James Lee Burke Quotes

There is something wrong in a government where they who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe; when the loving, the tender, eat a crust, while the infamous sit at banquets.

The game is rigged to work for those who already have money and power.

The man who has his millions will want everything he can lay his hands on and then raise his voice against the poor devil who wants ten cents more a day.

The Court is corrupt: The fields are overgrown with weeds; the granaries are empty. Yet there are those dressed in fineries, With swords at their sides: Filled with food and drink, Possessed of too much wealth. This is called "Taking the lead in robbery.

The wealthiest in this country have never had it so good. They want more, and more, and more, and more, and they don’t care how many children they have to step on to get it..

Face it, the system is rigged, and it's rigged against us.

In poor countries, the rich and powerful crush the poor and powerless.

For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight.

At the end of the day, we have an economy that works for the rich by cheating the poor, and unequal schools are the result of that, not the cause.

Whenever there are some who have more opportunities than others, this feeds corruption.

The worker is always in the sun while the landowner is always in the shade.

Poor whites have been pitted against poor blacks to assuage the conscience of the affluent.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term ...to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

Stop the few from rioting on the labors of the many.

The supreme issue, involving all others, is the encroachment of the powerful few on the rights of the many. It is against the system built up by privilege that we must make unceasing warfare.

One must denounce the economic, financial, and social mechanisms and structures that are manipulated by the rich and powerful for their own benefit at the expense of the poor

The most egregious predatory states produce predatory societies. People do not get rich through productive activity and honest risk taking; they get rich by manipulating power and privilege, by stealing from the state, extracting from the weak, and shirking the law.

There is one common struggle against those who have appropriated the earth, the money, and the machines.

… the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.

Rugged individualism really means the regimentation of the many for the benefit of the few.

The rich rob the poor, and the poor rob one another.

Ordinary people understand that the rich and powerful bully the poor and meek.

...and for that they were rich,/And robbed the poor; and for that they were strong,/And scourged the weak; and for that they made laws/Which turned the sweat of labor's brow to blood! - /For these their sins the nations cast them out.

Capitalism is the worst friend of humanity.