I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.

Very few people can afford to be poor.

A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.

Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.

Some folks believe that hardship breeds artistic creativity. I don’t buy it. One can put up with poverty for a while when one is young, but it will inevitably wear a person down.

Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.

Women will only have true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.

As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.

Poverty is the worst form of violence.

We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.

When you look at how much we spend on social programs in our country, it separates us from a lot of countries. In our country, if you’re hungry, we’ll feed you. If you’re homeless, we’ll house you. If you’re too poor to be sick, we’ll pay for your doctor. But all of that comes at a cost.

It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

No one is so miserable as the poor person who maintains the appearance of wealth.

The old-fashioned idea is that responsibility falls upon those who borrow and lend. Money was not borrowed by campesinos, assembly plant workers, or slum-dwellers. The mass of the population gained little from borrowing, indeed often suffered grievously from its effects.

These days there is a lot of poverty in the world, and that’s a scandal when we have so many riches and resources to give to everyone. We all have to think about how we can become a little poorer.

Some say we should not engage in activism. Instead we should leave everything to our politicians and just vote for a change instead. But what do we do when there is no political will? What do we do when the politics needed are nowhere in sight?

When the human race neglects its weaker members, when the family neglects its weakest one – it’s the first blow in a suicidal movement. I see the neglect in cities around the country, in poor white children in West Virginia and Virginia and Kentucky – in the big cities, too, for that matter.

We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.

We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.

Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.

I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: ‚What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.‘

The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.

Actually oddly enough, I think my work, the activism, will be forgotten. And I hope it will. Because I hope those problems will have gone away.

We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse.

Helping convene global stakeholders to establish a set of measurable, actionable and consensus-built goals focused on extreme poverty is invaluable.

When I was growing up, my family was so poor we couldn’t afford to pay attention.

Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.

There are two types of poor people, those who are poor together and those who are poor alone. The first are the true poor, the others are rich people out of luck.

Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.

The most amazing philanthropists are people who are actually making a significant sacrifice.

The first time I ever saw snow skis was when I was 62 years old and that was 19 years ago and I’m still skiing. So, we’ll be skiing with some very close friends of the Carter Center letting them know what the Carter Center is doing around the world. We have programs in over 65 countries.

If you’re totally illiterate and living on one dollar a day, the benefits of globalization never come to you.

If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.

The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.

Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

In the late 1960s, the masses were supposed to be passive, not entering into the public arena and having their voices heard.

We can’t leave people in abject poverty, so we need to raise the standard of living for 80% of the world’s people, while bringing it down considerably for the 20% who are destroying our natural resources.

My father worked for a children’s home called Dr. Barnardo’s Homes. They’re a charity.

I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Everest and my trips to the poles. But there’s no doubt that my most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics.

Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone, and let your hand give in proportion to your purse.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be… The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

I love the women’s movement, and I never thought of it as belonging to any particular segment of the population.

The fact is that ours is the first generation that can look disease and extreme poverty in the eye, look across the ocean to Africa, and say this, and mean it. We do not have to stand for this. A whole continent written off – we do not have to stand for this.

When I was young, poverty was so common that we didn’t know it had a name.

Life is an ordeal, albeit an exciting one, but I wouldn’t trade it for the good old days of poverty and obscurity.

Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.

Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things.

When rich people fight wars with one another, poor people are the ones to die.

I was born poor and without religion, under a happy sky, feeling harmony, not hostility, in nature. I began not by feeling torn, but in plenitude.

You can’t take care of charity unless you take care of yourself first.

Giving should be entered into in just the same way as investing. Giving is investing.

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

My father always taught me that when you help other people, then God will give you double. And that’s what has really happened to me. When I have helped other people who are in need, God has helped me more.

It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily lives. If we find we cannot help others, the least we can do is to desist from harming them.

We were poor, but we smiled.

Who, being loved, is poor?

If you care about other people, you might try to organize to undermine power and authority. That’s not going to happen if you care only about yourself.

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

It’s so easy to settle for less than God’s best for us because we don’t always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God’s will.