Montesquieu Quotes

Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.

The greatest difficulty with the world is not its ability to produce, but the unwillingness to share.

The world does not lack the financial resources to feed, educate and clothe its inhabitants. Rather, it lacks leaders committed to addressing the problems of the impoverished.

We spend more on cows than the poor.

Whores don't live in the company of poor men, birds don't build nests on a tree that doesn't bear fruits, and citizens never support a weak administration.

The needs of the poor take priority over the desires of the rich

I didn't believe one man should have so much services and another man should have none.

It is property which has made tyrants and not tyrants property.

You're not going to solve the problems of poverty in the world with less energy.

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.

We have spent years robbing Peter to pay Paul until now Paul is also broke.

Unequal wealth distribution is a risk factor for inequality that must be attacked by policies.

This contempt for money is a trick developed by the rich to keep the poor without it.

The outstanding faults of the economic society in which we live are its failure to provide for full employment and its arbitrary and inequitable distribution of wealth and incomes.

The competition of the poor takes away from the reward of the rich.

The American system is the most ingenious system of control in world history. With a country so rich in natural resources, talent, and labor power, the system can afford to distribute just enough wealth to just enough people to limit discontent to a troublesome minority.

There's not a lot of wealth throughout all the country shared equally.

The miserable consumption of the poor is partly the result of the ostentatious demands of the rich. There isn't enough for both, and the latter get far more than they need...But could anything seriously be done about it?

When we get more houses than we can live in, more cars than we can ride in, more food than we can eat ourselves, the only way of getting richer is by cutting off those who don't have enough.

The problem is not scarcity; the problem is power.

I think the gap between rich and poor is an extremely dangerous phenomenon and needs the immediate attention of the state.

Has it ever occurred to you, that the rich are at the mercy of the poor, not the poor at that of the rich? Who permits us to be rich if not the poor?

A poor woman from Manchester, on being taken to the seaside, is said to have expressed her delight on seeing for the first time something of which there was enough for everybody.

Riches, power and fame last only for a few years! Why do people cling so desperately to these transitory things? Why can't people who have more than they need for themselves give that surplus to their fellow citizens? Why should some people have such a hard time during their few years on this earth?

I'm one of the undeserving poor: that's what I am. Think of what that means to a man. It means that he's up agen middle class morality all the time.... What is middle class morality? Just an excuse for never giving me anything.