Hubert Humphrey Quotes

Without an advocate for the poor, without a new state of mind in America, the country lies on the brink of anarchy.

It's more important to try to do something for the crores of poor people of my country.

When we see people that are impoverished and people who are dealt an unfair hand, then if we have the power to help them, we should try to do that.

For all of my fortune, there are many with misfortune that need a hand.

When people said Africa would change me, I didn't understand what they meant. To see the poverty in the townships, for instance, is overwhelming. I found it heart-wrenching to see young children walking barefoot and hungry in the dirt. I'm the kind of person who wants to change the world right here and now, so I got frustrated.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

History will judge societies and governments — and their institutions — not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and the helpless.

You’ve got to help people that are downtrodden and poor, and I just think that that’s part of our culture. You’ve got to help people that can’t help themselves.

It's only when you get towards the top that people start throwing you down a rope. It's like a law of nature, and it makes me think a lot about what my responsibility is to folks who are further down the hole where I was - how I can offer them help and how I can try to help change the structure of American society.

It's really important to be attentive to the people who have less - who are less fortunate than you are.

Unfortunately, the way the world is constructed, a lot of people have no chance, from day one.

To me, the poor are like Bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed of the tallest tree in a six-inch deep flower pot, you get a perfect replica of the tallest tree, but it is only inches tall. There is nothing wrong with the seed you planted; only the soil-base you provided was inadequate. Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong with their seeds. Only society never gave them a base to grow on.

If we see someone who needs help, do we stop? There is so much suffering and poverty, and a great need for good Samaritans.

Poverty is not inevitable. It is a human ill that we can fight if we decide to do so together.

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.

I think it is fundamental to understand that the ethics of politics indicate that you should concentrate your efforts on those marginalized people who live in poverty with few opportunities to develop individually.

The great responsibility that we have today is to put the poor and the near poor back on front of the American agenda.

Income inequality is troubling because, among other things, it means that many people in our society don't have the opportunities to advance themselves.

I couldn't feel good about myself hanging out in Armani clothes when my girlfriend can't even pay her heating bill. I'd feel foul and I'd be embarrassed.

Society might have been better off without them, but we are supposed to look after the disadvantaged, and so we do it. But it doesn't help the society.

You can't not be changed by the experience of seeing extreme poverty. You start to want to think about ways in which you can make the world better.

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

I don't want people who are in poverty, in pain, or suffering, to suffer because it's for their own good and they can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. I want to help them. I want us all to help them.

To give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole.

People with lower incomes tend to give a greater percentage of their incomes to help others and show greater empathy and compassion - perhaps because they know they might face the same circumstances.