Amartya Sen Quotes

The measure of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, but whether, as Franklin Roosevelt said, we provide enough for those who have too little.

The only way to have a better world and end poverty is by closing the gap between the top and the bottom.

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.

Economic growth doesn't mean anything if it leaves people out.

My mission is to eradicate poverty.

For the good of Spain, I should like there to be rather fewer rich people and rather fewer poor.

Distribution of the wealth of the world is something for which no one sees a practical solution

In a good society, those in the middle and at the bottom ought to benefit significantly from economic growth. When the country prospers, everybody should prosper.

The Curse of poverty has no justification in our age...The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.

Of what good is democracy if it is not for the poor?

So as a nation, we have a right to be very proud of the successes that we have seen because of the struggle of millions of people to create a less discriminatory society. That is something we should be proud of, but there is one struggle in which not only have we not succeeded but in which we are losing ground and that is the fundamental struggle for economic justice.

The Bishops of the Philippines have asked that this year be set aside as the ‘Year of the Poor.’ I hope that this prophetic summons will challenge everyone, at all levels of society, to reject every form of corruption which diverts resources from the poor, and to make concerted efforts to ensure the inclusion of every man and woman and child in the life of the community.

At the beginning of this marvelous era it was natural to expect, and it was expected, that laborsaving inventions would lighten the toil and improve the condition of the laborer; that the enormous increase in the power of producing wealth would make real poverty a thing of the past... From Progress and Poverty, To those who, seeing the vice and misery that spring from the unequal distribution of wealth and privilege, feel the possibility of a higher social state and would strive for its attainment.

There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.

Giving a minimum wage reduces inequality significantly.

Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.

We want a better America, an America that will give its citizens, first of all, a higher and higher standard of living so that no child will cry for food in the midst of plenty.

Measures should be enacted which, without violating the rights of property, would reduce extreme wealth towards a state of mediocrity, and raise extreme indigence towards a state of comfort.

I would put primary emphasis on a good standard of living equitably distributed. It can't be equal, but one that eliminates the terrible cruelty of poverty.

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

Poverty is the frontier we have to be able to cross.

Diamonds are a key component in the campaign to make poverty history.

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

Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying.

Franklin Roosevelt said the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance to those who have much; it is whether we provide enough to those who have too little. This reconciliation package fails that test as well.