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WEALTH

In every Indigenous community I’ve been in, they absolutely do want community infrastructure and they do want development, but they want it on their own terms. They want to be able to use their national resources and their assets in a way that protects and sustains them. Our territories are our wealth, the major assets we have. And Indigenous people use and steward this property so that they can achieve and maintain a livelihood, and achieve and maintain that same livelihood for future generations.’
-- Rebecca Adamson

Exactly what brings happiness is a mystery for most people. Some try to find the answer by pursuing wealth, love, adventure and climbing the corporate ladder. Many who reach the goals that they've convinced themselves they need to reach to be happy, however, find themselves still searching for happiness. The conclusion that many heroes for a better world have discovered, is that helping others to be happy is the surest way to find happiness. -- Robert Alan Silverstein

If only we could have a wealth of literature and music and art that would inspire and encourage us and show us how wonderful peace on earth could be, perhaps we would be more excited about working together to create a better world. If you are a writer, artist, musician or filmmaker, and you dream of peace on earth, please use your creativity to help create a better world.
-- Robert Alan Silverstein

"We must not only control the weapons that can kill us, we must bridge the great disparities of wealth and opportunity among the peoples of the world, the vast majority of whom live in poverty without hope, opportunity or choices in life. These conditions are a breeding ground for division that can cause a desperate people to resort to nuclear weapons as a last resort. Our only hope lies in the power of our love, generosity, tolerance and understanding and our commitment to making the world a better place..."
-- Muhammad Ali

 

* "As labor creates the wealth of the country, we demand the passage of such laws as may be necessary to protect it in all its rights."
-- John Peter Altgeld

"...let us recognize that extreme poverty anywhere is a threat to human security everywhere. Let us recall that poverty is a denial of human rights. For the first time in history, in this age of unprecedented wealth and technical prowess, we have the power to save humanity from this shameful scourge. Let us summon the will to do it."
-- Kofi Annan
"No man can tell if he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger.
It is the heart that makes a man rich.
He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has."
-- Henry Ward Beecher

The American fast food diet and the meat eating habits of the wealthy around the world support a world food system that diverts food resources from the hungry. A diet higher in whole grains and legumes and lower in beef and other meat is not just healthier for ourselves but also contributes to changing the world system that feeds some people and leaves others hungry.
-- Dr.Walden Bello

"The nature of the economic system should be a matter for public choice, and free market capitalism should not be accepted without any discussion of the rich variety of alternatives ... Unlike civil laws, economic laws are imposed on people with all the authority of immutable laws of nature. But the economy is created by people, supported by government intervention, regulation, statute and subsidy, and implemented in such a way that it gives substantial wealth and power to a privileged few, while the majority face a life of relentless work, stress and periodic financial insecurity."
-- Tony Benn

When we all relate to each other as we would like to receive if our roles are reversed, we move closer to utopia. Every one of us can bring this closer, starting now. This includes how we relate to our own family, our neighbors and how we use our wealth and opportunities to help entire nations that lack our advantages.
-- Bill Blackman

I learned that the interior of life was as rewarding as the exterior of life,
and that my richest moments occurred when I was absolutely still.
-- Richard Bode

* Today social justice represents one of the most serious challenges to the conscience of the world. The abyss between those who are within the world 'order' and those who are excluded is widening day by day. The use of leading-edge technologies has made it possible to accumulate wealth in a way that is fantastic but perverse because it is unjustly distributed. Twenty-percent of humankind control eighty percent of all means of life. That fact creates a dangerous imbalance in the movement of history.
-- Leonardo Boff

My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants.
-- J. Botherton

"If we lived in a desert and our lives depended on a water supply that came out of a steel tube, we would inevitably watch that tube and talk about it understandingly. No citizen would need to be lectured about his duty toward its care and spurred to help if it were in danger. Teachers of civics in such a community might develop a sense of public responsibility, not only by describing the remote beginnings of the commonwealth, but also how that tube got built, how long it would last, how vital the intake might be if the rainfall on the forested mountains nearby ever changed in seasonal habit ot amount. It would be a most unimaginative person, or a stupid one, who could not see the vital relation between the mountains, the forests, that tube and himself."
-- Isaiah Bowman

"We can have a democracy in this country
or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both."
-- Justice Louis D. Brandeis

"One of the most distressing consequences of globalization is the increase in the wealth of a few while hundreds of millions of people still live in poverty. However, microfinance is a powerful tool to begin to change that."
-- Marilou van Golstein Brouwers

Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.
~ Andrew Carnegie

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common--this is my symphony.
-- William Henry Channing

* "Democracy is just a word. You have to give it meaning. The US is not a democracy. Most Americans do not vote. We haven't had a real choice for a long, long time now. Wealth rules. Corporations rule. The US is a plutocracy -- government by wealthy people. Certain people control multinational corporations. You couldn't get elected in the US without lots of money."
-- Ramsey Clark

