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Poverty Quotes

Browse 6296 quotes about Poverty.

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Poverty Quotes

“When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact...that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance; We've learned to fly the air like birds, we've learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven't learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters.”

MenLooksKindFactsWisdomEarthFacesSpiritSufferingWalksPovertyAirSeaModernHavensBrotherBirdAngerFishesAbundanceSwimContrastTechnologicalBrothers And SistersModern Man
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“Our life is composed of events and states of mind. How ewe appraise our life from our deathbed will be predicated not only on what came to us in life but how we lived with it. It will not be simply illness or health, riches or poverty, good luck or bad, which ultimately define whether we believe we have had a good life or not, but the quality of our relationship to these situations: the attitudes of our states of mind. (34)”

MindBelieveStatesLife IsAttitudeQualitySituationPovertyOur LivesEventsLuckIllnessRichesGood LifeState Of MindOur RelationshipGood LuckDeathbedAppraise
Author:Stephen Levine
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“Poverty is not a certain small amount of goods, nor is it just a relation between means and ends; above all it is a relation between people. Poverty is a social status. As such it is the invention of civilization. Socrates made the same point 2,400 years ago: "He is richest who is content with least, for contentment is the wealth of nature.”

PeopleYearsMeanMadeEndsCertainSocialWealthPovertyAmountCivilizationYears AgoRelationInventionContentmentGoodsSmall AmountsSocial Status
Author:Christopher Ryan
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“‎Honoured sir, poverty is not a vice, that's a true saying. Yet I know too that drunkeness is not a virtue, and that's even truer. But beggary, honoured sir, beggary is a vice. In poverty you may still retain your innate nobility of soul, but in beggary--never--no one. For beggary a man is not chased out of human society with a stick, he is swept out with a broom, so as to make it as humiliating as possible; and quite right, too, forasmuch as in beggary as I am ready to be the first to humiliate myself.”

KnowsMenFirstsHumansMayStillsSoulPovertyVirtueReadySticksVicesNobilityInnateHuman SocietyHumiliatingHumiliateBroomsBeggary
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“For Ragamuffins, God's name is Mercy. We see our darkness as a prized possession because it drives us into the heart of God. Without mercy our darkness would plunge us into despair - for some, self-destruction. Time alone with God reveals the unfathomable depths of the poverty of the spirit. We are so poor that even our poverty is not our own: It belongs to the mysterium tremendum of a loving God.”

HeartSelfSpiritNamesPoorPovertyDarknessDespairDestructionMercyDepthPossessionLoving GodPlungeSelf DestructionUnfathomableAlone TimeAlone With GodPrized Possessions
Author:Brennan Manning
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“For nearly a century, the moral relativism of science has given faith-based religion--that great engine of ignorance and bigotry--a nearly uncontested claim to being the only universal framework for moral wisdom. As a result, the most powerful societies on early spend their time debating issues like gay marriage when they should be focused on problems like nuclear proliferation, genocide, energy security, climate change, poverty, and failing schools.”

ShouldProblemSchoolEnergyGivenResultsPowerfulMoralPovertyIssuesFailingCenturySecurityIgnoranceGayUniversalClaimsClimateClimate ChangeFocusedNuclearMost PowerfulBigotryGenocideEnginesFrameworkGay MarriageProliferationRelativismFaith BasedNuclear ProliferationMoral RelativismEnergy Security
Author:Sam Harris
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“There’s no way that Michael Jackson or whoever Jackson should have a million thousand droople billion dollars and then there’s people starving. There’s no way! There’s no way that these people should own planes and there people don’t have houses. Apartments. Shacks. Drawers. Pants! I know you’re rich. I know you got 40 billion dollars, but can you just keep it to one house? You only need ONE house. And if you only got two kids, can you just keep it to two rooms? I mean why have 52 rooms and you know there’s somebody with no room?! It just don’t make sense to me. It don’t.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWayLifeNeedsShouldMeanTwoKidsHouseRoomsPovertyMillionsRichThousandShould HaveDollarsBillionsHungryMake SensePlanesPantsApartmentStarvingDrawersShack
Author:Tupac Shakur
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“True friendship is worth more than can be measured, a quality forever to be treasured. True friends will staunchly stand beside each other, as loyally brother shieldeth brother, remaining firm in spite of war and strife, in poverty or sickness, throughout life. True friendship doth endure while comrades age from boy to youth, from warrior to sage.”

WarAgeQualityBoysPovertyForeverYouthBrotherEndureWarriorFirmSpiteSicknessStrifeSageTrue FriendTrue FriendshipComradeTrue LifeTreasured
Author:Cecilia Dart-Thornton
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“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you!”

IfsThinkingShouldHeartLittlesMadeSoulHardWealthPoorPovertyHeartbreakShould HaveMade ItGiftedObscureLeaving MeSaying GoodbyeHeartlessSoullessCauses Of Poverty
Book:Jane Eyre
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“It always strikes me, and it is very peculiar, that, whenever we see the image of indescribable and unutterable desolation—of loneliness, poverty, and misery, the end and extreme of things—the thought of God comes into one's mind.”

