Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“If you know how rich you are, you are not rich. But me, I am not aware of the extent of my wealth. That's how rich we are.”
Imelda Marcos (born 1929) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: After promising to give $800 million to poor Filipinos if she becomes president, quoted in The Philippine Daily Inquirer (March 1998).
“I argued more recently for a hypothecated wealth tax on very high earners to support the campaign against child poverty. Why shouldn’t the super-rich be obliged to help the super-poor?”
Anthony Giddens (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“South Africa does not have a poverty problem. Poverty is a result of denialism of the way corruption taxes poor people, the inefficiencies that undermine poor people's opportunities and our refusal to admit that we are part of the problem.”
Mamphela Ramphele (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.”
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Can we then hold the poverty-in-wealth of the money-grubbing usurers to be of any account? They may seem to be kings with purses full of gold, but they never even in their dreams have had a glimpse of the wealth that has eyes to see.”
Philo (15 BC–50) said by 50 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At first it was the incomes of corporations, then of rich citizens, then of well-provided widows and opulent workers, and finally the wealth of housemaids and the tips of waitresses. This is all in line with the ability to pay doctrine. The poor, simply because there are more of them, have more ability to pay than the rich.”
Frank Chodorov (1887–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wealth is not money. Wealth lies in men. This is where true power lies, the power we value. This is what has convinced us to direct all our resources to build the individual, and to use the wealth which God has provided us in the service of the nation.”
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1918–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you are rich, you have to be an idiot not to stay rich. And if you are poor, you have to be really smart to get rich.”
John Green (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Give us cash! I steal from the rich and give to the poor! I'm trying to be a myth; give us cash!" "No, I'm not gonna give you cash." "Go on, I steal from the rich. Are you rich?" "No, I'm … comfortable." "That's no good, I can't steal from the fairly well off and give to the moderately impoverished! That's not gonna swing, is it?”
Eddie Izzard (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a sleeping giant in America. Poor and low-wealth folks now make up 30% of the electorate in every state and over 40% of the electorate in every state where the margin of victory for the presidency was less than 3%. If you could just get that many poor and low-wealth people to vote, they could fundamentally shift every election in the country.”
William Barber II (born 1963) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in This prominent pastor says Christian nationalism is ‘a form of heresy’, By John Blake, CNN, January 21, 2023
“As we look again to rebuild a rich country, we must make sure this time round we also build a rich society - a society where the measure of wealth is not only the money in our pockets but the wellbeing of our communities.”
Alex Salmond (1954–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once a sage asked why scholars always flock to the doors of the rich, whilst the rich are not inclined to call at the doors of scholars. "The scholars" he answered, "are well aware of the use of money, but the rich are ignorant of the nobility of science".”
Al-Biruni (973–1048) said by 1048 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in: A.L. Mackay Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (London 1994).
“Economic freedom is extraordinarily important. It’s the freedom to do with your resources what you believe you should do. My dream has always been to make poor people rich, not rich people poor.”
Arthur Laffer (born 1940) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: John Seiler, “Let’s make Watts look like Beverly Hills,” Orange County Register (August 6, 2000)
“Foreign aid goes from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.”
Rand Paul (born 1963) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: , University of Kentucky, 3-27-2013.
“Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited; and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division, and from the antagonism between poor and rich, means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with H. G. Wells (September 1937)
“Some have too much, yet still do crave; I little have, and seek no more: They are but poor, though much they have, And I am rich with little store: They poor, I rich; they beg, I give; They lack, I have; they pine, I live.”
Edward Dyer (1543–1607) first seen 1588 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: MS. Rawl 85 (1588), p. 17.
Also quoted by: Geoffrey Chaucer
“The brigand's life is a very fine life For men of generous mind; We rob the rich to help the poor And succour oppressed mankind. The rich, dear souls, are close around And it's easy work to skelp 'em; But the poor — damn their eyes — can never be found When we're in the mood to help them.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed Everybody knows that the war is over Everybody knows the good guys lost Everybody knows the fight was fixed The poor stay poor, the rich get rich That's how it goes Everybody knows.”
Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Everybody Knows" (co-written with Sharon Robinson) - 1988 performance · 2008 performance
“Oh, the poor folks hate the rich folks, And the rich folks hate the poor folks. All of my folks hate all of your folks, It's American as apple pie.”
