Best wealth & class Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)

“We need not envy certain people their great wealth; they acquired it at a heavy cost, which would not suit us; they staked their rest, their health, their honour and their conscience to acquire it, the price is too high, and there is nothing to be gained by such a bargain.”

Men Mind Made Certain Given Wealth Class Conscience Paid Dear Envy Riches Enormous Suits Peace Of Mind Honour Bargains

Author:Jean de la Bruyere

“Many writers claim that nearly all crime is caused by economic conditions, or in other words that poverty is practically the whole cause of crime. Endless statistics have been gathered on this subject which seem to show conclusively that property crimes are largely the result of the unequal distribution of wealth. But crime of any class cannot be safely ascribed to a single cause. Life is too complex, heredity is too variant and imperfect, too many separate things contribute to human behavior, to make it possible to trace all actions to a single cause.”

“The nature of women's oppression is unique: women are oppressed as women, regardless of class or race; some women have access to significant wealth, but that wealth does not signify power; women are to be found everywhere, but own or control no appreciable territory; women live with those who oppress them, sleep with them, have their children - we are tangled, hopelessly it seems, in the gut of the machinery and way of life which is ruinous to us.”

Way Children Doe Seems Found Wealth Sleep Race Class Unique Access Significant Oppression Guts Territory Oppressed Machinery Tangled

Author:Andrea Dworkin

“China is now suffering from poverty, not from unequal distribution of wealth. Where there are inequalities of wealth, the methods of Marx can, of course, be used; a class war can be advocated to destroy the inequalities. But in China, where industry is not yet developed, Marx's class war and dictatorship of the proletariat are impracticable.”

War Used Suffering Courses Wealth Class Poverty Industry Method China Inequality Dictatorship Distribution Proletariat Distribution Of Wealth

Author:Sun Yat-sen

“While [Plato] affirmed with emphasis that the place of the individual in society should not be determined by birth or wealth or any conventional status, but by his own nature as discovered in the process of education, he had no perception of the uniqueness of individuals. For him they fall by nature into classes, and into a very small number of classes at that.”

Should Fall Individual Process Wealth Numbers Class Birth Perception Determined Conventional Uniqueness Plato Emphasis Small Numbers

Book:Democracy and Education: Top American Authors

Source: Democracy and Education: Top American Authors

“While some multimillionaires started in poverty, most did not. A study of the origins of 303 textile, railroad and steel executives of the 1870s showed that 90 percent came from middle- or upper-class families. The Horatio Alger stories of "rags to riches" were true for a few men, but mostly a myth, and a useful myth for control.”

Men Stories Wealth Class Poverty Study Middle Percent Myth Riches Executives Steel Rags Railroads Upper Class Horatio Textiles Rags To Riches

Book:A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present

Source: A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present

“Equal wealth and equal opportunities of culture have simply made us all members of one class.”

Made Culture Opportunity Wealth Class Equal Members Equal Opportunity

Author:Edward Bellamy

“In one of my latest conversations with Darwin he expressed himself very gloomily on the future of humanity, on the ground that in our modern civilization natural selection had no play, and the fittest did not survive. Those who succeed in the race for wealth are by no means the best or the most intelligent, and it is notorious that our population is more largely renewed in each generation from the lower than from the middle and upper classes.”

Source: Alfred Russel Wallace: An Anthology of His Shorter Writings

“Behind the abstraction known as 'the markets' lurks a set of institutions designed to maximize the wealth and power of the most privileged group of people in the world, the creditor-rentier class of the First World and their junior partners in the Third.”

People World Firsts Wealth Behinds Known Class Groups Capitalism Thirds Institutions Partners Privileged Abstraction Juniors Creditors

Author:Doug Henwood

“In a process that had begun in the 1980s and suddenly accelerated in the early 2000s ... [t]he peaks of great wealth grew higher, rising up beyond the clouds, while the valleys of poverty sank lower into perpetual shadow. The once broad plateau of the middle class eroded away into a narrow ledge, with the white-knuckled occupants holding on for dear life.”

