WIST Quotations

Ivins, Molly -- Essay (1995-12-24), “Look to the Children of the Poor in This Season of Budget-Slashing,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Dave — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:18:27 +0000

How the American right managed to convince itself that the programs to alleviate poverty are responsible for the consequences of poverty will someday be studied as a notorious mass illusion. In the meantime, real children — kids who get earaches and like Big Bird and are crabby when they aren’t fed and whose eyes widen in wonder when they meet Santa Claus — will pay the price for this pernicious folly.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1995-12-24), “Look to the Children of the Poor in This Season of Budget-Slashing,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram
(Source)

Collected in You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You (1998).

Johnson, Lyndon -- Speech (1964-05-22), Graduation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Dave — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 18:19:24 +0000

Poverty must not be a bar to learning, and learning must offer an escape from poverty.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1964-05-22), Graduation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
(Source)

Kennedy, John F. -- “Special Message to the Congress on the Needs of the Nation’s Senior Citizens” (1963-02-21)

Dave — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 16:20:37 +0000

This increase in the life span and in the number of our senior citizens presents this Nation with increased opportunities: the opportunity to draw upon their skill and sagacity — and the opportunity to provide the respect and recognition they have earned. It is not enough for a great nation merely to have added new years to life — our objective must also be to add new life to those years.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
“Special Message to the Congress on the Needs of the Nation’s Senior Citizens” (1963-02-21)
(Source)

Keller, Helen -- “Try Democracy,” The Home Magazine, Vol. 11, # 4 (Apr 1935)

Dave — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 01:21:20 +0000

The test of a democracy is not the magnificence of buildings or the speed of automobiles or the efficiency of air transportation, but rather the care given to the welfare of all the people.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) American author and lecturer
“Try Democracy,” The Home Magazine, Vol. 11, # 4 (Apr 1935)

Tawney, R. H. -- Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, ch. 4 (1926)

Dave — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 02:16:00 +0000

Convinced that character is all and circumstances nothing, [the Puritan] sees in the poverty of those who fall by the way, not a misfortune to be pitied and relieved, but a moral failing to be condemned, and in riches, not an object of suspicion but the blessing which rewards the triumph of energy and will.

R. H. Tawney (1880-1962) English writer, economist, historian, social critic [Richard Henry Tawney]
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, ch. 4 (1926)
(Source)

Galbraith, John Kenneth -- Speech (1963-12-13), “Wealth and Poverty,” National Policy Committee on Pockets of Poverty

Dave — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 13:36:40 +0000

Even the protective functions of the state are most important for those in the lower income brackets. Lethal serum and poison drugs do, one gathers, work rather democratically on rich and poor alike. But many of us could probably survive a certain amount of exploitation in our prescriptions, fraud in our food packaging, mendacity in our dental advertising, or thimblerigging in our securities. We live in parts of cities where epidemics are less likely. The family that struggles to make ends meet, the widow with life-insurance money around loose, the dwellers in urban tenements need the protection of an alert FTC, FDA, SEC, and Public Health Service.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Speech (1963-12-13), “Wealth and Poverty,” National Policy Committee on Pockets of Poverty
(Source)

See sourcing notes here.

Cuomo, Mario -- Keynote Address, Democratic National Convention (16 Jul 1984)

Dave — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 15:21:37 +0000

We believe in only the government we need, but we insist on all the government we need. We believe in a government that is characterized by fairness and reasonableness, a reasonableness that goes beyond labels, that doesn’t distort or promise to do things that we know we can’t do. We believe in a government strong enough to use words like “love” and “compassion” and smart enough to convert our noblest aspirations into practical realities. We believe in encouraging the talented, but we believe that while survival of the fittest may be a good working description of the process of evolution, a government of humans should elevate itself to a higher order.

Mario Cuomo (1932-2015) American politician
Keynote Address, Democratic National Convention (16 Jul 1984)
(Source)

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas

Dave — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:06:56 +0000

The fundamental thing to do for every man is to give him a chance to reach a place in which he will make the greatest possible contribution to the public welfare. Understand what I say there. Give him a chance, not push him up if he will not be pushed. Help any man who stumbles; if he lies down, it is a poor job to try to carry him; but if he is a worthy man, try your best to see that he gets a chance to show the worth that is in him.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas
(Source)

Voltaire -- Questions on the Encyclopedia [Questions sur l’Encyclopédie], “Charity [Charité]” (1770) [tr. Fleming]

Dave — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:07:25 +0000

Money is always to be found when men are to be sent to the frontiers to be destroyed: when the object is to preserve them, it is no longer so.

[On en trouve [l’argent] toujours quand il s’agit d’aller faire tuer des hommes sur la frontière: il n’y en a plus quand il faut les sauver.]

Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Questions on the Encyclopedia [Questions sur l’Encyclopédie], “Charity [Charité]” (1770) [tr. Fleming]
(Source)

Referring to the scandalous conditions at the Hôtel Dieu charity hospital in Paris.

(Source (French)). Subsequently folded into later editions of the Philosophical Dictionary [Dictionnaire Philosophique].

Shakespeare, William -- Timon of Athens, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 107ff (1.1.107-108) (1606) [with Thomas Middleton]

Dave — Wed, 12 May 2004 19:40:54 +0000

TIMON: ‘Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Timon of Athens, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 107ff (1.1.107-108) (1606) [with Thomas Middleton]
(Source)