Poor People Quotes - Page 5

• In the Third World, there are 1.3 billion poor people. In other words, one out of every three inhabitants lives in poverty.

  Fidel Castro

  People, Three, World

  "Fidel Castro on the World Economy". Speech in Riverside Church, Harlem, New York City, www.theglobalist.com. November 23, 2000.

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• In southern Italy, where my grandparents had lived, there were few opportunities. The society was static, with rigid social classes. Poor people, like my grandparents, had little chance to improve their lives, no matter their talents or willingness to work.

  Samuel Alito

  Opportunity, Southern Italy, Class

  "An Interview With Justice Samuel Alito on Immigration, His Mentors and Advice for a Successful Life". Interview with Madaline Donnelly, dailysignal.com. November 9, 2014.

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• Even when uttered by Democrats, "middle class" often sounds like a mealymouthed way of saying, "Us, and not them," where "them" includes poor people, snake handlers and those with pierced tongues.

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  Class, Snakes, People

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• People charged with drug offenses, though, are typically poor people of color. They are routinely charged with felonies and sent to prison.

  Michelle Alexander

  Color, People, Drug

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• We Democrats think the country works better with a strong middle class, real opportunities for poor people to work their way into it and a relentless focus on the future, with business and government working together to promote growth and broadly shared prosperity. We think "we're all in this together" is a better philosophy than "you're on your own."

  William J. Clinton

  Country, Strong, Philosophy

  William J. Clinton's speech to the Democratic National Convention, www.washingtonpost.com. September 5, 2012.

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• We have more families at risk with the death penalty. It targets the voiceless, the poor, people of color. And so it's important just to understand what your government is doing and how much they are spending.

  Susan Sarandon

  Government, Color, People

  Source: www.washingtontimes.com

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• To a billion people around the world surviving on just a dollar a day, the question of what to eat tonight is more about life and death than about recipes. The struggle of poor people around the globe weighs heavily on me, especially now that I am a mother, which is why I work with Oxfam.

  Giada De Laurentiis

  Mother, Struggle, People

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• One of the reasons inequality gets so deep in this country is that everyone wants to be rich. That's the American ideal. Poor people don't like talking about poverty because even though they might live in the projects surrounded by other poor people and have, like, ten dollars in the bank, they don't like to think of themselves as poor.

  Jay-Z

  Country, Thinking, Talking

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• Rich people believe in themselves. They believe in their value and in their ability to deliver it. Poor people don't. That's why they need "guarantees."

  T. Harv Eker

  Inspirational, Believe, People

  FaceBook post by T. Harv Eker from Aug 15, 2011

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• What's more condescending and corny than someone telling you how much more money they have than you and telling you basically, 'I don't care about poor people,' which is a large part of what you hear of corporate hip-hop on the radio.

  Talib Kweli

  People, Hip Hop, Care

  "Talib Kweli: Rap not 'talent-based game right now'" by Eliott C. McLaughlin, www.cnn.com. July 8, 2013.

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• Quite often when you help poor people, they don't think about the environment. They think about survival.

  Wangari Maathai

  Thinking, People, Survival

  Source: kenvironews.wordpress.com

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• Being a progressive himself, Franklin Roosevelt was talking about the fact that we should provide jobs for everyone who wants one. People do have a right to live in decent housing. They do have a right to education. FDR was preaching this gospel in the '30s, and Dr. Martin Luther King did the same thing in the 1960s with the Poor People's March on Washington. Folks in this country have these rights and it's the job of this country to answer this call.

  Nina Turner

  Country, Kings, Jobs

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• Liberals will not let you improve the schools or the educational opportunities for poor people, because they want to maintain their teachers union status quo.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Teacher, Educational, School

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• Donald Trump, when he gives his speeches, talks like a populist. And he talks to middle class and working America and poor people. But when he governs, at least in his first 40 days, he governs like a hard-right guy.

  Charles Schumer

  Class, America, People

  "After Speech To Congress, Trump Holds Meeting With GOP Leaders". "All Things Considered" with Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, wxxinews.org. March 1, 2017.

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• The mass incarceration of poor people of color, particularly black men, has emerged as a new caste system, one specifically designed to address the social, economic, and political challenges of our time.

  Michelle Alexander

  Men, Color, People

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• We need to make sure middle-class people are able to pay the bills. We need to make sure that poor people don't starve. Those are values, too.

  Charles Schumer

  Class, People, Needs

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• For many of those who had historically supported welfare programs in the broadest sense, it was perfectly reasonable to enact legislation in which poor people were the objects of efforts to assist them.

  Barney Frank

  Welfare Programs, People, Effort

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• The difference between blues, jazz, rock n' roll and rap is that rap stayed poor. Even the white rappers are poor. It's scarier to look at poor people; it makes everyone uncomfortable. Their pain is something that people would like to see swept under the rug.

  Russell Simmons

  Pain, Rap, Rocks

  "More Questions with Russell Simmons". content.time.com. May 3, 2007.

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• You know, I love all kinds of activism. I certainly think blacks deserve to have something whether it is affirmative action or an opportunity that should be opened up to them. But at the same time I believe that people of color are not the only poor people in America and all over the world.

  Russell Simmons

  Believe, Opportunity, Thinking

  "More Questions with Russell Simmons". content.time.com. May 3, 2007.

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• Hillary Clinton is on record supporting a doubling of community health centers in this country, which will mean that tens of millions of people - poor people - will have access to health care that do not have it today. Is that significant? It is very significant.

  Bernie Sanders

  Country, Mean, People

  Source: billmoyers.com

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• Candidates don’t want to be associated with poor people, people who have jobs or are ugly; they want to be associated with a certain middle class demographic, so as a result they leave those others out completely.

  Matt Taibbi

  Jobs, Class, People

  "The Bad Boy On the Bus: An Interview With Matt Taibbi". Interview with Janelle Nanos, www.motherjones.com. April 19, 2005.

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• Our poor people are great people, a very lovable people, They don't need our pity and sympathy. They need our understanding love and they need our respect. We need to tell the poor that they are somebody to us that they, too, have been created, by the same loving hand of God, to love and be loved.

  Mother Teresa

  Hands, People, Understanding

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• Government programs aim at getting money for poor people. Our hope was that knowledge would in the long run be more useful, provide more money, and eventually strike at the system-causes of poverty. Government believes that poverty is just a lack of money. We felt, and continue to feel, that poverty is actually a lack of skill, and a lack of the self-esteem that comes with being able to take some part of one's life into one's own hands and work with others towards shared-call them social-goals.

  Karl Hess

  Running, Self Esteem, Believe

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• When people love each other, they are content with very little. When we have light and joy in our hearts, we don't need material wealth. The most loving communities are often the poorest.

  Jean Vanier

  Heart, Loving Life, Light

  "A L’Arche Serving of Love in Kolkata" by Rumni Saha, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 6, 2015.

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• No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. It grew in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps, and it was the only tree that grew out of cement. It grew lushly, but only in the tenements districts.... That was the kind of tree it was. It liked poor people.

  Betty Smith

  Sky, People, Tree

  Betty Smith (2009). “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”, p.6, Harper Collins

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