Process Wealth White Class Poverty Middle Grew Higher Shadow Dear Clouds Rising Middle Class Broads Valleys Perpetual Holding On Rising Up Ledges Dear Life

Book:Going to Extremes: Notes from a Divided Nation

Source: Going to Extremes: Notes from a Divided Nation

“a great deal of the wealth at the top is built on the low-wage labor of the poor. Take Wal-Mart, our largest private employer and premiere exploiter of the working class. ... You think it's a coincidence that this union-busting low-wage retail empire happens to have generated a $65 billion family fortune?”

Source: Going to Extremes: Notes from a Divided Nation

“We have a new class in this country: the deserving rich. ... The deserving rich do nice things for each other. Comforting the unafflicted is something that comes naturally to them.”

Country Wealth Class Rich Nice Comforting Deserving Nice Things New Class

Book:The Best of Mary McGrory: A Half-Century of Washington Commentary

Source: The Best of Mary McGrory: A Half-Century of Washington Commentary

“It must be assumed and established as a principle, that the right of private property must be regarded as sacred. Wherefore, the law ought to favor this right and, so far as it can, see that the largest possible number among the masses of the population prefer to own property.... But if the productive activity of the multitude can be stimulated by the hope of acquiring some property... , it will gradually come to pass that, with the difference between extreme wealth and extreme penury removed, one class will become the neighbor to the other.”

Ifs Wisdom Law Differences Wealth Numbers Class Principles Ought Activity Mass Sacred Property Population Extremes Neighbor Favors Productive Multitudes Private Property

Author:Pope Leo XIII

“Upper class to me means you are either born into wealth or you're Royalty.”

Mean Born Wealth Class Royalty Upper Class

Author:Benedict Cumberbatch

“For extending its sway, partly by force of arms, partly by the voluntary submission of weaker tribes, the community soon acquires wealth and slaves, both of which, by relieving some classes from the perpetual struggle for a bare subsistence, afford them an opportunity of devoting themselves to that disinterested pursuit of knowledge which is the noblest and most powerful instrument to ameliorate the lot of man.”

“Were all the pleasures in the world, even pure air, made solely for the rich? I think it is immoral - it is horrible! - that one man may own twenty millions of money, and another has to commit a crime to keep the life in his miserable body. And if I were wealthy, I'd be a spendthrift! It's the spendthrifts who are the real friends of the poor. Some of their money filters through to the very lowest classes.”

“There is far too little discussion in Washington about the collapse of the middle class , almost no discussion at all about the incredible income inequality and wealth inequality in this country, and the fact that we're moving toward an oligarch form of society.”

Littles Country Facts Moving Form Wealth Class Middle Incredibles Income Inequality Discussion Middle Class Collapse Income Inequality Wealth Inequality

Author:Bernie Sanders

“They talk about class warfare -- the fact of the matter is there has been class warfare for the last thirty years. It's a handful of billionaires taking on the entire middle-class and working-class of this country. And the result is you now have in America the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on Earth and the worst inequality in America since 1928. How could anybody defend the top 400 richest people in this country owning more wealth than the bottom half of America, 150 million people?”

“Why should not the knowledge, the skill, the expertness, the assiduity, and the spirited hazards of trade and commerce, when crowned with success, be entitled to give those flattering distinctions by which mankind are so universally captivated? Such are the specious, but false arguments for a proposition which always will find numerous advocates, in a nation where men are every day starting up from obscurity to wealth. To refute them is needless. The general sense of mankind cries out, with irresistible force, "Un gentilhomme est toujours gentilhomme.”

Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson

“Women of a selected class, by the use of slaves and servants have become inactive, the mere recipients of values, no longer creators but "feeding on unearned wealth." This hurts their nature and debases the social fabric. If a woman does no labor in her home which could properly make her self-supporting outside that home she is in duty bound to do something outside her home to justify her claim to support.”

Ifs Doe Self Use Home Values Social Hurt Wealth Class Support Duty Labor Claims Slave Mere Bounds Creator Servant Justify Fabric Feeding Selected

Book:Woman's Share in Social Culture

Source: Woman's Share in Social Culture

“A sort of moral blackmail is exerted from both poles. The underclass, one gathers, should be dulled with charity and welfare provision lest it turn nasty. The upper class must likewise be conciliated by vast handouts, lest it lose the "incentive" to go on generating wealth.”

