Henry Ward Beecher Quotes

I want nothing to do with any religion concerned with keeping the masses satisfied to live in hunger, filth, and ignorance.

We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life's marketplace. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

I believe in the power of media. I really do. It's my soapbox. And I do have an agenda, because I'm enraged by the limitations forced on people - by poverty, oppression, hatred, fear - and I'm saddened by the kind of loss we all experienced due to the contributions that people cannot make because of their circumstances.

I'm interested in illuminating the enormous disparity between vast poverty and the tiny upper class... This vast inequity is unfair by definition, and I am interested in illuminating that and, where possible, changing that.

We are undemocratic, then, in our religion, as is proved by our efforts to “raise” the poor.

We are sons of the Mexican Revolution, a revolution of the poor seeking, bread and justice. Our revolution will not be armed, but we want the existing social order to dissolve, we want a new social order.

It is so obvious for the under-privileged to challenge the privileged, saying, 'How can you have something over me?' as opposed to the privileged person saying, 'How can we have something over the rest?' I find the latter more exciting.

Feed the poor and get rich or feed the rich and get poor.

The miserable consumption of the poor is partly the result of the ostentatious demands of the rich. There isn't enough for both, and the latter get far more than they need...But could anything seriously be done about it?

There is much to be said for trying to improve some disadvantaged people’s lot. There is nothing to be said for trying to create heaven on earth.

The only real struggle in the history of the world ... is between the vested interest and social justice.

The poor is the center of the Gospel. If we take out the poor, we cannot understand the message of Christ

History could claw upward as well as down. The powerful could be deafened by the cries of the poor.

The poor are great! The poor are wonderful! The poor are very generous! They give us much more than what we give them.

I cannot fail to note once again that the poor constitute the modern challenge, especially for the well-off of our planet, where millions of people live in inhuman conditions and many are literally dying of hunger. It is not possible to announce God the Father to these brothers and sisters without taking on the responsibility of building a more just society in the name of Christ.

There is no alternative to class struggle.

So long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Miserables cannot fail to be of use.

When the civil rights battle was won, all the Jews and hippies and artists were middle class white people and all the blacks were still poor. Materially, not much changed.

The only way to have a better world and end poverty is by closing the gap between the top and the bottom.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

The thing about Occupy is that the sentiment the movement embodies is timeless: Don't be greedy, share.

Collectively, we activists are essential to advancing U.S. policy to help empower marginalized people to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty for good.

I don't get up in the morning and think my mission is to end Britain. I do get up in the morning and think that my mission is to end poverty.

We are not Marxist or capitalist; we are for the poor people.

I would rather write for the instruction, or even the amusement of the poor than for the amusement of the rich.