All riches have their origin in mind. Wealth is in ideas - not money.
-- Robert Collier

In a country well governed poverty is something to be ashamed of.
In a country badly governed wealth is something to be ashamed of.
-- Confucius

"In the same way that we today think that the slave trade and colonial exploitation were inhuman and inconceivably bestial ways of acquiring riches, there is no doubt that coming generations will think that our form of world trade and distribution of the world's benefits were just as inconceivable and inhuman."
--
Erik Dammann

Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.
-- Doris Day

It is inconceivable that, in the richest nation in the world,
we have 30 million people at risk of hunger.
I believe that, if we truly make a commitment as a nation, we can defeat hunger.
-- Bo Derek

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own.
-- Benjamin Disraeli

* The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerors for his poverty and simplicity. They forget, perhaps, that his religion forbade the accumulation of wealth and the enjoyment of luxury... Furthermore, it was the rule of his life to share the fruits of his skill and success with his less fortunate brothers. Thus he kept his spirit free from the clog of pride, cupidity, or envy, and carried out, as he believed, the divine decree—a matter profoundly important to him.
-- Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa)

Never work just for money. Money alone won't save your soul or build a decent family life or help you sleep at night. We're the richest nation on Earth, with the highest number of imprisoned people in the world. Our drug addictions and child poverty are among the highest in the industrialized world. So don't ever confuse wealth or fame with character.
-- Marian Wright Edelman

* "America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

* "The first wealth is health."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich,
for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.
-- Epictetus

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
-- Benjamin Franklin

* "It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”
-- Mohandas K. Gandhi

* There's enough on this planet for everyone's needs but not for everyone's greed.
~ Mohandas Gandhi

 

So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent.
-- Henry George

* No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure."

-- Emma Goldman

* "The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels...
If we succeed, we create booming new industries, wealth, clean secure energy and maybe we prevent the greatest disaster so far in human history, saving millions of lives while improving billions more. If we fail, basically it's business as usual while things slowly get worse all around us."
~ Al Gore

"I'm not against the corporations. They are our wealth. But they are getting too greedy. I don't want to do away with corporations. I want them to make our cars, however, not our laws."
-- Doris Haddock (Granny D)

Do you realize that $150 billion of our tax money is given to the corporations, unions and wealthy people for tax breaks, special subsidies and special regulations? That money would be available for health and education and building bridges.
-- Doris Haddock (Granny D)

Recognizing that the current form of globalization is nothing more than a generalized downward leveling in which global corporations are extracting more and more of the wealth, power, and productive energies from communities and the environment is the right approach... And knowing that in every specific battle, what we are fighting for is merely the substitution of the human agenda for the corporate agenda is what can guide and sustain us.
-- Robin Hahnel


If you have health, you probably will be happy,
and if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need,
even if it is not all you want.
~ Elbert Hubbard

It's appalling that there should be hunger anywhere,
but particularly in a country like America, where there is also such great wealth.
-- Elizabeth Hurley

The wealth of a soul is measured by how much it can feel; its poverty by how little.
-- W. R. Inge

It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquillity and occupation which give happiness.
-- Thomas Jefferson

“We have words for racism and sexism, but wealth discrimination isn’t fully recognized. It is a bias in favor of the wealthy and against labor, the environment, and the community. Concern for the public good must become the animating force of our economic order.”
-- Marjorie Kelly

"It is our task in our time and in our generation, to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours."
~ John F. Kennedy

I look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose. -- John F. Kennedy

"What we are fighting for is not just the fishes and the birds. We protect nature not for nature's sake but for our own sake because it's the infrastructure of our communities, and if we want to meet the obligations of our civilization and our culture which are to create communities for our children that provide them with the same opportunities for dignity and enrichment as the communities that our parents gave us, we've got to start by protecting that infrastructure; the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, the landscapes that enrich us. We're not protecting nature for nature's sake. We're protecting it because it enriches us, yes, it enriches our economy and we ignore that at our peril. But it is also enriching us aesthetically, recreationally, culturally, historically and spiritually. Human beings have other appetites besides money. And if we don't feed them, we're not going to grow up…we're not going to become the kind of beings that our creator intended us to become."
~ Robert Kennedy, Jr.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our present policies... True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look on uneasily upon the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr

Paul Krugman: “I believe in a relatively equal society, supported by institutions that limit extremes of wealth and poverty. I believe in democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law. That makes me a liberal, and I’m proud of it.

