Quotes About Poverty

My school and my tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from. That is absolutely the saddest thing in the world.

It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian. And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it.

My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people.

Scholars talk about the endless cycle of poverty and racism and classism and crime. But I don't see it as a cycle, as a circle. I see it as a locked room filled with the people who share my DNA. This room has recently been set afire and there's only one escape hatch, ten feet off the ground. And I know I have to build a ladder out of the bones of my fallen family in order to climb to safety.

La pobreza no te hace fuerte ni te da lecciones de perseverancia. No, la pobreza sólo te enseña a ser pobre.

They're not starving to death, but they look hollow-eyed and barren, like they've been fed just enough food but never enough happiness.

Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No poverty only teaches you how to be poor.

It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian. And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it.

It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor.

My parents sold blood for money to buy food. Poverty was our spirit animal.

Sherman Alexie (Author)

Women are more focused on the development of the quality of life in their countries. They are more involved in social and family policies, childcare, and poverty reduction.

If we're going to live an ethical life, it's not enough just to follow the thou-shalt-nots. … If we have enough, we have to share some of that with people who have so little.

While all too many people live in dire poverty, others are caught up in materialism and lifestyles which are destructive of family life and the most basic demands of Christian morality.

The meekest of animals will fight bravely when it is backed against a wall, for it has nothing left to lose. A poor man is more deadly than a rich man because he puts less value on his own life.

Anyone who's been poor and gets rich is stalked by guilt and fear. Guilt because you know it isn't fair, that life hasn't changed for everyone

If you're poor, potato chips are the food of life for you. It's the caviar.

The reason that the World Trade Center got hit is because there are a lot of people living in abject poverty out there who don't have any hope for a better life.

I'm tired of being a nice guy, I've been poor all my life, but don't know quite why.

We were really poor when I was growing up; my parents, both artists, were bohemians. Life was a desperate struggle, but in service of a high ideal, which is exactly what my photographs are about.

I think it's quite difficult to understand what kind of life a writer leads. They might be millionaires, or they might be starving people.

The biggest fight in my life is not in boxing. The biggest fight in my life is how to end poverty in my country.

As an actress for most of my life, I am profoundly familiar with poverty.

We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life's marketplace. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.