Poor Family Quotes

I was a farm kid from the plains of South Venezuela, from a very poor family. I grew up in a palm tree house with an earthen floor. ~ Hugo Chavez

The new black conservatives claim that transfer payments to the black needy engender a mentality of dependence which undercuts the value of self-reliance and of the solidity of the black poor family. They fail to see that the welfare state was a historic compromise between progressive forces seeking broad subsistence rights and conservative forces arguing for unregulated markets. Therefore it should come as no surprise that the welfare state possesses many flaws. The reinforcing of 'dependent mentalities' and the unsettling of the family are two such flaws. But simply to point out these rather obvious shortcomings does not justify cutbacks in the welfare state. In the face of high black unemployment, these cutbacks will not promote self-reliance or strong black families but will only produce even more black cultural disorientation and more devastated black households. This is so because without jobs or incentives to be productive citizens the black poor become even more prone toward criminality, drugs, and alcoholism- the major immediate symptoms of the pervasive black communal and cultural chaos. ~ Cornel West

I just love kids. As a kid, I grew up in a poor country with a poor family that had nothing. I loved anyone who could come into my life, in from the outside, and give me advice that could help me succeed. I believe that there are a lot of people who came into my life that made me Dikembe Mutombo. ~ Dikembe Mutombo

I feel like I grew up being babysat by a television, and all I ever wanted to do was be in movies, direct movies, make movies, but it took me a really long time to be honest with myself about it because my background is that my family was very poor. ~ Noel Wells

I came from a poor family in Coney Island. I learned to write by reading the 'Post.' This was my education. ~ Jerry Della Femina

I was born in 1946, so I was born on the tail end of when everything was deemed important. You made things to last. If you came from a poor family, there was only one can opener. ~ Patti Smith

The ideal-worker standard and norm of work devotion push mothers to the margins of economic life. And a society that marginalizes its mothers impoverishes its children. That is why the paradigmatic poor family in the United States is a single mother and her child. ~ Joan C. Williams

I started life in a poor family and could not even afford a proper tertiary education. ~ Vincent Tan

I've been dealing with pressure all life long. Coming from a very poor family in Haiti, moving to Paris, a new place, a new culture, a new language. I used that pressure to adapt, to do better than everyone else, and I moved around quite a bit as well. ~ Jimmy Jean-Louis

My accomplishment has helped millions of kids see that they can come from a poor family and go somewhere, make something out of themselves. Ive been doing it for seven years professionally. ~ Wyclef Jean

Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man's starving! ~ O. Henry

But perhaps no distance is greater than that which separates a poor family in the same country ~ Halldor Laxness

I grew up in a poor family. I had to cut everyone's hair, because we didn't have money for entertainment. ~ Anthony Jeselnik

I remember I grew up in a poor family and we had almost nothing and we were not treated very well by our family. There was no safe haven for us. But somehow we always managed to be happy. ~ Luis Negron

I was born in a poor family, a lower middle class family. My father was a clerk in the forest department. I was very bad at studies. I was not very good at sports, also. ~ Anupam Kher

The first priority of any serious program against poverty is to strengthen the male role in poor families. ~ George Gilder

My mother, we were a very poor family. When I was a kid, we would be in our little room, and there would be a knock on the door almost every night with a hobo begging for food. Even though we didn't even have enough to eat, my mother always found something to give them. ~ Kirk Douglas

In the ancient city of London, on a certain autumn day in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, a boy was born to a poor family of the name of Canty, who did not want him. ~ Mark Twain

I came from a poor family, so working and going to school at the same time was natural. It taught me multi-tasking, although we didn't call it that back then. I learned I could never be idle, I need to be doing many things at once. ~ Alan Dershowitz

You know, when you're poor and you have a bunch of kids in your family, you don't know that everybody's not poor. ~ Kenny Rogers

I come from a poor family, so really, the culture I know best is the street, TV, school. ~ Maiwenn

I come from the slums; I come from a hard background; I come from a poor family; and I was a soldier. ~ Michael Caine

