Saul Alinsky Quotes

In 1750, 75 percent of people on the planet worked to support the top 25 percent.

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

There is no society, however free and democratic, where wealth will not create an aristocracy.

There are but two families in the world … The haves and the have-nots.

If you have extremes of haves and have-nots where the gap keeps growing, the have-nots group together and create social disorder, as they can't see a way out of their situation.

I think there's really strong social stratification in South Asia.

Of all classes the rich are the most noticed and the least studied.

The difference of the degrees in which the individuals of a great community enjoy the good things of life has been a theme of declaration and discontent in all ages.

I think people are always going to be fascinated about the haves and have nots - about the divide between the servants and the rich families upstairs.

Allow not the abject to rule over and dominate them who are noble and worthy of honour, and suffer not the high-minded to be at the mercy of the contemptible and worthless, for this is what We observed upon Our arrival in the City (Constantinople), and to it We bear witness. We found among its inhabitants some who were possessed of an affluent fortune and lived in the midst of excessive riches, whilst others were in dire want and abject poverty. This ill beseemeth thy sovereignty, and is unworthy of thy rank…. strive thou to rule with equity among men

The rich man in his castle / The poor man at his gate, / God made them high or lowly. / And ordered their estate.

The rich are few everywhere, the poor many.

There are only two families in the whole world, my old grandmother used to say, The Haves and the Have-Nots.

The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, no worse, for a people than another.

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

For most of history, almost everyone was poor. Power and wealth belonged to only a few.

The 19th-century pure capitalist model of society was a pyramid, concentrations of enormous wealth in a small group at the top, a not very big middle-class in the middle, and an enormous percentage of the population in the bottom part of the pyramid.

If you look at European societies since the financial crisis began in 2008, with very, very few exceptions, the differences between rich and poor have increased, and sometimes hugely.

Inequality hardens society into a class system. Inequality divides us from one another... Inequality undermines democracy.

Our inequality materializes our upper class, vulgarizes our middle class, brutalizes our lower class.

Inequality has the natural and necessary effect, under the present circumstances, of materializing our upper class, vulgarizing our middle class, and brutalizing our lower class.

The chasm between rich and poor is becoming larger, and I think it's interesting terrain to talk about and expose.

The endurance of the inequalities of life by the poor is the marvel of human society.

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.

Luxury may possibly contribute to give bread to the poor; but if there were no luxury, there would be no poor.