Quotes About Poverty

I was on food stamps until I was 18 and became an adult.

And if you look at the reality in the United States, where you have more than 40 million people below the poverty line and 42 million on food stamps, and then you look at poverty around the world, clearly the way we're running the engine of capitalism is not serving us well.

Anytime you cut food stamps, it naturally affects sales. People spend less.

Nobody wants to be on food stamps, but when my family lost everything, we were grateful for it. I was grateful the program was there so I could concentrate on my schoolwork and not on my empty belly. We were grateful that we had the support we needed to roll up our sleeves and rebuild our lives.

The Food Stamp Challenge, which challenges higher-income families to live as if they are on food stamps, estimates that a person on food stamps has a budget of about $1.25 per meal. In other words, a family on food stamps must buy an entire meal per person for less than the cost of an average cup of coffee.

Should Americans take care of their brothers and sisters? Absolutely. We all have an obligation as individuals to care for the poor. And, yes, there is a role for government and even food stamps in this equation.

The Global Poverty Project's mission is to stand up for the world's poorest people. We fight for the full funding of Millennium Development Goals and advocate meaningful change to government and corporate policies that block progress and entrench injustice.

Stand-up comedy and poverty. Those were my two main endeavors.

We can't leave people in abject poverty, so we need to raise the standard of living for 80% of the world's people, while bringing it down considerably for the 20% who are destroying our natural resources.

If you had a basic income, it would mean that everybody would have a base on top of which their earned income would be taxed at the standard rate of tax. That would increase the incentive to take low-wage jobs.

Agrarian reform should not merely subdivide misery, it must raise living standards. Ownership raises the farmer from his, but productivity will keep him on his feet.

The people I admire most are those doing outstanding things for the poorest children, such as Michael Wilshaw at Mossbourne academy, Dan Moynihan and all those at the Harris academies, and those at chains such as Ark and the Haberdashers, who are driving up standards in the poorest areas.

An entire nation, it seemed, was standing in one long breadline, desperate for even the barest essentials. It was a crisis of monumental proportions. It was known as the Great Depression.

The question that stands in the foreground is not 'Do we need this technology?' No one denies the great chances and the great opportunities that we have in the fight against poverty, the handling of climate issues, the fight against sickness.

Better is the man of humble standing that works for himself than one who plays the great man but lacks bread.

A man's real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor.

With parsimony a little is sufficient; without it nothing is sufficient; but frugality makes a poor man rich.

One destitute of wealth is not destitute, he is indeed rich, but the man devoid of learning is destitute in every way.

The poor man who enters into a partnership with one who is rich makes a risky venture.

If you do not believe that a man will commit murder for one can of tomatoes, then you have never been hungry.

I am a poor man, but I have this consolation: I am poor by accident, not by design.

The more laws and restrictions there are, The poorer people become. The sharper men's weapons, The more trouble in the land.

An avowal of poverty is no disgrace to any man; to make no effort to escape it is indeed disgraceful.

I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, his cloak was out at the elbows, the water passed through his shoes, - and the stars through his soul.