John Ruskin Quotes

America is like a melting pot. The people at the bottom get burned, and the scum floats to the top.

The rich become richer and the poor become poorer is a cry heard throughout the whole civilized world.

The sharecropper may lower his eyes, but not because he's less of a man. That's just a condition of society that such things exist.

Allow not the abject to rule over and dominate them who are noble and worthy of honour, and suffer not the high-minded to be at the mercy of the contemptible and worthless, for this is what We observed upon Our arrival in the City (Constantinople), and to it We bear witness. We found among its inhabitants some who were possessed of an affluent fortune and lived in the midst of excessive riches, whilst others were in dire want and abject poverty. This ill beseemeth thy sovereignty, and is unworthy of thy rank…. strive thou to rule with equity among men

All down history, nine-tenths of mankind have been grinding corn for the remaining one-tenth, been paid with the husks, and bidden to thank God they had the husks.

Poor men's words have little weight.

The lower middle classes as well as the peasants, … always side with the strongest

I was also pained to notice an institution which I certainly did not expect to find in this country – I mean caste. Your rich people are really Brahmins, and your poor people are Sudras.

… in the old days there were one thousand castes and destinies in India. These days, there are just two castes: Men with Big Bellies and Men with Small Bellies. And only two destinies: eat – or get eaten up

When conservatives talk about opportunity, they mean opportunities for the rich to get richer, for the powerful to get more powerful.

Men die, but the plutocracy is immortal; and it is necessary that fresh generations should be trained to its service.

The educated man pictures a horde of submen, wanting only a day's liberty to loot his house, burn his books, and set him to work minding a machine or sweeping out a lavatory. 'Anything,' he thinks, 'any injustice, sooner than let that mob loose.' He does not see that since there is no difference between the mass of rich and poor, there is no question of setting the mob loose. The mob is in fact loose now, and--in the shape of rich men--is using its power to set up enormous treadmills of boredom, such as 'smart' hotels.

In war, the strong make slaves of the weak, and in peace the rich makes slaves of the poor.

Politics isn't about left versus right; it's about top versus bottom.

The most powerful forces in economics are not numbers or facts. They are prejudices and preferences. No amount of evidence will ever change the degree to which many of the rich and powerful prefer themselves to be richer and more powerful and others poorer and weaker.

Luxury may possibly contribute to give bread to the poor; but if there were no luxury, there would be no poor.

Class still matters in Britain today.

And understand: class differences will not save you.

It's the rich you can terrorize. The poor have nothing to lose.

Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.

Class structures are a luxury that we cannot afford.

Political battles are won when the rich favor them.

There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty.

The rich are richer, and the poor are poorer, in the city than elsewhere; and, as a rule, the greater are the riches of the rich and the poverty of the poor.

The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.