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Poverty: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
Leave the poor Some time for self-improvement. Let them not Be forced to grind the bones out of their arms For bread, but have some space to think and feel Like moral and immortal creatures.— BAILEY — Festus. Sc. A Country Town.
Needy knife-grinder! whither are ye going? Rough is the road, your wheel is out of order; Bleak blows the blast-your hat has got a hole in it. So have your breeches.— CANNING — The Friend of Humanity and
the Knife-Grinder. The beggarly last doit.— COWPER — The Task. Bk. V. The Winter Morning Walk. L. 316.
And plenty makes us poor.— DRYDEN — The Medal. L. 126.
Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe, That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so.— GOLDSMITH — Deserted Village. L. 413.
Chill penury repress'd their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul.— GRAY — Elegy in a Country Churchyard. St. 13.
Yes, child of suffering, thou may'st well be sure He who ordained the Sabbath loves the poor!— O. W. HOLMES — Urania; or, A Rhymed Lesson. L. 325.
O God! that bread should be so dear, And flesh and blood so cheap!— HOOD — The Song of the Shirt.
Stitch! stitch! stitch! In poverty, hunger, and dirt, And still with a voice of dolorous pitch, Would that its tone could reach the Rich, She sang this "Song of the Shirt!"— HOOD — Song of the Shirt. St. 11.
All this [wealth] excludes but one evil,poverty. S.— SAM'L JOHNSON — Boswell's Life of
Johnson. 1777. O Poverty, thy thousand ills combined Sink not so deep into the generous mind, As the contempt and laughter of mankind.— JUVENAL — Satire III. L. 226.
Gifford's trans. Rattle his bones over the stones! He's only a pauper whom nobody owns!— THOMAS NOEL — The Pauper's Drive.
But to the world no bugbear is so great, As want of figure and a small estate.— POPE — First Book of Horace. Ep. I. L. 67.
Where are those troops of poor, that throng'd of yore The good old landlord's hospitable door?— POPE — Satires of Dr. Donne. Satire II. L. 113.
I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. II. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 144.
It is still her use To let the wretched man outlive his wealth, To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow An age of poverty.— Shakespeare — Merchant of Venice. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 268.
No, madam, 'tis not so well that I am poor, though many of the rich are damned.— Shakespeare — All's Well That Ends Well. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 17.
Poor and content is rich and rich enough, But riches fineless is as poor as winter To him that ever fears he shall be poor.— Shakespeare — Othello. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 172.
Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips.— Shakespeare — Othello. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 50.
The world affords no law to make thee rich; Then be not poor, but break it, and take this. My poverty, but not my will, consents. I pay thy poverty, and not thy will.— Shakespeare — Romeo and Juliet. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 73.
His rawbone cheekes, through penurie and pine, Were shronke into his jawes, as he did never dyne.— SPENSER — Faerie Queene. Bk. I. Canto IX. St. 35.
Whose plenty made him pore.— SPENSER — Faerie Queene. Bk. I. Canto IV. St. 29.
Meo sum pauper in ære. Tho' poor, I live on my own income.— HORACE — Epistolæ. II. 2. 12.
Pauper enim non est cui rerum suppetet usus. He is not poor who has the use of necessary things.— HORACE — Epistolæ. I. 12. 4.
La pauvreté des biens est aysee à guerir; la pauvreté de l'âme, impossible. The lack of wealth is easily repaired; but the poverty of the soul is irreparable.— MONTAIGNE — Essais. III. 10.
L'or même à la laideur donne un teint de beauté: Mais tout devient affreux avec la pauvreté. Gold gives an appearance of beauty even to ugliness: but with poverty everything becomes frightful.— BOILEAU — Satires. VIII. 209.