It is rather a shame for a rich country like ours, probably the richest in the world, if not the richest the world has ever known, that it should allow those who have toiled all their lives to end in penury and possibly starvation. Lloyd George, address Edinburgh Castle, Limehouse, London
The poor are there just to scare the shit out of the middle class. George Carlin
Plenty has made me poor. Ovid, Metamorphoses
The poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he. Thomas Rainborowe, debate Putney 29th October 1647
Rattle his bones over the stones;
He’s only a pauper, whom nobody owns. Thomas Noel, The Pauper’s Drive, 1841
The poor man’s sins are glaring;
In the face of ghostly warning
He is caught in the fact
Of an overt act –
Buying greens on Sunday morning.
The rich man’s sins are hidden
In the pomp and wealth and station;
And escape the sight
Of the children of the light,
Who are wise in their generation ... Thomas L Peacock, Rich and Poor, or Saint and Sinner, 1785-1866
The dreams of the rich, and the dreams of the poor – they never overlap, do they?
See, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the rich. And what do the rich dream of?
Losing weight and looking like the poor. Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger p225
The story of a poor man’s life is written on his body, in a sharp pen. ibid.
The new face of poverty: hard working families struggling to make ends meet. And how millions of families are missing out on Britain’s economic recovery. Tonight: The Rise of the Working Poor, ITV 2014
There are 1.4 million minimum-wage jobs in Britain. ibid.
Poor people aren’t necessarily killers. George W Bush
A small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the masses of the poor a yoke little better than slavery itself. Pope Leo XIII
The poor are Europe’s blacks. Nicolas-Sebastien Chamfort, 1741-94
No, sir, tho’ I was born and bred in England, I can dare to be poor, which is the only thing now-a-days men are ashamed of. John Gay, Polly, 1729
Few, save the poor, feel for the poor. Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Poor
There’s too much money here. Nobody should be hitting the Lotto for thirty-six million when we got people starving in the streets. That’s just not idealistic. That’s just rape. That’s just stupid. Tupac Shakur, The Killuminati Theory
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. John F Kennedy, inaugural address 20th January 1961
Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult. Samuel Johnson
The American war against the poor of the Earth ... the collateral damage. Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States VII: Johnson, Nixon and Vietnam: Reversal of Fortune, Showtime 2012
He [Reagan] spent enormous sums on the military while cutting social programs to the poor. He reduced taxes on the wealthy. Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States VIII: Reagan, Gorbachev & Third World: Rise of the Right
I never knew how poor I was until I started making a little money. Wall Street 1987 starring Michael Douglas & Charlie Sheen & Daryl Hannah & Martin Sheen & John C McGinley & Terence Stamp & James Karen & Hal Holbrook & Sean Young & James Spader et al, director Oliver Stone
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. Benjamin Franklin
In my youth, I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. Benjamin Franklin
Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited; and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division; and from the antagonism between poor and rich means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts. Joseph Stalin
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. William Butler Yeats
There are two types of poor people, those who are poor together and those who are poor alone. The first are the true poor, the others are rich people out of luck. Jean-Paul Sartre
When the rich wage war it’s the poor who die. Jean-Paul Sartre, Le Diable at Le Bon Dieu, 1951
To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships. W E B du Bois
A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money. W C Fields
One of the reasons inequality gets so deep in this country is that everyone wants to be rich. That’s the American ideal. Poor people don’t like talking about poverty because even though they might live in the projects surrounded by other poor people and have, like, ten dollars in the bank, they don’t like to think of themselves as poor. Jay-Z
As kids we didn’t complain about being poor; we talked about how rich we were going to be and made moves to get the lifestyle we aspired to by any means we could. And as soon as we had a little money, we were eager to show it. Jay-Z
We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it means danger, revolution, anarchy. Henry Miller
If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. Charles Darwin
Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor. James A Baldwin
I’m a man with many defects. I love. I sing. I dream. I was born in the poor countryside. I was raised in the countryside, planting corn and selling sweets made by my grandmother. My children, my two daughters are with me and I want a better world for my grandchildren, for your grandchildren. Hugo Chavez
It’s amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people yourself is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral, self-righteous, bullying laziness. Penn Jillette
Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can’t help but cry. I mean I’d love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff. Mariah Carey
The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs. Karl Marx
Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favour of matrimony. Jane Austen
The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man. Napoleon Bonaparte
An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics. Plutarch
Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It’s the other way around. They never vote for us. Dan Quayle
They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody? Princess Diana