2,719 Quotes About Poverty

Let us just say that the idea of struggling to make my way in a world of privileged, affluent people exhausted me before I even tried: I was the child of nothing, I had neither beauty not charm, neither past nor ambition; I had not the slightest savoir-fare or sparkle. There was only one thing I wanted: to be left alone, without too many demands upon my person, so that for a few moments each day I might be allowed to assuage my hunger.

For many people the thrill of having more is intensified by the presence of those who have less. Waste is not the issue here. To many greedy individuals, power lies in withholding resources.

It reminded Sade of some of the aristocrats, who had treated imprisonment as a bad joke, a mild annoyance that would be made right before any real damage was done. They had kept their dignity right up to the moment when the drum roll stopped and the blade fell. Then, too late, they screamed like children. As I would have done. The thought popped unwelcome into his head.

The bus is late. Cars drive by. Rich people n cars never look at people on the street, at all. Poor ones always do ... in fact it sometimes seems they're just driving around, looking at people on the street. I've done that. Poor people wait a lot. Welfare, unemployment lines, laundromats, phone booths, emergency rooms, jails, etc.

Poverty is man-made power.

Many of those who have the most make only the least of what they have.

All rich things look the same, but poor things always look different.

I didn’t realise that we were also soldiers, fightin' a war o' wealth—only that those of us crushed beneath the boots o' the rich worked to make 'em newer, heavier boots.

The degree of our happiness is not determined by (what we regard as) the source of our happiness.