Barbara Bush Quotes

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.

I applaud the growing commitment of Evangelicals to the needs of the poor and oppressed in urban America.

In a competitive world, not everybody can follow the pace; you will leave people out. We now accept that we must take care of these people. You cannot let them die in the streets; people will not accept it. And that is right, too.

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.

I'm for helping the poor, always have been. And I don't think they should be bereft of healthcare.

The general idea of the rich helping the poor, I think, is important.

I've always been passionate about human rights in general. I think anyone who knows me can attest to that.

None of us can think we are exempt from concerns for the poor and for social justice.

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

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.

Always remember: the alleviation of poverty is never a political or economic issue - it is moral.

We've got to take care of the poor.

A calling is you feel - you look out and see the need - maybe it's the need for the poor, to help poor people. Maybe it's the need to get involved in the race problem, as Martin Luther King was - felt called.

I'm not an activist; I don't look for controversy. I'm not a political person, but I'm a person with compassion. I care passionately about equal rights. I care about human rights. I care about animal rights.

A free and rooted society ought to consist of a web of moral obligations. We have the right to ignore them, but we ought to be actually obliged not to let other people starve or to let them lapse into destitution.

In such a case, it would be almost sure of success, if the active members of a society established for that purpose, were inclined to meet the poor as men, as brethren, and as Christians.

I believe in preferring the sanctity of human rights to the sanctity of property rights. I believe that the chief concern of government shall be for the poor because, as it is witnessed, the rich have ample means of their own to care for themselves.

We should remember the poor.

A New Dealer regrets poverty and deplores the fact that it is necessary for society to slough off its misfits as an individual sheds his impurities and his diseases. But New Dealers believe that human want and human distress should be prevented or at least ameliorated.

Those who are more influential because they have greater share of goods and common services should feel responsible for the weaker and be ready to share with them all they possess

A change of mentality is needed, no longer seeing the poor as a burden, or as intruders trying to profit from others, but as people seeking to share the goods of the world so that we can create a just and prosperous world for all.

As Justice gives every Man a Title to the product of his honest industry, and the fair Acquisitions of his Ancestors descended to him; so Charity gives every Man a Title to so much out of another’s plenty, as will keep him from extreme want, where he has no means to subsist otherwise.

It is right to be forward in the defense of the poor; no system that is not just as between rich and poor can hope to survive.

Every human being has the right to live. It is our duty to acknowledge that right by providing for it. In a natural state of society it would take care of itself. As matters are now it must be deliberately provided for.

There's a lack of people in power that are motivated by the idea of helping people.