Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Henning Mankell

Quote by Henning Mankell

“Poverty always looks the same, no matter where you come across it. The rich can always express their opulence by varying their lives. Different houses, clothes, cars. Or thoughts, dreams. But for the poor there is nothing but compulsory grayness, the only form of expression available to poverty.”

Quote by Henning Mankell

Book:The Man from Beijing
Create image

Work

The Man from Beijing

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Henning Mankell

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Henning Mankell. more

You May Also Like

“I've never understood it,' continued Wilfred Carr, yawning. 'It's not in my line at all; I never had enough money for my own wants, let alone for two. Perhaps if I were as rich as you or Croesus I might regard it differently.' There was just sufficient meaning in the latter part of the remark for his cousin to forbear to reply to it. He continued to gaze out of the window and to smoke slowly. 'Not being as rich as Croesus - or you,' resumed Carr, regarding him from beneath lowered lids, 'I paddle my own canoe down the stream of Time, and, tying it to my friends' doorposts, go in to eat their dinners.' ("The Well")”

WealthPoverty
Book:The Monkey's Paw and Other Tales of Mystery and Macabre
Create image

“I live in a world in which 40 men control wealth equal to that of nearly 80 countries, where to maintain their hegemony, countless acts of mayhem and massacre must occur every day. This is the reality that forms and reforms my days as it does those of all people on this hapless planet. I do not think any more that writing - mine or another's - can change the world. Perhaps in their small way, writers can answer for those who are voiceless in their extreme deprivation and suffering, but at best, in the very smallest scheme, writing can provide a moment of grace, both for her who writes and him who reads, in a very dark world.”

WealthPoverty1
Book:Frieze
Create image

“The system that rewards performance over substance is the water the organization swims in, and the fish that most clearly perceives the water is not the fish that survives the competition — it is the fish that stops swimming.”

PhilosophyLiteratureLeadershipBusinessCapitalismManagementStrategyInsightAspirationOrganizational Culture
Book:An MBA's Guide to The Great Gatsby: Untapped Wisdom from F. Scott Fitzgerald
Create image

“From books, I winnowed the glue that held together my psyche as it struggled to stay whole. It was from stories and myths that I learned to dream, to imagine a different life, to realize potentials and probabilities other than those of the painful, poverty-mired existence I found myself in as a child. With a book I could hide in a corner, safe from the heavy hand and belt of my stepfather, and for a while not worry about where our next meal would come from, or where we would be sleeping that night, or when my mother would break and have to be sent yet again to the mental institution. Books, for me, we tiny life rafts that I clung to desperately.”

PovertyBooksReal Life
Book:Shooting from the Hip: Photographs and Essays
Create image