People get a kick out of my stupidity. ~ Dolly Parton

If you look around Brazil you see pregnant women everywhere. Here you don't see that as much. There the only thing they do is babies, babies, babies! Especially the poor families. ~ Adriana Lima

My dad left when I was a little boy and I grew up with my mother's family. There were foundations in the U.S. where Jewish people got together and sent money to Cuba, so we got some of that. We were a poor family, but I was always a happy kid. ~ William Levy

My early childhood prepared me to be a social psychologist. I grew up in a South Bronx ghetto in a very poor family. From Sicilian origin, I was the first person in my family to complete high school, let alone go to college. ~ Philip Zimbardo

Don't even try to make this into something weird, Lori. We grew up in the same place, so get over your complex. Unless, of course, this is part of your fantasy. The asshole rich boy and the noble girl from the poor family."

"F*ck off," she growled. ~ Victoria Dahl

My poor family. I try to protect them from my work. My parents are very religious, and my brother and sister are very normal. We have an understanding, I think, that what I do isn't quite down their alley. ~ Alissa Nutting

I came from a very poor family and my main dream in life was to break out of this poverty. ~ Viktor Yanukovych

Under present conditions, people are preoccupied with consumer goods not because they are brainwashed but because buying is the one pleasurable activity not only permitted but actively encouraged by our rulers. The pleasure of eating an ice cream cone may be minor compared to the pleasure of meaningful, autonomous work, but the former is easily available and the latter is not. A poor family would undoubtedly rather have a decent apartment than a new TV, but since they are unlikely to get the apartment, what is to be gained by not getting the TV? ~ Ellen Willis

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

It is a tribute to Indian democracy that a person from a poor family, an ordinary family, is today addressing the nation from the Red Fort. ~ Narendra Modi

I never dreamt of being in the movies. I was from a very average, I would say, a rather poor family, so my big treat was to work hard all week - I mowed lawns and babysat and washed dishes and washed cars - to go to the movies. ~ Debbie Reynolds

I come from a really poor family, and when I started doing campaigns, it changed everything for my family. I am not complaining; I had a beautiful childhood - we didn't have a lot of money, but there was always food on the table, and my parents saved money so that in the holidays we would all get in the car and drive to the mountains. ~ Noemie Lenoir

The first thing she noticed were the lightbulbs in the ceiling.
She wondered where the spindlers had gotten them, and where the wires for the electricity ran to, and pictured some poor family Above whose bills were always too high at the end of the month, and the father who would yell at the children about where all that power went - when really, of course, it was the spindlers that were the whole problem. ~ Lauren Oliver

Before I left Russia in 1999, I was living in a very poor factory town with my family and friends, and nothing was ever going to change. ~ Natalia Vodianova

It is commonly observed that a sudden wealth, like a prize drawn in a lottery or a large bequest to a poor family, does not permanently enrich. They have served no apprenticeship to wealth, and with the rapid wealth come rapid claims which they do not know how to deny, and the treasure is quickly dissipated. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was born in Jerusalem in 1939 to a poor family that shared a rented four-room apartment with two additional families and their children. ~ Ada Yonath

Government welfare programs contribute to the disintegration of poor families. They make women and children dependent on government; dependent for food, for clothing, for shelter; and reward fatherless families with extra benefits and welfare perks. ~ Hans F. Sennholz

After that I won a prize, I was with a group of ancient music of Spain that they helped me a lot with a grant, you see, during three years. And so I made my debut in 1944 and I found myself helping my family, it was a very poor family. ~ Victoria De Los Angeles

I was a good soldier in the British Army. I was born in a very, very poor family. And I enlisted to escape hunger. But my officers were Scottish and they loved me. The Scots are good, you know. ~ Idi Amin

The earth, in its natural, uncultivated state was, and ever would have continued to be, the common property of the human race." As the land gets cultivated, "it is the value of the improvement, only, and not the earth itself, that is in individual property. Every proprietor, therefore, of cultivated lands, owes to the community a ground-rent..to every person, rich or poor ... because it is in lieu of the natural inheritance, which, as a right, belongs to every man, over and above the property he may have created, or inherited from those who did ~ Thomas Paine

