Quotes About Poverty

Wars of nations are fought to change maps.  But wars on poverty are fought to map change.

— Muhammad Ali

People who are homeless are not social inadequates.  They are people without homes.

— Sheila McKechnie

I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor; rich is better.

— Sophie Tucker

Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.

— Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker.

— Proverbs 17:5

We were poor when I was young, but the difference then was that the government didn’t come around telling you you were poor.

— Ronald Reagan

Thousands upon thousands are yearly brought into a state of real poverty by their great anxiety not to be thought poor.

— William Cobbett

Poverty is the open-mouthed, relentless hell which yawns beneath civilized society.

— Henry George

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.

— Samuel Johnson

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

— John F. Kennedy

Poverty has many roots, but the tap root is ignorance.

— Lyndon B. Johnson

For ye have the poor always with you...

— Matthew 26:11

Remember the poor — it costs nothing.

— Josh Billings

Poverty is no disgrace to a man, but is confoundedly inconvenient.

— Sydney Smith

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

— Raymond B. Egan

The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.

— Willem de Kooning

Poverty is no sin!

— George Herbert

I used to think I was poor.  Then they told me I wasn’t poor, I was needy.  Then they told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy.  I was deprived.  Then they told me that underprivileged was overused.  I was disadvantaged.  I still don’t have a dime.  But I have a great vocabulary.

— Jules Feiffer