Mark Twain Quotes About Poverty

• Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Mark Twain (2016). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”, p.97, Chartwell

• I wish I could make him understand that a loving good heart is riches enough, and that without it intellect is poverty.

  Mark Twain

  Heart, Wish, Riches

  Mark Twain (2007). “The Best Short Stories of Mark Twain”, p.203, Modern Library

• I wish to become rich, so that I can instruct the people and glorify honest poverty a little, like those kind hearted, fat, benevolent people do.

  Mark Twain

  People, Greed, Wish

  Mark Twain (1994). “Mark Twain on the damned human race”

• Rags, wretchedness, poverty and dirt, those signs and symbols that indicate the presence of [Muslim] rule more surely than the crescent-flag itself, abound.

  Mark Twain

  Flags, Dirt, Poverty

  Mark Twain (2007). “The Innocents Abroad”, p.28, Penguin

• He is now rising from affluence to poverty.

  Mark Twain

  Inspiration, Rising, Poverty

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist”, p.46, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• Will a day come when the race will detect the funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at them—and by laughing at them destroy them? For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution--these can lift at a colossal humbug,—push it a little— crowd it a little—weaken it a little, century by century: but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand. - "The Chronicle of Young Satan," Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts

  Mark Twain

  Laughter, Blow, Race

  The Mysterious Stranger ch. 10 (1916)

• Greece is a bleak, unsmiling desert, without agriculture, manufactures or commerce, apparently. What supports its poverty-stricken people or its Government, is a mystery.

  Mark Twain

  Government, Agriculture, People

  Mark Twain (2008). “The Innocents Abroad”, p.354, Velvet Element Books

• Nothing incites to money-crimes like great poverty or great wealth.

  Mark Twain

  Money, Entrepreneur, Poverty

  Mark Twain (2012). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain: A Book of Quotations”, p.12, Courier Corporation

• I have seen an entire family lifted out of poverty and into affluence by the simple boon of a broken leg. I have had people come to me on crutches, with tears in their eyes, to bless this beneficient institution. In all my experiences of life, I have seen nothing so seraphic as the look that comes into a freshly mutilated man's face when he feels in his vest pocket with his remaining hand and finds his accident ticket all right.

  Mark Twain

  Eye, Simple, Men

  Mark Twain (2006). “Mark Twain Speaking”, p.90, University of Iowa Press

• Honest poverty is a gem that even a king might be proud to call his own - but I wish to sell out

  Mark Twain

  Kings, Wish, Proud

  Mark Twain (1994). “Mark Twain on the damned human race”

• No, I have no desire for riches. Honest poverty and a conscience, torpid through virtuous inaction, are more to me than corner lots and praise.

  Mark Twain

  Desire, Riches, Poverty

  Mark Twain (1994). “Tales, Speeches, Essays, and Sketches”, p.157, Penguin

You May Also Like:

Charles Dickens

Ernest Hemingway

Oscar Wilde

Edgar Allan Poe

Jack London

Hal Holbrook

William Faulkner