Quotes About Inequality

when I see humanity ripped apart and events patched up, and so many spots on the sun and so many holes in the moon, when I see so much misery everywhere, I suspect that God is not rich. The appearance exists, it is true, but I feel that he is hard up.

long as the three great problems of the century—the degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light—are unsolved;

destiny; so long as the three great problems of the century—the degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light—are unsolved; so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world;—in other words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Misérables cannot fail to be of use. HAUTEVILLE HOUSE, 1862.

there is always more wretchedness below than there is brotherhood above

The sins of women and children, domestic servants and the weak, the poor and the ignorant, are the sins of the husbands and fathers, the masters, the strong and the rich and the educated.

Yet internally, poverty, the proletariat, wages, education

Un prete opulento è un controsenso. Il prete deve tenersi vicino al povero.

Poor children cannot enter the public gardens; still, one would think that, as children, they had a right to the flowers.

In every place where man is ignorant and despairing, in every place where woman is sold for bread, wherever the child suffers for lack

He asked himself... whether it was not outrageous for society to treat thus precisely those of its members who were the least well endowed in the division of goods made by chance, and consequently the most deserving of consideration.

If he had had Peru in his pocket he would certainly have given it to the dancer, but Gringoire had no Peru there, and, besides, America was not yet discovered.

There is one thing sadder than having no money to buy bread; that is having nothing with which to buy medicine.

La sofferenza sociale incomincia a qualunque età.

Che cos'è, in fondo, questa storia di Fantine? È la società che compera una schiava. Da chi? Dalla miseria. Dalla fame, dal freddo, dall'isolamento, dall'abbandono, dallo squallore. Doloroso mercato! Un'anima per un pezzo di pane: la miseria offre, la società accetta.

In the deepest recesses of that ancient Paris of the poor and destitute which lay hidden beneath the brilliance of the rich and fortunate Paris, there was to be heard the sombre growling of the masses: a fearful and awe-inspiring voice in which were mingled the snarl of animals and the words of God, a terror to the faint hearted and a warning to the wise, coming at once from the depths, like the roaring of a lion, and from the heights like the voice of thunder.

she knew what it was like to come here looking for better and be treated as worse

They'd had no choice but to fall into the cycle the growers wanted them in: living on credit, building up debt, and never making enough, even with relief, to break out.

I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.… The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. —FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

All my life I've been told to make no noise, don't want too much, be grateful for any scrap that came my way. And I've done that. I thought if I just did what women are supposed to do and played by the rules, it would Ã¢â'¬Â¦ I don't know Ã¢â'¬Â¦ change. But the way we're treated…" "It's unfair," he said. "It's wrong," she said. "This

housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.… The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. —FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

We don't need to learn about what old rich men did more than one hundred years ago. The world is falling apart now.

How is it illegal to ask for better wages?" Natalia lit up another cigarette. "It isn't, technically. But this is a capitalist country, run by big-money interests. After the state's anti-immigration campaign, when they rounded up all the illegals and deported them back to Mexico, the growers would have had a real problem, but then . . .

We wouldn't have people like the big growers making all the money and people like us doing all the work. We starve while the rich get richer.

But, it was a lie. For people like us, anyway. Folks who are from the wrong place, or have the wrong color skin, or speak the wrong language, or pray to the wrong God.