I grew up with the sea, and poverty for me was sumptuous; then I lost the sea and found all luxuries gray and poverty unbearable.
Albert CamusChina adopted a capitalist system in the 1980s, and they went from a 60% poverty rate to 10%.
Bill GatesIn truth, I did enjoy the benefits of a Harvard connection.
Ruth Bader GinsburgIt is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society.
Martin Luther King, Jr.It’s very difficult for the American people to believe that our government, one of the richest on Earth, is also one of the stingiest on Earth.
Jimmy CarterWhen I was growing up, my family was so poor we couldn’t afford to pay attention.
Mr. TThe distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.
John RuskinFor 500 years, since European explorers came, Latin American countries had been separated from one another. They had very limited relations. Integration is a prerequisite for independence.
Noam ChomskyMost poor people live in the poorest countries.
Bill GatesI grew up in the east side of Detroit in an area where there was very little, except for a lot of scarcity, poverty and hunger. I never woke up saying, ‚I’m an orphan again today, isn’t this terrible? Poor me.‘
Wayne DyerBut while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.
Franklin D. RooseveltIf investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy, and people say, ‚What are we going to do?‘ but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that’s nothing.
Pope FrancisIt’s never happened in history that every region in the world could affect every other region simultaneously. The Roman empire and the Chinese empire didn’t know much about each other and had no means of interacting. Now we have every continent able to reach every other.
Henry KissingerTo be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.
Samuel JohnsonThe literature associating inequality with social instability and poor health outcomes is pretty convincing.
Jordan PetersonAn important priority for me is a business must get their own house in order. Be or become an agent of positive change in your own enterprise and adopt responsible practices to eliminate the risks that often lie at the root of inequality and poverty.
Richard BransonIf you are poor, you are not likely to live long.
Nelson MandelaNo nation was ever ruined by trade.
Benjamin FranklinWho, being loved, is poor?
Oscar WildeWe are moving towards a world that is reordering itself and that may appear more ordered at some periods of time, but I see no sign that we are moving towards a world order in my definition of it – namely, a system which is accepted, which is internalized by the majority of the key participants.
Henry KissingerWealthy men can’t live in an island that is encircled by poverty. We all breathe the same air. We must give a chance to everyone, at least a basic chance.
Ayrton SennaThe childcare tax credit makes some sense.
Noam ChomskyThere is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else.
Andrew CarnegieThe world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.
John F. KennedyNo one is so miserable as the poor person who maintains the appearance of wealth.
Charles SpurgeonA man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune’s inequality exhibits under this sun.
Thomas CarlyleThe common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
H. L. MenckenI do remember how it was to be poor. I do remember that in my early years, we had to grow and raise all of our food, even our animals. And I remember in my early life, we didn’t even have electricity. So it was very, very hard times then.
Dolly PartonCapitalism knows only one color: that color is green; all else is necessarily subservient to it, hence, race, gender and ethnicity cannot be considered within it.
Thomas SowellConcentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle.
Noam ChomskyBut Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor.
Alexander PopeBenefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.
Niccolo MachiavelliGlobalization has made copper and other minerals more valuable, and Ghana and Kenya have recently discovered mineral resources.
Bill GatesIt’s difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn’t available.
Ronald ReaganThe capitalist system is about taking from the Earth and from the other great commodity, labour. What’s happening with this system is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and the only way out of it is supposed to be growth. But growth is debt. It’s going to make the situation worse.
Vivienne WestwoodWe can be thankful to a friend for a few acres, or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaAnybody who has been discriminated against, who comes from a group that’s been discriminated against, knows what it’s like.
Ruth Bader GinsburgWe need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.
Barack ObamaBeing unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother TeresaBy 2035, there will be almost no poor countries left in the world. Almost all countries will be what we now call lower-middle income or richer.
Bill GatesWhen 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.
John KennedyAnger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.
Francis BaconThe notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification.
Ruth Bader GinsburgI think it’s brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I’ve ever seen is called television – but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.
Steve JobsInjustice in the end produces independence.
VoltaireWhen I was a child, I was very poor and wanted everything. So when I got money, I began buying things.
Jackie ChanImagine a political system so radical as to promise to move more of the poorest 20% of the population into the richest 20% than remain in the poorest bracket within the decade? You don’t need to imagine it. It’s called the United States of America.
Thomas SowellI’d go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked.
EminemCapital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.
Henry FordTo give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole.
Baruch SpinozaLack of money is the root of all evil.
George Bernard ShawWhen the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.
Jean-Paul SartreOur 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.
Mother TeresaSeverities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.
Niccolo MachiavelliWe will not be intimidated or pushed off the world stage by people who do not like what we stand for, and that is, freedom, democracy and the fight against disease, poverty and terrorism.
Madeleine AlbrightThe honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.
Gilbert K. ChestertonWhat you’re seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they’re directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society.
Colin PowellWhat charitable 1 percenters can’t do is assume responsibility – America’s national responsibilities: the care of its sick and its poor, the education of its young, the repair of its failing infrastructure, the repayment of its staggering war debts.
Stephen KingThere is no doubt that as an economy grows in a great way like India has, that you have to step back and change your tax systems, because you start to get more disparities of wealth.
Bill GatesOur generation in the west was lucky: we had readymade gateways. We had books, paper, teachers, schools and libraries. But many in the world lack these luxuries. How do you practice without such tryout venues?
Margaret Atwood