Abdolkarim Soroush Quotes

Certainly, the poverty, the discrimination, the episodic unemployment could not but strike an inquiring youngster: why did these exist, and what could we do about them.

Of course I am frustrated with regard to extreme poverty, to violence that never seems to cease.

In a well-governed nation poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a badly governed country wealth is something to be ashamed of.

The dirty truth is that the rich are the great cause of poverty.

This country has so much wealth and so much poverty, and that seemed wrong to me. 'Evicted' was my Ph.D. dissertation.

I am going to fight capitalism even if it kills me. It is wrong that people like you should be comfortable and well fed while all around you people are starving.

It is development, not poverty, that causes upheaval and terrorism.

As of today, we do not need expert reports by the authoritative analytical institutions to realise that the reasons for such a situation in our community lie in global inequality, poverty and illiteracy.

But he like my mother, had certainly come to know that those who work the most do not make the most money. It was the fault of the rich, it seemed, but just how he did not know.

It is conflict overall that mires people in poverty. That is the first law of development.

Poverty is an artificial, external imposition on a human being; it is not innate in a human being. And since it is external, it can be removed. It is just a question of doing it.

We know that there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But we know, and Coretta knew, that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty Abounds. For war millions more, but no more for the poor.

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

Oligarchic societies may be able to achieve high rates of growth for a period of time, but continuing inequities in distribution lead to political instability and populism.

One of the glaring failures of capitalism is the continuing widespread existence of poverty - often extreme poverty. Even in the advanced economies, many millions of people endure terrible economic and social deprivation, despite the incredible wealth all around them.

When the economy prospers, but ordinary people do not, it is only a matter of time before there is a social explosion.

The Forgotten Man

It's always been a subtext of our secular optimism that you solve the economic problem, and all other things sort of take care of themselves. Well, we seem to be doing well on the economic side - we are doing very well - and the other things are not solving - they're compounding.

It is true that globalization has fueled greater income inequality. But much of this increase should be welcomed, not condemned. There is nothing inherently bad about inequality. Whether it is bad depends on how it comes about and what it does.

I do think there are some big questions here about approach, about how people are treated. I was brought up in very challenging areas.

If it doesn't reach the last poor man, your constitution is wrong.

The problem of the world today is the people talk on and on about democracy, freedom, justice. But I don't give a damn about democracy if I am worried about survival.

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.

People can be so apathetic. They continue to ignore the real people trapped in poverty and homelessness. It's almost maddening.

Everybody keeps saying that India's a poor country. Yes, we have poverty. But I blame the government of India, the political establishment, for their failure to educate and therefore their failure to control the poverty.