Walter Gropius Quotes

A considerable share of the world's population still cannot afford comfortable housing, education and quality health care.

People first concern themselves with meeting their basic needs; only afterwards, do they pursue any higher needs.

As poverty has been reduced in terms of mere survival, it has become more profound in terms of our way of life.

Extreme poverty threatens people's right to life itself and makes impossible the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms essential to a humane way of life.

I came to the realization of how essential a role housing plays in the lives of the poor.

I know, for me, I want to live in a community where people's basic needs are met.

Things can get only so bad. People want to eat, so at some point they resist further cuts to their consumption - it's not a bottomless pit.

I understand human needs. I grew up where far too many people lived day to day without elemental needs like food and shelter.

Health, money. That's what people worried about in the 14th century as much as today. I find it so much more interesting than the supposed activities of kings, queens, generals.

When you talk about war on poverty it doesn't mean very much; but if you can show to some degree this sort of thing then you can show a great deal more of how people are living and a very great percentage of our people today.

The poor get bored the same as the rest of us. Their happiness might be as important to them as their health.

Society is like the air, necessary to breathe but insufficient to live on.

Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.

The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

For people on social assistance, the loss of free dental care, prescription drugs and subsidized housing can greatly outweigh additional income from working. We've all heard the stories.

When a country wants television more than they want clean water, they've lost their grip.

My belief is that the purpose of economic life is to meet the social needs of people.

Everybody aspires to an affordable home, a secure job, better living standards, reliable healthcare and a decent pension. My generation took those things for granted, and so should future generations.

I hope we can get back to what I call the kitchen table. Everyday issues that people are really worried about and focused on.

It seems that everywhere I go, people want the same things - security, education, family. It's just that so many people have no avenues through which to obtain these things.

If you look around the world, the countries with the best environmental practices are the wealthiest. There's a reason for that. If you're worried about where your next meal is going to come from or shelter over your head, your focus is on those things.

Democracy has to deliver. It is not enough for people to vote. They must also eat.

No man can live well, or indeed live at all, unless he be provided with necessaries.

Bend everything toward improving the standard of living of the people.

We want the same standard of life Canadians enjoy and take for granted.