Tax Collector Creates Poor People: Bill Vaughan

"The tax collector must love poor people, he's creating so many of them" -- Bill Vaughan #Quote

Government to Tax Rich or Poor as Usual? Will Rogers

"How is the government going to get the extra taxes? Out of the rich, or just out of the poor, as usual?" -- Will Rogers

Expenses of Schools in Proportion to General Tax Rate

"The expenses of schools should be borne by the inhabitants of the county, every one in proportion to his general tax-rate. This would throw on wealth the education of the poor" -- Thomas Jefferson

No Help to Poor to Destroy Rich, No Security Borrowed

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift ... You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer ... You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income ... You cannot establish security on borrowed money" -- William J. H. Boetcker

If Poor Had Profiles We'd Solve Problem of Poverty: Wilde

"If the poor only had profiles there would be no difficulty in solving the problem of poverty" -- Oscar Wilde

You Don't Make the Poor Richer by Making Rich Poorer

"You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer" -- Winston Churchill

Children Make Poverty Worth It: W. Somerset Maugham

"D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always been poor, but it's been worth it, ay, worth it a hundred times I say when I look round at my children." -- W. Somerset Maugham

War on Capital will become War of Poor Against Rich

"The present assault upon capital is but the beginning. It will be but the stepping-stone to others, larger and more sweeping, till our political contests will become a war of the poor against the rich; a war growing in intensity and bitterness." -- Justice Stephen J. Field

Skip the Mall for Christmas & Give Money to the Poor

“If they want to put Christ back in Christmas, they should skip the mall and give that money to the poor.” -- Bill Leonard

Making Only Money is Poor Business: Henry Ford

"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business." -- Henry Ford

Conviction That the Rich Are Happy is Foolish: Twain

"The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are." -- Mark Twain

Politicians Should be Asked 'What About the 90 Percent?'

"Any politician who starts shouting election-year demagoguery about the rich and the poor should be asked, 'What about the other 90 percent of the people?'" -- Thomas Sowell

Love of Money Prevents The Rich Denuding the Poor

"Forced to choose, the poor, like the rich, love money more than political liberty; and the only political freedom capable of enduring is one that is so pruned as to keep the rich from denuding the poor by ability or subtlety and the poor from robbing the rich by violence or votes." -- Will Durant

The Poor Know Money Matters More than Love

"Those who have some means think that the most important thing in the world is love. The poor know that it is money." -- Gerald Brenan

Command of Wealth Means Freedom: Burke

"If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed." -- Edmund Burke

Pathetic Dilemma of Rich Man: Keep Poor in Place

"All but the hard hearted man must be torn with pity for this pathetic dilemma of the rich man, who has to keep the poor man just stout enough to do the work and just thin enough to have to do it." GK Chesterton

Religion Keeps Poor from Murdering Rich: Napoleon

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich." Napoleon Bonaparte

Blog Action Day - Discussing Poverty & the Poor

"Remember the poor, it costs nothing" -- Josh Billings

... For 60 days I've been posting money quotations on Poverty and the Poor in preparation for this one day - Blog Action Day - Poverty - where over 9000 bloggers have agreed to discuss, explore and seek solutions to poverty. (Even the MySpace Impact Channel got into the Poverty conversation on their blog

My decision to support #BAD08, as it's come to be called on Twitter, was out of a desire to continue expanding my collection of Money Quotes on this blog. But, inevitably I got more interested in the topic and in learning something about Poverty - through words - but not just blather, these are some of the most powerful words ever uttered about the Poor and Poverty.

In the two months since I started collecting and posting quotations, I found over 150 Poverty Quotes in the larger collection of quotes on the poor, Here are a dozen to get you started.

1. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank said, "One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like" and truly believes we can cut global Poverty in HALF by 2015!
2. Most powerful quote on poverty from a politician IMHO was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who said in 1953, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed"
3. Many politicians, as a matter of fact, had something to say of poverty - from Thomas Jefferson, "Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor"
4. To Ronald Reagan, "Poverty is a career for lot's of well paid people"
5. There are those who devote their lives to the poor, "There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much" -- Mother Teresa
6. There are those who poke fun at poverty, "Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." -- Woody Allen
7. Some believe it's sometimes better to be poor, "Satan is wiser now than before, and tempts by making rich instead of poor" -- Alexander Pope
8. Some flatly state the obvious, "I've been rich and I've been poor: Rich is better." -- Sophie Tucker
9. And even more obvious, "A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money." -- W.C. Fields
10. Some point out misconceptions "Literary tradition is full of lies about poverty—the jolly beggar, the poor but happy milkmaid, the wholesome diet of porridge, etc." -- Mason Cooley
11. There is the frightening commentary from Colin Powell, "Terrorism really flourishes in areas of poverty, despair and hopelessness, where people see no future"
12. And in the end, it really doesn't matter whether we are rich or poor, "Pale death with an impartial foot knocks at the hovels of the poor and the palaces of king" -- Horace

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Join the discussion, but don't stop there, decide to take action to end poverty, consider donating your day's earnings to the poor.

