Voltaire Quotes

There are no great lords who possess everything and a herd of people who have nothing

It has often been said, that there is but one rank of men in America… we have no artificial distinctions of men into noblemen and commoners among us, but it ought to be remarked, that superior degrees of industry and capacity, and above all, commerce, have introduced inequality of property among us, and these have introduced natural distinctions of rank in Pennsylvania, as certain and general as the artificial distinctions of men in Europe. This will ever be the case while commerce exists in this country.

An imbalance between the rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

Is the great working class oppressed? Yes, undoubtedly it is. God has intended the great to be great and the little to be little.

one kind of affluence: the outward sign of wealth for a small number, the mask of poverty for the majority, and a source of corruption for all.

No society is healthy when the gap between the rich and the poor is growing.

Class still matters in Britain today.

Class structures are a luxury that we cannot afford.

You cannot sift out the poor from the community. The poor are indispensable to the rich.

In every commercial state, notwithstanding any pretension to equal rights, the exaltation of a few must depress the many.

Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will be either extreme democracy or absolute oligarchy, or despotism will come from either of those excesses.

The prime culprit in causing contemporary social inequality seems to be merit.

All down history, nine-tenths of mankind have been grinding corn for the remaining one-tenth, been paid with the husks, and bidden to thank God they had the husks.

The association of poverty with progress is the enigma of our times.

However energetically society in general may strive to make all the citizens equal and alike, the personal pride of each individual will always make him try to escape from the common level, and he will form some inequality somewhere to his own profit.

There never can be equality of rewards or possessions so long as the human plan contains varied talents and differing degrees of industry and thrift, but ours ought to be a country free from the great blotches of distressed poverty.

As income inequality increases, social mobility falls.

The gap between aspiration and reality could hardly be wider. Today, the United States has less equality of opportunity than almost any other advanced industrial country. Study after study has exposed the myth that America is a land of opportunity. This is especially tragic: While Americans may differ on the desirability of equality of outcomes, there is near-universal consensus that inequality of opportunity is indefensible.

… perceptions of poverty have gone up because there’s been rising inequality.

The burning issue of our time is the growing inequality in income and wealth in our country.

All the United States, it is a society that is split like to the bottom, that had very poor people in the country that is one of the wealthiest countries.

Economic chasm between people is something that is of interest to me. And something that I used to write about even as a child. It's something I've revisited a few times in my writings.

Greater inequality in Europe has made people less happy.

In a city like New York, you're aware of the rich and poor.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.