Ben Shahn Quotes

There was never a war on poverty. Maybe there was a skirmish on poverty.

In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land.

Reducing poverty is in our own interest.

This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.

Preventing poverty beats curing it.

We will not rest until this war [on poverty] is won.

The great responsibility that we have today is to put the poor and the near poor back on front of the American agenda.

We cannot afford to leave the poor behind.

The government's War on Poverty has transformed poverty from a short-term misfortune into a career choice.

Even the best community organizations and faith-based initiatives and the extraordinary charity of Americans across the country can't carry the brunt of eliminating poverty.

There never can be equality of rewards or possessions so long as the human plan contains varied talents and differing degrees of industry and thrift, but ours ought to be a country free from the great blotches of distressed poverty.

My goal is to eradicate poverty. I think we can't have equality until we eradicate poverty.

We need to build an Argentina with zero poverty.

As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it, the real shame is in not taking practical measures to escape from it.

Poverty must be reduced not only for reasons of moral and justice, but also of security.

I myself am from a very poor background; I experienced firsthand poverty in this country, and that is not unrelated to my desire, from the moment I became president, to make a priority of poverty reduction in this country.

The poorhouse is vanishing from among us.... We ... today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.... We shall soon ... be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation.

A New Dealer regrets poverty and deplores the fact that it is necessary for society to slough off its misfits as an individual sheds his impurities and his diseases. But New Dealers believe that human want and human distress should be prevented or at least ameliorated.

For the first time in America's history, poverty is on the run.

The war on poverty is not a struggle simply to support people, to make them dependent on the generosity of others. It is a struggle to give people a chance.

You cannot fight poverty unless you have stability.

What is this War on Poverty? Money is going to people in Chicago who are against me.

Destroy poverty, that source of crime, by assuring to each the satisfaction of all needs! And how difficult is this to achieve?

Poverty decreased in America as a result of the War on Poverty

Prohibiting Poverty