“Some tribes [of monkeys] have taken to washing potatoes in the river before eating them, others have not. Sometimes migrating groups of potato-washers meet non-washers, and the two groups watch each other's strange behavior with apparent bewilderment. But unlike the inhabitants of Lilliput, who fought holy crusades over the question at which end to break the egg, the potato-washing monkeys do not go to war with the non-washers, because the poor creatures have no language which would enable them to declare washing a diving commandment and eating unwashed potatoes a deadly heresy.” TwoWarEndsSometimesLanguagePoorWatchesBreakTakenGroupsSocietyStrangeHolyCreaturesBehaviorEatingRiversEggsCommandmentsTribesMonkeysPotatoesHeresyWashingCrusadesDivingBewilderment Author:Arthur Koestler
“Sometimes I hear the world discussed as the realm of men. This is not my experience. I have watched men fall to the ground like leaves. They were swept up as memories, and burned. History owns them. These men were petrified in both senses of the word: paralyzed and turned to stone. Their refusal to express feeling killed them. Anachronistic men. Those poor, poor boys.” MenWorldSometimesFeelingsFallMemoriesPoorBoysStonesSensesRealmsBurnedRefusalParalyzedPoor Boy Book:The Eclipse: A Memoir of Suicide Source: The Eclipse: A Memoir of Suicide
“I dare say you marvel sometimes at my independent way of walking through the world just as if nature had made me of your sex instead of poor Eve's. Trust me, my beloved friend, the mind has no sex but what habit and education give it, and I who was thrown in infancy upon the world like a wreck upon the waters have learned, as well to struggle with the elements as any male child of Adam.” IfsWorldWayGivingMindWellsChildrenMadeSometimesSexWaterPoorStruggleHabitWalkingElementsIndependentMalesDareBelovedThrownAdamTrust MeWrecksInfancyBeloved Friends Author:Frances Wright
“Your street, rich street or poor Used to always be sure, on your street There's a place in your heart you know from the start Can't be complete outside of the street Keep moving on through the joy and the pain Sometimes you got to look back To the street again Would you prefer all those castles in Spain? Or the view of your street from your window pane?” KnowsLooksHeartSometimesPainMovingUsedJoyPoorViewsRichStreetsWindowSpainCastlesKeep MovingWindow Panes Author:Van Morrison
“Shut not thy purse-strings always against painted distress. Act a charity sometimes. When a poor creature (outwardly and visibly such) comes before thee, do not stay to inquire whether the "seven small children," in whose name he implores thy assistance, have a veritable existence. Rake not into the bowels of unwelcome truth, to save a halfpenny. It is good to believe him.” BelieveChildrenSometimesNamesPoorExistenceCreaturesCharitySevenTheeStringsDistressAssistancePursesSmall ChildUnwelcomeBowelsRakes Book:The Essays of Elia Source: The Essays of Elia
“I don't believe that we are what we do although many thinkers argue otherwise. I believe that what we do is, very often, a poor approximation of what we are -- an imperfect manifestation of a much better totality. Even the best of us sometimes bite off, as it were, less than we can chew.” BelieveSometimesActionI BelievePoorDon't BelieveArguingManifestationThinkerBitesImperfectTotalityApproximation Author:Donald Barthelme
“Most poor people in America are white. The family breakdown issue is an issue that crosses all sorts of racial lines. High school dropout issues. But because of the flow of events which involve the racial component, we've sometimes confused racial issues with other issues which are trans-racial.” PeopleSometimesSchoolAmericaLinesWhitePoorIssuesEventsHigh SchoolFlowCrossesConfusedPoor PeopleComponentsBreakdownTransDropoutsSchool DropoutHigh School Dropout Author:David Brooks
“When the press writes scare stories about the global labor supply draining jobs from rich to poor places, the story is usually presented as a "race to the bottom" simply in terms of wages. Capitalism supposedly looks for labor wherever labor is cheapest. This story is half wrong. A kind of cultural selection is also at work, so that jobs leave high-wage countries like the United States and Germany, but migrate to low-wage economies with skilled, sometimes overqualified workers.” WritingLooksKindCountrySometimesStatesStoriesJobsTermPoorUnitedRaceHalfUnited StatesEconomyRichLowsCapitalismLaborPressesWorkersBottomGermanyScareWagesSelectionDrainingMigrateOverqualified Book:The Culture of the New Capitalism Source: The Culture of the New Capitalism
“If sometimes our poor people have had to die of starvation, it is not that God didn't care for them, but because you and I didn't give, were not an instrument of love in the hands of God, to give them that bread, to give them that clothing; because we did not recognize him, when once more Christ came in distressing disguise, in the hungry man, in the lonely man, in the homeless child, and seeking for shelter.” PeopleIfsMenGivingChildrenSometimesHandsCareDiesChristPoorLonelyInstrumentsSeekingHungryBreadClothingsShelterDisguiseHomelessPoor PeopleStarvationHands Of GodDistressingHungry ManLonely Man Author:Mother Teresa