

Johnson, Samuel on poverty and the poor   

"Poverty is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the task of many people to conceal their neediness from others. Consequently they support themselves by temporary means, and everyday is lost in contriving for tomorrow."

Johnson, Samuel on poverty and the poor   

"Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult."

Johnson, Samuel on poverty and the poor   

"It is the great privilege of poverty to be happy and yet unenvied, to be healthy with physic, secure without a guard, and to obtain from the bounty of nature what the great and wealthy are compelled to procure by the help of art."

Johnson, Samuel on poverty and the poor   

"Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities."

Johnson, Samuel on poverty and the poor   

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"Here we all live in a state of ambitious poverty."

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis) on poverty and the poor   

"A man who has nothing can whistle in a robber's face."

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis) on poverty and the poor   

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."

Kennedy, John F. on poverty and the poor
3 fans of this quote   

"You don't seem to realize that a poor person who is unhappy is in a better position than a rich person who is unhappy. Because the poor person has hope. He thinks money would help."

Kerr, Jean on poverty and the poor
5 fans of this quote   

"Only in relationship can you know yourself, not in abstraction and certainly not in isolation. The movement of behavior is the sure guide to yourself. It's the mirror of your consciousness: this mirror will reveal its content, the images, the attachments, the fears, the loneliness, the joys and sorrow. Poverty lies in running away from this, either in its sublimations or its identities."

Krishnamurti, Jiddu on poverty and the poor
3 fans of this quote   

"I wasn't born in a log cabin, but my family moved into one as soon as they could afford it."

Landon, Melville D. on poverty and the poor   

"Show me a man with very little money and I will show you a bum."

Lewis, Joe E. on poverty and the poor   

"Poverty is not the root cause of crime."

Limbaugh, Rush on poverty and the poor   

"Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."

Lincoln, Abraham on poverty and the poor   

"Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another."

Madonna on poverty and the poor
3 fans of this quote   

"Poor is the man who does not know his own intrinsic worth and tends to measure everything by relative value. A man of financial wealth who values himself by his financial net worth is poorer than a poor man who values himself by his intrinsic self worth."

Madwed, Sidney on poverty and the poor
4 fans of this quote   

"Hard as it may appear in individual cases, dependent poverty ought to be held disgraceful."

Malthus, Thomas Robert on poverty and the poor   

"What power can poverty have over a home where loving hearts are beating with a consciousness of untold riches of the head and heart?"

Marden, Orison Swett on poverty and the poor   

"I know a fellow who's as broke as the Ten Commandments."

Marquand, John on poverty and the poor   

"I worked myself up from nothing to extreme poverty."

Marx, Groucho on poverty and the poor
7 fans of this quote   

"Look at me. I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty."

Marx, Groucho on poverty and the poor   

"In verity we are the poor. This humanity we would claim for ourselves is the legacy, not only of the Enlightenment, but of the thousands and thousands of European peasants and poor townspeople who came here bringing their humanity and their sufferings with them. It is the absence of a stable upper class that is responsible for much of the vulgarity of the American scene. Should we blush before the visitor for this deficiency?"

Mccarthy, Mary on poverty and the poor   

"He who knows how to be poor knows everything."

Michelet, Jules on poverty and the poor