Tom Lehrer (1928–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The beloved of the Almighty are the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Saadi as translated in The Gulistān : Or, Rose-garden, of Shek̲h̲ Muslihu'd-dīn Sādī of Shīrāz as translated by Edward Backhouse Eastwick (1880), p. 203
Also quoted by: Joseph Addison (misattributed)
“For all the chatter that Britain has moved beyond class, recent studies have found that it determines the life chances of British people more today than at any point since the Second World War... A child born into a rich family in Britain will almost certainly live and die rich, while a child born into a poor family will almost certainly live and die poor.”
Johann Hari (born 1979) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Class still rules in Britain - as the Lib Dems should remember when choosing their leader", The Independent (30 January 2006)
“That was on a TV show. There was this poor guy taking a rich guy through a hotel to experience the losses of the less fortunate than him. The rich guy is just complaining because he just wants to get out and the poor guy is saying you have to wait till tomorrow to get out. That's one of our least serious songs but it still has meaning to it.”
Daniel Johns (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gore Vidal, the American writer, once described the American economic system as 'free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich'. Macroeconomic policy on the global scale is a bit like that. It is Keynesianism for the rich countries and monetarism for the poor.”
Ha-Joon Chang (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That's where all the foreign aid (which might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries) went as well. The U.S. government still squanders about $20 billion a year this way, and European governments spend proportionally even more; it's all gone straight down a giant rathole.”
Douglas Casey (born 1946) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Opportunity in Mozambique (1996)
“If it makes sense to transfer income from rich to poor people within a generation, why shouldn't we transfer income from rich to poor generations?”
Harvey S. Rosen (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Vegetarianism is necessary for the very rich and the very poor. The poor need it because it is cheap and nourishing. The rich, in order to cleanse all the poisons from the corpses that have accumulated in their overfed organism.”
Natalia Nordman (1863–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Povarennaia kneiga dlia golodaiushchikh. Quoted in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism (NCLC), vol. 108, ed. by Jessica Menzo (Gale Group, 2002), p. 169.
“The big fight among evangelicals is whether you interpret the Bible through metaphors or you literally believe that what is said in the Bible: that the rich should help the poor. It literally says in the Bible that the rich should help the poor, that farmers could not harvest all the crops.”
James Meredith (born 1933) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I choose to live hidden all the days of my pilgrimage, behaving like a true pilgrim and empty-handed traveller, in order that I may in safety await the day of the Lord, being most rich, and at the same time very poor; most rich in seeking nothing, very poor in having nothing.”
Gerlac Peterson (1370–1411) said by 1411 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“every one but an ideot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor, or they will never be industrious:: I do not mean that the poor in England are to be kept like the poor of France; but the state of the country considered, they must be (like all mankind) in poverty, or they will not work.”
Arthur Young (1741–1820) first seen 1771 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Arthur Young (1771), The Farmer's Tour through the East of England, v. 4, p. 361.
“India’s very definition of comfort is a state of being that is inaccessible to the poor. Often, we pay not for the quality of service, experience, home or education, but for keeping the poor out. Low standards for the poor are embedded in all the cures that India prescribes for poverty.”
Manu Joseph (born 1974) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Why India should treat its poor as though they are rich, 10 May 2020, Livemint
“As much as St Francis of Assisi had loved poverty, so much did St John of God love the poor; he loved them so much that, as the poet Lope de Vega was to note at the end of his "Song to the Exalted and Patriarch St John of God", "if he had met an angel and a poor man together, he would have left the angel and embraced the poor man" (p. 137)”
Igino Giordani (1894–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In sum, there is nothing irrational about spending three dollars of public money to protect one dollar of private investment—at least not from the perspective of the investors. To protect one dollar of their money, they will spend three, four, and five dollars of our money. In fact, when it comes to protecting their money, our money is no object.”
Michael Parenti (1933–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I will accept money from anybody as long as it is Indian. As a good Brahmin it is my right to accept money. When I ask a businessman to give me money I speak as if I am demanding it. I collect money for the party. I have collected money for the Lok Dal(A), for the Janata Party elections and there is no secret about it. But my personal life has not been aggrandised by it.”
Subramanian Swamy (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Part One brings our hidden assumptions about money to the surface. In doing so, it also brings to light new potentials for our interactions with money. It is not about how to make, invest or spend money. There are already plenty of books about all of that. It is about the concept of money, and how different money systems shape different societies.”