MindEndsGodPovertyLonelinessMiseryExtremesStrikesPeculiarDesolationIndescribable
Book:Complete letters: with reproductions of all the drawings in the correspondence
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“The Master said, "Wealth and honor are things that all people desire, and yet unless they are acquired in the proper way I will not abide them. Poverty and disgrace are things that all people hate, and yet unless they are avoided in the proper way I will not despise them. If the gentleman abandons ren, how can he be worthy of that name? The gentleman does not violate ren even for the amount of time required to eat a meal. Even in times of urgency or distress, he does not depart from it."”

PeopleIfsWayDoeSaidDesireHateNamesWealthPovertyMastersAmountHonorWorthyGentlemanMealsAbandonDespiseDistressAvoidedDisgraceUrgency
Author:Confucius
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“Socialism needs to pull down wealth; liberalism seeks to raise up poverty. Socialism would destroy private interests, Liberalism would preserve [them] ... by reconciling them with public right. Socialism would kill enterprise; Liberalism would rescue enterprise from the trammels of privilege and preference. Socialism assails the preeminence of the individual; Liberalism seeks ... to build up a minimum standard for the mass. Socialism exalts the rule; Liberalism exalts the man. Socialism attacks capitalism; Liberalism attacks monopoly.”

MenNeedsIndividualInterestWealthPovertyMassStandardsCapitalismRaisesPrivilegeSocialismPreservesLiberalismEnterpriseRescueMinimumPreferenceMonopolyRaise Up
Author:Winston Churchill
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“A broken heart is such a shabby thing, like poverty and failure and the incurable diseases which are also deforming. I hate it and am ashamed of it, and I must somehow repair this heart and put it back into its normal condition, as a tough somewhat scarred but operating organ.”

HeartHatePovertyConditionsBrokenDiseaseNormalToughI HateAshamedBroken HeartOrgansBroken HeartedShabbyIncurable Disease
Book:The letters of Martha Gellhorn
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“No matter how much I wanted all those things that I needed money to buy, there was some devilish current pushing me off in another direction -- toward anarchy and poverty and craziness. That maddening delusion that a man can lead a decent life without hiring himself out as a Judas Goat.”

MenMatterWantedPovertyNeededCurrentsDecentDelusionPushingAnarchyHiringGoatsCrazinessJudasDevilishDecent Life
Book:The Rum Diary: Film Tie-in Edition
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“Here is the chance for young women and young men of devotion to lift again the banner of humanity and to walk toward a civilization which will be free and intelligent; which will be healthy and unafraid; and build in the world a culture led by black folk and joined by peoples of all colors and all races - without poverty, ignorance and disease!”

MenWorldYoungHumanityCultureBlackChanceWalksRacePovertyIgnoranceColorCivilizationHealthyDiseaseIntelligentFolksDevotionLiftsYoung ManYoung WomenBannerUnafraid
Author:W. E. B. Du Bois
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“The Paris slums are a gathering-place for eccentric people - people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent. Poverty frees them from ordinary standards of behavior, just as money frees people from work.”

PeopleTryingGivenHalfPovertyBehaviorNormalStandardsOrdinaryMadParisFallenDecentSolitaryGatheringGiven UpEccentricGrooveSlumsGathering Places
Book:The Orwell Reader: Fiction, Essays, and Reportage
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“It has always been my view that terrorism is not spawned by the poverty of money; it is spawned by the poverty of dignity. Humiliation is the most underestimated force in international relations and in human relations. It is when people or nations are humiliated that they really lash out and engage in extreme violence.”

PeopleHumansForceNationsViewsPovertyViolenceDignityRelationInternationalExtremesTerrorismHumiliationInternational RelationsHuman RelationsHumiliatedLashesUnderestimated
Author:Thomas Friedman
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“To live factionless Is not just to live in poverty and discomfort; it is to live divorced from society, separated from the most important thing in life: community. My mother once told me that we can’t survive alone,but even if we could, we wouldn’t want to. Without a faction, we have no purpose and no reason to live.”

IfsWantImportantReasonMotherPurposeCommunityPovertyImportant ThingsNo ReasonThings In LifeDivorcedDiscomfortFactionsMost Important Things In LifeReason To LiveNo Reason To Live
Author:Veronica Roth
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“To be a woman condemned to a wretched and disgraceful punishment is no impediment to beauty, but it is an insurmountable obstacle to power. Like all persons of real genius, her ladyship well knew what accorded with her nature and her means. Poverty disgusted her -subjection deprived her of two-thirds of her greatness. Her ladyship was only a queen amongst queens: the enjoyment of satisfied pride was essential to her sway. To command beings of an inferior nature, was, to her, rather a humiliation than a pleasure.”