Should Turns Loses Wealth Moral Class Goes On Charity Welfare Nasty Incentives Provision Upper Class Blackmail Handouts

Book:Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports

Source: Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports

“We are a commercial people. We cannot boast of our arts, our crafts, our cultivation; our boast is in the wealth we produce. As a consequence business success is sanctified, and, practically, any methods which achieve it are justified by a larger and larger class.”

People Art Wealth Business Class United States Achieve Produce Consequence Method Crafts Business Success Justified Boast Cultivation

Book:The History of the Standard Oil Company

Source: The History of the Standard Oil Company

“There is no denying that there are 'royal roads' through existence for the upper classes; for them, at least, the highways are macadamized, swept, and watered.”

Wealth Existence Class Royal Highways Upper Class

Book:The Works of L.E. Landon in Two Volumes

Source: The Works of L.E. Landon in Two Volumes

“We have no paupers ... The great mass of our [United States] population is of laborers; our rich, who can live without labor, either manual or professional, being few, and of moderate wealth. Most of the laboring class possess property, cultivate their own lands, have families, and from the demand for their labor are enabled to exact from the rich and the competent such prices as enable them to be fed abundantly, clothed above mere decency, to labor moderately and raise their families. ... Can any condition of society be more desirable than this?”

States Wealth United Class United States Rich Land Conditions Demand Mass Labor Raises Property Mere Population Feds Desirable Moderates Decency Competent Manuals Laborers

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“In a capitalist society there are always inequalities of class and wealth. People who inherit money and property will always see themselves as being superior to those who have to work for it.”

People Wealth Class Property Superiors Inequality Capitalist

Author:Sally Wentworth

“When I went to high school - that's about as far as I got - reading my U.S. history textbook, well, I got the history of the ruling class. I got the history of the generals and the industrialists and the presidents that didn't get caught. How 'bout you? I got all of the history of the people who owned the wealth of the country, but none of the history of the people that created it.”

People Wells Country School Reading President Wealth Class High School Caught Ruling Textbooks History Textbooks

Author:Utah Phillips

“This is what oligarchy looks like: Today, the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. The top one-hundredth of 1 percent makes more than 40 percent of all campaign contributions. The billionaire class owns the political system and reaps the benefits from it.”

Looks Today Political Wealth Class Benefits Percent Bottom Campaigns Contribution Reap Billionaire Political Systems Oligarchy Campaign Contributions

Author:Bernie Sanders

“Income and wealth inequality have reached obscene levels, the threat of climate change is more frightening than ever, and the billionaire class is now allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money to buy the candidate they want. And it is up to us to stand up and fight back. If we stand together, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.”

“Capitalism in the 19th century did not doom the worker to a life of perpetual poverty. Instead, they kept creating new and better-paying employments as the decades went by. They produced the wealth and rising income that resulted in the emergence of a phenomenon completely new to human history: a self-supporting and educated middle class that grew more and more as they lower classes bettered their economic well-being.”

“The government's coercive taxing power necessarily creates two classes: those who create and those who consume the wealth expropriated and transferred by that power.”

Two Government Wealth Class

Author:Sheldon Richman

“The philosophy underlying the system of progressive taxation is that the income and wealth of the well-to-do classes can be freely tapped. What the advocates of these tax rates fail to realize is that the greater part of the incomes taxed away would not have been consumed but saved and invested.”

Wells Has Beens Philosophy Realizing Wealth Class Greater Failing Taxes Rate Saved Income Progressive Taxation Consumed Income Tax Progressive Taxation

Book:Middle of the Road Policy Leads to Socialism

Source: Middle of the Road Policy Leads to Socialism

“History reveals no civilized people among whom there was not a highly educated class and large aggregations of wealth. Large profits mean large payrolls.”

People Mean Wealth Class Profit Educated Civilized Payroll

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“Trickle down economics is a fraud. Giving tax breaks to the rich and large corporations does not create jobs. It simply makes the rich richer, enlarges the deficit and increases income and wealth inequality. We need economic policies which benefit working families, not the billionaire class.”