Bernard Lietaer (1942–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The money of Fifa is your money. It’s not the money of the Fifa president. It’s your money. You are the national associations and the money of Fifa has to serve for the development of football and not for anything else.”
Gianni Infantino (born 1970) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "Uefa tells Infantino: resign or we will vote to oust you", The Telegraph (2016).
“I get guilty when I spend money on silly things like clothes and stuff... Having experienced a completely different extreme of wealth, and I don't mean me being poor or rich, I mean knowing that 40 quid that gets spent on a pair of shoes could go a long way for a family in Georgia for a week or even a month, having experienced that, you're a bit more [guilty].”
Katie Melua (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rich were dull and they drank too much or they played too much backgammon. They were dull and they were repetitious. He remembered poor Julian and his romantic awe of them and how he had started a story once that began, "The very rich are different from you and me." And how someone had said to Julian, "Yes, they have more money.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Snows of Kilimanjaro," first published in Esquire (August 1936); later published in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938). Originally in Esquire "Julian" was named as F. Scott Fitzgerald, who, in …
“[Alicia, with Miguel] "As long as the poor are regarded as expendable parts of the machinery of the economy, they will continue to be ground into the dust." "The Lord said the poor will always be with us," she murmured. "One reason I am not a Christian," he replied. "Your Jesus should have spent less time teaching the poor to accept their lot and more time teaching the rich to share.”
Michael Nava (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Because they want easy money, they are not prepared for governance. To achieve money or wealth is very easy, but to maintain it, so that the wealth will be part of them, is very difficult.”
Francis Nwifuru (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think the wealthy, the middle class, and the poor voted for 13 because I think people from every class resented the fact that government was stealing too much of their money. I think the general idea in California and all over the country, with rich and poor alike, is that the government is too invasive; it has too much control; it passes too many laws; it curbs too many freedoms.”
Howard Jarvis (1903–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They Head Start, Upward Lift, Bootstrap, and Upward Bound us into white society, 'cause they don’t want to face the real problem which is a man is poor for one reason and one reason only: 'cause he does not have money -- period. If you want to get rid of poverty, you give people money -- period.”
Stokely Carmichael (1941–1998) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Black Power" Speech at University of California, Berkeley (October 29, 1966)
“When I was a little girl, my parents would say Puerto Rico can't be free because we would be poor like Cuba and poor like Haiti. Out of the fear of becoming poor we didn't dare to become free. Then a hurricane comes, devastates everything, and maybe we are as poor as Cuba and Haiti, but we are not free.”
Giannina Braschi (born 1953) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the aftermath of Hurricane Maria (El Nuevo Dia, Puerto Rico, July 23, 2018)
“Poor, poor pitiful me. Poor, poor pitiful me. These young girls won't let me be. Lord have mercy on me. Woe is me.”
Warren Zevon (1947–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Christ himself was poor... And as he was himself, so he informed his apostles and disciples, they were all poor, prophets poor, apostles poor.”
Robert Burton (1577–1640) said by 1640 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most people in the world are poor. If we knew the economy of being poor, we would know much of the economics that really matter. Most of the world's poor people earn their living in agriculture. If we knew the economics of agriculture, we would know much of the economic of being poor.”
Theodore Schultz (1902–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poor victim, poor assassin, poor avenger. Poor is the society that created them. The young girl who succumbed to drugs, the young man who chopped her up, [and] the man who shot to avenge her, are three witnesses of a chain of failures that concern all of us.”
Nazzareno Marconi (born 1958) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Italy, Church struggles to lead examination of conscience on race (8 February 2018) Crux
“There is a thought that poverty is a public policy failure; poverty is man-made by action and non-action: poverty can be eliminated.”
Benjamin Mkapa (1938–2020) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2008-05-17
“I didn’t create poverty. This church didn’t create poverty. Poverty is not an issue, human suffering is not an issue at all, they were there before the creation of mankind.”
Peter Akinola (born 1944) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in the East African Standard January 2004, now only available online here.
“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.”
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech for the "Make Poverty History" campaign. Trafalgar Square, London (3 February 2005).
“One wonders whether the ethnic categorization effort at finding solutions to problems that cross ethnic boundaries. Poverty is poverty is poverty. It does not have peculiar ethnic characteristics.”
Joni Madraiwiwi (1957–2016) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Lautoka Rotary Club (Centenary Dinner), 12 March 2005.