Shane Claiborne Quotes

Affluence separates people. Poverty knits 'em together. You got some sugar and I don't; I borrow some of yours. Next month you might not have any flour; well, I'll give you some of mine.

A commune is where people join together to share their lack of wealth.

We are privileged. There are poor people out there. We must to do something to make them privileged.

If you have only a glass of water, then one person can drink. If you have a bucket, a whole family can benefit.

There are neither mendicants no paupers as long as there are any rich people among them. Their kindness, humanity, and courtesy not only make them liberal with what they have, but cause them to possess hardly anything except in common. A whole village must be without corn before any individual can be obliged to endure privation

If I am more fortunate than others I need to build a longer table not a taller fence.

The tenets of my cultural teachings are rooted in our commitment to lift up every community member so that no one is left behind. Work and food were shared equally. Through our commitment to community, we care about children, even when they aren't ours, and we want our old folks, and yours, to live their last days in dignity and comfort.

The house I was born in in Somalia was right next to a big market. A lot of beggars or panhandlers would be in front of our house constantly, and my grandfather and grandmother would always invite them in to have food with us and have them take whatever was left over.

Not to share one’s goods with the poor is to rob them and to deprive them of life. It is not our goods that we possess, but theirs.

We must also know that even before liberation in 1994 there [in South Africa] were people with resources who tried to share with those who were deprived.

It is a beautiful thing when folks in poverty are no longer just a missions project but become genuine friends and family with whom we laugh, cry, dream and struggle.

When a family is poor, everyone is poor, and there is huge solidarity. People will take a bullet for you. But when one makes it, it is like you owe everyone.

My parents tended to cook big batch food because there was always the possibility that other children would turn up with their carrier bag and shoes and we had to gently bring them out of their shells.

My mother and father were lovely parents, always quite hard up, but very hard-working.

[T]he blossom of benevolence, of charity, is the fairest flower, no matter whether it blooms by the side of a hovel, or bursts from a vine climbing the marble pillar of a palace. I respect no man because he is rich; I hold in contempt no man because he is poor.

If we love (the poor) people, we want to identify with them and share with them.

Keep it moving. Don't hoard. Money's no good, get rid of it. Turn it into people doing things. Turn it into jobs. Turn it into happiness...The more people I employ, the happier I am - that means my money's goin' into other people's lives, and if I can give 'em something to create that they can be happy with, that's great.

None are so poor that they have nothing to give...and none are so rich that they have nothing to receive.

Socialism isn't a dirty word; it just means sharing. Really, it's just the bureaucratic arm of Christianity.

You and I, we are the Church, no? We have to share with our people. Suffering today is because people are hoarding, not giving, not sharing. Jesus made it very clear. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me. Give a glass of water, you give it to me. Receive a little child, you receive me. Clear.

If nobody has too much, everybody will have enough.

Nothing is yours. It is to use. It is to share. If you will not share it, you cannot use it.

I never have felt that people should feel that they are better than others, simply because they just happen to possess a larger share of material items and monetary wealth than others less fortunate. I believe in sharing, assisting, and just lending a helping hand to people.

God does not create poverty; we do, because we do not share.

Share and enjoy the fruits of this planet.