Poverty Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old poverty quotes, poverty sayings, and poverty proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. Nelson Mandela
Poverty consists in feeling poor. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Affluence creates poverty. Marshall McLuhan
Money is a poor man’s credit card. Marshall McLuhan
Poverty sits by the cradle of all our great men and rocks all of them to manhood. Heinrich Heine
When the rich make war, it’s the poor that die. Jean Paul Sartre
For every talent that poverty has stimulated it has blighted a hundred. John Gardner
Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. J. K. Rowling
Remember the poor, it costs nothing. Josh Billings
Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible. Michel de Montaigne
Poverty it is life near the bone, where it is sweetest. Henry David Thoreau
The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man. Napoleon Bonaparte
The inevitable consequence of poverty is dependence. Samuel Johnson
The greatest hardship of poverty is that it tends to make men ridiculous. Juvenal
Poverty is the test of civility and the touchstone of friendship. William Hazlitt
Poverty devastates families, communities and nations. It causes instability and political unrest and fuels conflict. Kofi Annan
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise. Bertolt Brecht
Poverty has many roots, but the tap root is ignorance. Lyndon B. Johnson