WellsMeanPersonsTwoRealPleasurePovertyGreatnessPrideGeniusEssentialsThirdsObstaclesPunishmentSatisfiedCommandQueensEnjoymentInferiorsHumiliationWretchedDeprivedImpedimentsDisgustedDisgracefulSubjectionInsurmountableReal Genius
Author:Alexandre Dumas
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“Here the whole world (stars, water, air, And field, and forest, as they were Reflected in a single mind) Like cast off clothes was left behind In ashes, yet with hopes that she, Re-born from holy poverty, In lenten lands, hereafter may Resume them on her Easter Day." (Epitaph for Joy Gresham)”

WorldMindMayWholeJoyLeftStarsWaterBornBehindsPovertyAirLandFieldsHolyClothesCastsWhole WorldForestsAshesEasterRebirthLeft BehindHereafterResumesEpitaphEaster DayLenten
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“The poverty fighters resent the climate-change folks; climate folks hold summits without reference to biodiversity; the food advocates resist the biodiversity protectors. They all need to go on safari together.”

NeedsTogetherPovertyGoes OnClimateClimate ChangeFolksFighterSummitResentProtectorBiodiversitySafari
Book:Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why The World Needs A Green Revolution - and How We Can Renew Our Global Future
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“Sonnet XXV Before I loved you, love, nothing was my own: I wavered through the streets, among Objects: Nothing mattered or had a name: The world was made of air, which waited. I knew rooms full of ashes, Tunnels where the moon lived, Rough warehouses that growled 'get lost', Questions that insisted in the sand. Everything was empty, dead, mute, Fallen abandoned, and decayed: Inconceivably alien, it all Belonged to someone else - to no one: Till your beauty and your poverty Filled the autumn plentiful with gifts.”

WorldMadeNamesLostMy OwnRoomsPovertyAirStreetsObjectsMoonEmptyFilledAliensFallenSandAutumnRoughAbandonedAshesSonnetTunnelsMuteI Loved YouWarehousePlentiful
Author:Pablo Neruda
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“Maybe we are a little crazy. After all, we believe in things we don't see. The Scriptures say that faith is "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Heb. 11:1). We believe poverty can end even though it is all around us. We believe in peace even though we hear only rumours of wars. And since we are people of expectation, we are so convinced that another world is coming that we start living as if it were already here.”

PeopleIfsWorldBelieveLittlesWarEndsCertainPovertyCrazyExpectationsConvincedScriptureAnother WorldRumours
Author:Shane Claiborne
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“God has no needs. Human love, as Plato teaches us, is the child of Poverty – of want or lack; it is caused by a real or supposed goal in its beloved which the lover needs and desires. But God's love, far from being caused by goodness in the object, causes all the goodness which the object has, loving it first into existence, and then into real, though derivative, lovability. God is Goodness. He can give good, but cannot need or get it. In that sense , His love is, as it were, bottomlessly selfless by very definition; it has everything to give, and nothing to receive.”

WantNeedsGivingFirstsHumansChildrenRealDesireCausesGoalLove IsExistencePovertyTeachObjectsLoversGoodnessDefinitionsBelovedSelflessPlatoHis LoveGod's LoveDerivativesHuman Love
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“...I have so many dreams of my own, and I remember things from my childhood, from when I was a girl and a young woman, and I haven't forgotten a thing. So why did we think of Mom as a mom from the very beginning? She didn't have the opportunity to pursue her dreams, and all by herself, faced everything the era dealt her, poverty and sadness, and she couldn't do anything about her very bad lot in life other than suffer through it and get beyond it and live her life to the very best of her ability, giving her body and her heart to it completely. Why did I never give a thought to Mom's dreams?”

ThinkingGivingHeartDreamBodyRememberYoungSufferingGirlOpportunityMy OwnAbilityPovertySadnessChildhoodHavensMomForgottenPursueErasYoung Women
Author:Shin Kyung-sook
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“Depression is not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, and it is not cured by medication. Depression may not even be an illness at all. Often, it can be a normal reaction to abnormal situations. Poverty, unemployment, and the loss of loved ones can make people depressed, and these social and situational causes of depression cannot be changed by drugs.”

PeopleMaySocialCausesLossBrainSituationPovertyChangedDrugNormalIllnessReactionsChemicalsLoved OnesUnemploymentMedicationAbnormalImbalanceLoss Of A Loved One
Author:Irving Kirsch
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“I grew up hearing over and over, to the point of tedium, that "hard work" was the secret of success: "Work hard and you'll get ahead" or "It's hard work that got us where we are." No one ever said that you could work hard - harder even than you ever thought possible - and still find yourself sinking ever deeper into poverty and debt.”

SaidStillsHardSecretPovertyHard WorkGrewGrew UpHarderDeeperHearingDebtFinding YourselfSinkingGet AheadSecret To SuccessTedium
Author:Barbara Ehrenreich
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“It's obsequious little nicety-nice girls like me who allow assholes to run the world: Miss Harlot O'Harlots, billionaire phony tree huggers, hypocrite drug-snorting, weed-puffing peace activists who fund the mass-murdering drug cartels and perpetuate crushing poverty in dirt-poor banana republics. It's my petty fear of personal rejection that allows so many true evils to exist. My cowardice enables atrocities.”

WorldLittlesRunningGirlEvilPoorPovertyNiceTreeMissingDrugMassLike MeRejectionCrushFundActivistRepublicWeedCowardiceDirtPettyHypocriteBillionaireBananasAtrocitiesPhonyNicetiesHarlotsNice GirlCartelsDrug CartelsTrue Evil
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
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