Man Who Makes Acquisitive Realize How Poor They Are

"Some day you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are." -- Rudyard Kipling

Poor Can Create Poverty-Free World if Unchained

"The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world ... all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them" -- Muhammad Yunus

Search for Poor Entrepreneurs Banking Challenge

"I did something that challenged the banking world. Conventional banks look for the rich; we look for the absolutely poor. All people are entrepreneurs, but many don't have the opportunity to find that out" -- Muhammad Yunus

Poverty Reduces a Man's Responsibility to God

"In one important respect a man is fortunate in being poor. His responsibility to God is so much the less" -- Christian Nestell Bovee

A Man Isn't Poor If He Can Laugh: Raymond HItchcock

“A man isn't poor if he can still laugh.” -- Raymond Hitchcock

Poor Man Is Without A Dream Not One Lacking Money

“The poor man is not he who is without a cent, but he who is without a dream” -- Harry Kemp

Poor & Happy Better or Moderately Rich & Moody

“They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody?” -- Princess Diana

Poor Parents Will Not Be Declared Insane By Children

“Another good thing about being poor is that when you are seventy your children will not have declared you legally insane in order to gain control of your estate” -- Woody Allen

When The Rich Make War, It's The Poor That Die: Sartre

"When the rich make war, it's the poor that die" -- Jean-Paul Sartre

Poverty is Uncertainty, Galling Indignities & Harassment

"To live in poverty is to live with constant uncertainty, to accept galling indignities, and to expect harassment by the police, welfare officials and employers, as well as by others who are poor and desperate." -- Barbara Ehrenreich

Lies About Poverty: Jolly Beggar, Happy Milkmaid...

"Literary tradition is full of lies about poverty—the jolly beggar, the poor but happy milkmaid, the wholesome diet of porridge, etc." -- Mason Cooley

Every Dollar Spent on War Robs The Poor: Eisenhower

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed" -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Every Man Has the Right to Be Poor: Richard Jefferies

"Every man has a right to be poor" -- Richard Jefferies

Poor Should Get The Money Spent Studying Poverty

"It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them" -- Bill Vaughan

Poor Should Get The Money Spent Studying Poverty

"It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them" -- Bill Vaughan

Problem with Poverty is Consumption of Time

"The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time" -- Willem de Kooning

Misery of Poor Caused by Institutions are a Great Sin

"If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin" -- Charles Darwin

True Poverty is Want of Superfluities Not Necessities

"Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities" -- Samuel Johnson

Resolve Not to be Poor: Poverty an Enemy of Happiness

"Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult" -- Samuel Johnson

Rich Refuse to Get Off Backs of Poor: Karl Marx

"The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs" -- Karl Marx

Content Makes Poor Men Rich: Franklin

"Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor" -- Benjamin Franklin

Remember the Poor, it Costs Nothing: Josh Billings

"Remember the poor, it costs nothing" -- Josh Billings

Poor Villains Name their Price of Rich Villains

"When rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will" -- William Shakespeare

Poor Wrongly Judged as Lacking Ambition

"We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition" -- William James

Hide Poverty from Others, Idleness from Self

"To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself" -- Samuel Johnson

Four Specters Haunt the Poor: Among Them Unemployment

"Four specters haunt the poor -- old age, accident, sickness and unemployment" -- David Lloyd George

Rich are Proud, Poor are Hungry: Jonathan Swift

"Poor nations are hungry and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance" -- Jonathan Swift

Poor & Needy Helped by Love, Not Money: St Augustine

"What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like" -- Saint Augustine

Difference Between Rich & Poor Illuminated by Hunger

"When a man's stomach is full it makes no difference whether he is rich or poor" -- Euripides

Best Time to Be Rich or Poor is When You Are Young

"Youth is the best time to be rich, and the best time to be poor" -- Euripides

Cities Always Divided into Rich & Poor & are at War

"Any city however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich. These are at war with one another" -- Plato

Before Decrying The Rich, Consider Job Sources

"Don't knock the rich. When did a poor person give you a job?" -- Laurence J. Peter

