Robert Southey Quotes

Organized charity itself is. . . the surest sign that our civilization has bred, is breeding and is perpetuating constantly increasing numbers of defectives, delinquents and dependents

Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.

Never count on the crowd to take care of you.

I'll take no charity! What I get I'll earn by taking it. I would feel no pleasure it being given to me, any more than a huntsman would take pleasure being made a present of a dead fox, in place of getting a run across country after it.

We often have an exaggerated sense of what nonprofits and governments are doing to help the poor, but the really inspiring thing is how much the poor are doing to help themselves.

Charity is a fine thing if it's meeting a gap where needs must be met and there are no other resources. But in the long term we need to support people into helping themselves.

The old people we respect most are the ones who will fight for their independence, who would sooner starve to death than ask for help. We in America have very little sense of interdependence.

We don’t want to turn this [social] safety net into a hammock that ends up lulling people in their lives into dependency and complacency.

If we all did as Jesus did when he helped the poor, we wouldn't need the government.

It's a proud horse that will not carry his owne provender.

When a beggar asks us for a quarter, our instinct is to say that the State has already confiscated our quarter for his benefit, and he should go to the State about it.

Most think that they are above being supported by the town; but it oftener happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which would be more disreputable.

the government can do nothing for you. But you can do everything for yourselves

When I was writing my first novel a friend told me I should apply for a grant from the government that was offered to support starving artists. I can't tell you how much this deeply offended me. I told her in very clear language that I thought it was ridiculous to think that other Americans ought to pay for me to chase my dream. Anybody who understands pride and self-determination gets this. So I bartended at night, I wrote during the day, and I paid for my own damn insurance. I didn't expect anybody else to pick it up for me.

Baba dropped the stack of food stamps on her desk. "Thank you but I don't want," Baba said. "I work always. In Afghanistan I work, in America I work. Thank you very much, Mrs. Dobbins, but I don't like it free money."...Baba walked out of the welfare office like a man cured of a tumor.

I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout.

When you give a man a dole you deny him his dignity, and when you deny him his dignity you rob him his destiny.

I can tell you one thing. I've done this my way. I don't have anybody to blame for this win but me, and I love it.

Pity goes hand in hand with contempt. Don't ever forget that, Liberty. You can't take handouts or help from anyone, because that gives people the right to look down on you.

Our help does not come from Washington, but from ourselves.

I ain't askin' nobody for nuttin' if I cain't get it on my own.

You know I ain't never prayed before 'Cause it always seemed to me That prayin's the same as beggin' Lord, I don't take no charity.

The two kinds of people on earth are the people who lift and the people who lean.

I do not give alms; I am not poor enough for that.

Almsgiving leaves a man just where he was before. Aid restores him to society as an individual worthy of all respect and not as a man with a grievance.