I do feel guilty. I do. Especially about my family, my children. I write about them, and I know that this will haunt them as well through their lives. Why did I do that to them? ~ Karl Ove Knausgaard

The greatest happiness is family happiness. ~ Joyce Brothers

You knew about the labor camps, though. About the massacres."
"It is easy to be lied to when you don't know any of those people firsthand. It's easy to believe when your king tells you that the people in Endovier deserve to be there because they're criminals or rebels who tried to slaughter innocent Adarlanian families."
"And how many of your countrymen would stand against your king if they, too, learned the truth? If they stopped to consider what it would be like if it were their family, their village, being enslaved or murdered? ~ Sarah J. Maas

When you are in love with a man or a woman, the love you feel does not come from him or her; it is the love flowing from you own heart that you feel. Your partner is simply giving you an excuse to love. Love is always found flowing in your heart, not in your family, lover, career or art. ~ David Deida

I can overlook the lie; what's harder to ignore is the grotesque way it has marred your character. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Material possessions in themselves are good. We would not survive for long without money, clothing, shelter and food. Yet if we refuse to share what we have with the hungry and the poor, we make of our possessions a false god. How many voices in our materialist society tell us that happiness is to be found by acquiring as many possessions and luxuries as we can! But this is to make possessions into a false god. Instead of bringing life, they bring death. ~ Pope Benedict XVI

There are people whom a lowered position degrades morally, to whom loss of connection costs loss of self-respect: are not these justified in placing the highest value on that station and association which is their safeguard from debasement? If a man feels that he would become contemptible in his own eyes were it generally known that his ancestry were simple and not gentle, poor and not rich, workers and not capitalists, would it be right severely to blame him for keeping these fatal facts out of sight
for starting, trembling, quailing at the chance which threatens exposure? The longer we live, the more our experience widens; the less prone are we to judge our neighbor's conduct, to question the world's wisdom: wherever an accumulation of small defences is found, whether surrounding the prude's virtue or the man of the world's respectability, there, be sure, it is needed. ~ Charlotte Bronte

I don't have as much clout as the Royal Family, but I am a Wrong Planet person, and I applaud the fact that this beautiful redhead always spoke her mind and wouldn't take any shit. Royal women are expected to behave in a certain way, more so by royalists, which is why they do not like Fergie. She runs free and off the track and, although she does not really belong anywhere, that gives her the freedom to do whatever the hell she wants. ~ Karl Wiggins

Christmas means a great deal to me. I was reared in a family that celebrated Christmas to some extent, but I married into a family that celebrated Christmas in a big way. And my wife always made a big thing of Christmas for the children. We have five children, and we had a terrific time at Christmas. ~ Billy Graham

I've dealt with some tragedy in my life, like losing my brother. That was probably one of the hardest days when I've been tested. But you learn what things are important. You have to prioritize your life with your family, your friends, things you want to accomplish. You've got to get all that stuff in order. ~ Joe Nemechek

I've chosen not to live in Hollywood, and instead I live in Brooklyn, New York. It's how I like to live. I'd rather hang out with my kids and family when I'm not working. Going to premieres is not my idea of a fun night out. ~ Jennifer Connelly

We were developing a machine that used egg white, heat and sugar to synthesize methanol when a power surge caused an implosion. Owens was meringued. By the time we chipped him out the poor chap had expired. ~ Jasper Fforde

The dog that I was given on The Hills for Christmas is with my best friend's family. ~ Heidi Montag

Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends. ~ Margaret Thatcher

Prayers don't build good infrastructures. They don't develop countries. They don't improve the poor healthcare system or the education system. God has placed man in charge of ALL. ~ Oyekunle Bamigboye

The rich ... should beg the poor to forgive us for the bread we bring them. Healthy people sometimes feel they need to beg forgiveness too, although there is no reason why. Maybe we simply ask forgiveness for not being born where these poor women have been born, knowing that if we lived here too, our fate might well have been the same. ~ Jonathan Kozol