“The reality is that we have one of lowest voter turnouts of any major country on earth because so many people have given up on the political process. The reality is that there has been trillions of dollars of wealth going from the middle class in the last 30 years to the top 1/10th of 1 percent.”

People Years Has Beens Country Reality Earth Lasts Political Given Process Wealth Class Middle Majors Percent Dollars Middle Class Voters Lowest Given Up Voter Turnout

Author:Bernie Sanders

“The decision is I'm going to do everything I can to fight for the working class of this country, the low-income people against income and wealth inequality, do everything we can about climate change.”

People I Can Country Fighting Wealth Decision Class Lows Climate Climate Change Income Inequality Working Class Low Income Wealth Inequality

Author:Bernie Sanders

“This is a very important issue that the corporate media chooses not to talk about a whole lot, that we have an economic system which is rigged, which means that at the same time as the middle class of this country is disappearing, almost all of the new income and wealth in America is going to the top 1 percent. You have the top one-tenth of 1 percent owning almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent - 58 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent.”

Mean Important Country Whole America Wealth Class Issues Economic Middle Media Percent Bottom Disappear Income Corporate Middle Class Economic Systems Important Issues Rigged

Author:Bernie Sanders

“As a class, Jews give three times as much money to charity as anybody else, but they feel guilty about their wealth anyway. They simply can't accept the idea of ever being Republicans.”

Giving Feels Ideas Three Wealth Accepting Class Republican Charity Jew Guilty Three Times

Author:Jackie Mason

“If you want to get at African American poverty, the income gap, wealth gap, achievement gap, that the most important thing is to make sure that the society as a whole does right by people who are poor, are working class, are aspiring to a better life for their kids.”

People Ifs Want Doe Important Whole Kids Wealth Poor Class Poverty Achievement Important Things Income African American Gaps Working Class Better Life Achievement Gap American Poverty

Author:Barack Obama

“This is where I think policies do need to be somewhat race-specific, is making sure that institutions are not discriminatory. So you've got something like the FHA [Federal Housing Administration], which was on its face a universal program that involved a huge mechanism for wealth accumulation and people entering into the middle class.”

People Thinking Needs Faces Wealth Race Class Middle Policy Huge Involved Program Universal Institutions Administration Middle Class Mechanism Entering Housing Accumulation

Author:Barack Obama

“The massive upward distribution of wealth engineered by our political class over the last few decades has solidified the plutocratic control of the rule-making machinery in Washington and state capitals.”

States Lasts Political Wealth Class Decades Massive Distribution Machinery Distribution Of Wealth

Author:Bill Moyers

“I think the media and the candidates have got to talk about why the middle class is in decline and why we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality.”

Thinking Wealth Levels Class Middle Media Income Inequality Candidates Middle Class Massive Decline Wealth Inequality

Author:Bernie Sanders

“[Steven] Lerner said that unions and community organizations are, for all intents and purposes, dead. The only way to achieve their goals, therefore - the redistribution of wealth and the return of '$17 trillion' stolen from the middle class by Wall Street - is to 'destabilize the country.”

Way Said Country Purpose Goal Community Wealth Class Streets Middle Achieve Wall Return Organization Unions Middle Class Stolen Redistribution Of Wealth

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“The very idea that there should be a certain class of people who give orders by virtue of their ownership of wealth and another huge class who take on orders and follow them because of their lack of access to wealth and power, that's unacceptable. So, sure it should be abolished.”

People Giving Should Ideas Certain Order Wealth Class Virtue Huge Access Ownership

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The classics of Marxism talked of communism as a society to which a modern society should aspire, a society truly fair, where the relations of monetary exchange were not the priority but one wher the people's needs could be satisfied, and where people would not be worth more according to how much monetary wealth they acquired. Instead their value would be based on their contribution to society as a whole. It would be a society without class that would accept people based on their capabilities and their potential to contribute to that society.”

“I am for socialism, disarmament, and, ultimately, for abolishing the state itself... I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and the sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.”

States Social Goal Wealth Class Produce Property Socialism Communism Sole Ownership Abolish Disarmament Abolition

Author:Roger Nash Baldwin

Wealth Quotes

Related topics

Wealth Quotes