Happiness of the Poor: Physical Labor Eases the Mind

"Bodily labor alleviates the pains of the mind and from this arises the happiness of the poor" -- François de La Rochefoucauld

Poor Imagine, Through Entertainment, What Rich Live

"The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing" -- Georg C. Lichtenberg

Slander on Poor That Crime is Caused by Poverty

"The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor" -- Henry Louis Mencken

Influential is Successful, Whether Rich or Poor

"The influential man is the successful man, whether he be rich or poor" -- Orison Swett Marden

Rich I Know Intimately, Poor Only Slightly

"Acquaintance: a degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous" -- Ambrose Bierce

Obligation to Put All Poor Men in Good Situations

"Do not tell me of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Poor By Accident, Not by Design: Josh Billings

"I am a poor man, but I have this consolation: I am poor by accident, not by design" -- Josh Billings

Laws Forbid All Doing What Poorest Cannot Avoid

"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor, to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread" -- Anatole France

Poor Object to Bad Government, The Rich to All Forms

"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all" -- Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Rich Don't Know Who Poor Are: Mother Theresa

"The trouble is that rich people, well-to-do people, very often don't really know who the poor are; and that is why we can forgive them, for knowledge can only lead to love, and love to service. And so, if they are not touched by them, it's because they do not know them" -- Mother Teresa

Poor Men Hidden When Only Money Counts: Ovid

"Nowadays nothing but money counts: a fortune brings honors, friendships, the poor man everywhere lies low" -- Ovid

Overabundance of Poor Single Women Argues Marriage

"Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony" -- Jane Austen

Satan Tempts by Making Rich Instead of Poor: Pope

"Satan is wiser now than before, and tempts by making rich instead of poor" -- Alexander Pope

Impartiality of Death Between Poverty & Wealth

"Pale death with an impartial foot knocks at the hovels of the poor and the palaces of king" -- Horace

A Robust Spirit Overcomes Poverty: Emily Dickinson

"He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust" -- Emily Dickinson

The Rich Prey on the Poor: Thomas Jefferson

"Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor" -- Thomas Jefferson

Rich & Poor Share Nothing in Common: Disraeli

"Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor" -- Benjamin Disraeli

Being Ashamed of Having Been Poor is Shameful

"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is" -- Benjamin Franklin

Courage to Face Poverty Defines a Nation

"A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization" -- Samuel Johnson

Poverty Consists in Feeling Poor: Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Poverty consists in feeling poor" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

American Flag Stands for Both Rich & Poor

"We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it means danger, revolution, anarchy" -- Henry Miller

Society Must Care for The Poor & Aid Poverty

"To give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole" -- Benedict de Spinoza

He With Nothing But Money is Poor & Covetous

"The man who has no money is poor, but one who has nothing but money is poorer. He only is rich who can enjoy without owning; he is poor who though he has millions is covetous" -- Orison Swett Marden

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Money is a Poor Man's Credit Card: Marshall Mcluhan

"Money is a poor man's credit card" -- Marshall Mcluhan

Poor Can't Get Credit, Must Pay Cash:

"It is only the poor who pay cash, and that not from virtue, but because they are refused credit." -- Anatole France

George Bernard Shaw: The Rich Are Useless

"What is the matter with the poor is poverty; what is the matter with the rich is uselessness." -- George Bernard Shaw

William Shakespeare on Riches & Contentment

"Poor and content is rich, and rich enough." -- William Shakespeare

Control Wealth Rather Than Being Controlled by Wealth

"If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed." -- Edmund Burke

Better To Be Rich Than Poor Money Quote

"I've been rich and I've been poor: Rich is better." -- Sophie Tucker

Rodney Dangerfield: So Poor I Had Nothing to Play With

"I was so poor growing up, if I wasn't a boy, I'd have had nothing to play with." -- Rodney Dangerfield

Abraham Lincoln on Balancing Money & Spirituality

"This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor." -- Abraham Lincoln

What is a Rich Man if You Take Away His Money?

"A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money." -- W.C. Fields

What You Are Says You Are Rich, Not What You Have

"He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has." -- Henry Ward Beecher

Never Have So Many Rich People Felt Themselves So Poor

"Never in the history of the world have so many people been so rich; never in the history of the world have so many of those same people felt themselves so poor." -- Lewis H. Lapham

For Poor Men To Know How Rich Men Work

"There are two things needed in these days: first, for rich men to find out how poor men live; and second, for poor men to know how rich men work." -- E. Atkinson