Mother Teresa Quotes

We must embark on a bold new program for ... the improvement and growth of undeveloped areas. More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery .... For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and skill to relieve the suffering of these people.

We assume that we've come so far as compassionate citizens of the world if we do choose to read the news, yet the attitude towards life can be one where we put blinders on and forget that there are civil wars going on. It's easy to forget that there are so many people starving to death every single day.

Attacking the indecency of life in much of the Southern Hemisphere is no longer a matter of grace, of charity, of patronizing kindness. It is a matter of intense self-interest.

My heart goes out to children around the world who face terrible poverty. But the United States cannot give asylum to every child in that situation. It would not be sustainable. But we should care for those who are truly in danger.

While it's easy for South Sudan to feel distant, the situation is all too real for the South Sudanese mothers choosing which child gets to eat tomorrow. This is a time when we must look outward together and declare that humanity has no borders - no one deserves to suffer like this, especially in a world of such abundance.

European countries give much larger shares of aid for poverty relief than the U.S.

I lived with a coffee farmer called Dukale on a trip I made with World Vision to Ethiopia, and realised there's no good reason for the disparity in opportunity around the world.

You leave the States, and you see people have bigger problems than you, much worse problems than you.

If you look internationally over the last 50 years there have been improvements in the third world, but in the last 20 years the reverse has happened, with debt crises and increased poverty.

I'd worked at the World Bank briefly as an undergrad and studied poverty levels around the world - particularly those earning less than $1.25 a day.

We have got some mountains to move. Three billion people - half of God's children - are living on less than $2 a day.

One half of the world's people live on less than two dollars a day. This should concern our national security policy as well as our conscience.

Can we really believe that we are living a good life, an ethically decent life if we don't do anything serious to help reduce poverty around the world and help save the lives of children or adults who are likely to die if we don't increase the amount of aid we are giving.

It's such a different spectrum of tragedies when you talk to people in developing countries.

The World Bank is just a sponge for every do-good idea of relieving poverty.

Bread for the Needy, clothing for the naked, and houses for the homeless.

Obviously there is not money enough in the world to relieve the suffering of the peoples of the underdeveloped areas, but ... there is, for the first time in history, enough knowledge to do the job.

The cry of the poor for bread has been answered by warheads!

Just a fraction of what is expended so obscenely on defense budgets would make the difference in enabling God’s children to fill their stomachs, be educated, and be given a chance to lead fulfilled and happy lives.

There can be no peace in the world so long as a large proportion of the population lacks the necessities of life and believes that a change in the political and economic system will make them available.

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labor as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.

We are not expecting Utopia here on this earth. But God meant things to be much easier than we have made them. A man has a natural right to food, clothing, and shelter. A certain amount of goods is necessary to lead a good life.

If we reduced the military expenses in 10 percent of the world, we would have enough money to save millions of lives in this world.

We apply the catechism by opening Italy's doors to women and children who come here legally on aeroplanes, but no more men on rubber dinghies. We will help them grow up and work in their own countries. Let's spend in Africa the money that needs to be spent.

As a journalist, I have spent years reporting on often difficult and depressing conflicts, on poverty, and the inhuman way we sometimes treat each other.