Perhaps it is not love that motivates effective altruists but empathy, the ability to put oneself in the position of others and identify with their feelings or emotions. Writers like de Waal and Jeremy Rifkin have seized on the idea of empathy as, to use de Waal's words, "the grand theme of our time."4 Rifkin believes that civilization has spread the reach of empathy beyond the family and the community so that it covers all of humankind. ~ Peter Singer

I just want to be enough for you, but I never can be. This can never be enough for you. But this is all you get. You get me, and your family, and this world. This is your life. I'm sorry if it sucks. ~ John Green

For reading, once begun, quickly becomes home and circle and court and family, and indeed, without narrative, I felt exiled from my own country. By the transport of books, that which is most foreign becomes one's familiar walks and avenues; while that which is most familiar is removed to delightful strangeness; and unmoving, one travels infinite causeways, immobile and thus unfettered. ~ M T Anderson

I am actually in poor health due to chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome, and my ability to work is greatly diminished right now, so I have to get better before I can start another big project. ~ Laura Hillenbrand

Listen, Dad, in a family like this, the wife without a child is at the bottom of the heap. Everyone comes before them. Everyone. ~ Lisa Jewell

Isn't it incredible?, I said.
There was nothing incredible about it, she said.
I thought it was so because I spoke English, because I read books, and because my parents paid for my education and my upkeep. For me everything was surprising, the world was full of wonder, the most random idiotic occurrence was incredible because my luck made it so. For people like her, for the poor, the only incredible thing in the whole world was money and the mysterious ways in which it worked. ~ Jeet Thayil

And so the broken family nestled into one another, each hoping the others' presences would fill the wound their personal war had left behind. ~ Yaa Gyasi

Cancer is such a frightening and emotional roller coaster. It's a ride we all want to get off! My best advice is, find the 'glue' that will hold you together - whether it's religion, family, friends, music, yoga, a hobby or a cancer support group. Even our pets can be amazing healers. Be patient and don't give up. Trust me when I say you will come out changed and stronger on the other end of this. ~ Brenda Jones

For centuries I have thought all my despair is grief. But people get over grief. They get over even the most serious grief in a matter of years. If not get over then at least live beside. And the way they do this is by investing in other people, through friendship, through family, through teaching, through love. ~ Matt Haig

The first time you share tea with a Balti (Baltistan people), you are a stranger. The second time you share a cup of tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family". ~ David Oliver Relin

I have seen them stagger out of their movie palaces and blink their empty eyes in the face of reality once more, and stagger home, to read the Times, to find out what's going on in the world. I have vomited at their newspapers, read their literature, observed their customs, eaten their food, desired their women, gaped at their art. But I am poor, and my name ends with a soft vowel, and they hate me and my father, and my father's father, and they would have my blood and put me down, but they are old now, dying in the sun and in the hot dust of the road, and I am young and full of hope and love for my country and my times, and when I say Greaser to you it is not my heart that speaks, but the quivering of an old wound, and I am ashamed of the terrible thing I have done. ~ John Fante

Kids haven't changed much, but parents seem increasingly unhappy with the child raising phase of their lives. ~ Penelope Leach

When I speak with people who love their jobs and have vital friendships at work, they always talk about how their workgroup is like a family. ~ Tom Rath

The writer is the cursed artist of the soul. The expression of his art is a reflection of his quest to understand man by unraveling the mysteries that have been haunting humankind from time immemorial. In the end of his journey to understand man, the writer becomes more human even though his soul ends up finding less peace. ~ Janvier Chouteu-Chando

I didn't like the distance between my family and myself that I was experiencing from having to work all the time. ~ Mark Ruffalo

Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship. ~ Margaret Mead

Dinner was a lonely affair. Funny how you could be surrounded by your family, your blood, and yet feel totally alone. Even with the sun shining on the sparkling shores of English Bay and Josh at my side, I felt like I was invisible, and in a dark, dark place. ~ Karina Halle