Paul Krugman;

“I believe in a relatively equal society, supported by institutions that limit extremes of wealth and poverty. I believe in democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law. That makes me a liberal, and I’m proud of it."
-- Paul Krugman (Nobel Prize-winning economist)

 

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country....corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.
-- Abraham Lincoln

* "All wealth is the product of labor."
-- John Locke

* Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times -- times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation -- that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils.
-- Nelson Mandela

"To accept what you are is to be content, and contentment is the greatest wealth.
To work with patience is to gather power."
-- Vimalia McClure

We live in the richest country in the world. There's plenty to spare and for no man, woman, or child to be in want. And in addition to this our country was founded on what should have been a great , true principle -- the freedom, equality, and rights of each individual. Huh! And what has come of this start? There are corporations worth billions of dollars--and hundreds of thousands of people who don't get to eat.
-- Carson McCullers

Biodiversity is our nation's natural wealth.
The Endangered Species Act safeguards these riches.
- Judy L. Meyer

"A person's true wealth is the good he or she does in the world."
-- Mohammed

Riches are not from abundance of worldly goods, but from a contented mind.
- Mohammed

* We are the richest country in the world. We spend more on health care than any other country. Yet we have the worst health care in the Western world. Come on. We can do better than this.
-- Michael Moore

When all the people in the world love one another, then the strong will not overpower the weak, the many will not oppress the few, the wealthy will not mock the poor, the honored will not disdain the humble, and the cunning will not deceive the simple.
-- Motsi (463-401 BC)

* “Charity is commendable; everyone should be charitable. But justice aims to create a social order in which, if individuals choose not to be charitable, people still don’t go hungry, unschooled or sick without care. Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth; justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance.”
-- Bill Moyers

It is an embarrassment that the United States, the wealthiest nation, has people that go hungry.
-- Craig T. Nelson

I think those of us who have extraordinary wealth have an opportunity to leverage that wealth to stimulate a just and sustainable economy. I know it goes against the grain but I know it's possible. It's just about deciding what kind of choices we want to make.
-- Carol Newell

This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many.
-- Barack Obama

"Leave the old and dying America and use your creative energies to help form a new America, which would be demilitarized, more humanistic, where the police are less hostile and closer to the community, where the wealthy are not given unleashed power for the exploitation of the people, and mostly because it's now a matter of life and death, reassert an ecological balance with the environment, which means the people in the oil companies and the car companies and the space industry will have to be brought into account, so there will be a new definition of government which has to be closer to the people and less close to special interests which are far more harmful that any revolutionaries.
-- Phil Ochs

* The labor movement means just this: It is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth.
-- Wendell Phillips

"What may be possible for a minority of humankind, albeit at great cost, simply cannot work for the humankind. Our kind of progress depends on lacerating the Earth, on gouging out its riches, on stripping is life-sustaining skin of soil and forest, on poisoning its pure air, on defecating copiously in its pure water... the single most important indicator of environmental decline is the extent to which the damage done is reversible. The most heinous ecological crime of all is for any one generation so seriously to assault the web of life that the damage done is literally irreversible for every generation that follows."
~ Jonathon Porritt

He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich--both come to poverty.
-- Proverbs 22:16

The only way in which a nation can make itself wealthy and prosperous is by good housekeeping: that is, by providing for its wants in the order of their importance, and allowing no money to be wasted on whims and luxuries until necessities have been thoroughly served.
-- George Bernard Shaw

* Childhood hunger in America is as much a paradox as it is a tragedy. Why, in the wealthiest country in the world, should hunger darken the lives and dreams of 12 million children and their families? I believe that, when Americans learn the facts and understand how their involvement can make a difference, banishing childhood hunger will be a national, local and personal priority.
-- Martin Sheen

 

American families have always shown remarkable resiliency, or flexible adjustment to natural, economic, and social challenges. Their strengths resemble the elasticity of a spider web, a gull's skillful flow with the wind, the regenerating power of perennial grasses, the cooperation of an ant colony, and the persistence of a stream carving canyon rocks. These are not the strengths of fixed monuments but living organisms. This resilience is not measured by wealth, muscle or efficiency but by creativity, unity, and hope. Cultivating these family strengths is critical to a thriving human community.
-- Ben Silliman

"Labour was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things.
It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased."
-- Adam Smith

"Contentment is natural wealth."
-- Socrates (c 470- 399 BC)

* People are ready to say, 'Yes, we are ready for single-payer health insurance.' We are the only industrialized country in the world that does not have national health insurance. We are the richest in wealth and the poorest in health of all the industrial nations.
-- Studs Terkel

That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
-- Henry David Thoreau

 

"Poverty is not something people impose on themselves for want of effort and community organisation. It is constructed by divisive and discriminatory laws, inflexible organisations, acquisitive ideologies of wealth, a deeply rooted class system and policies which serve privilege in the short term and destroy society in the long term."
-- Peter Townshend

Let's share our abundance and make our country stronger. We can encourage programs that collect and distribute excess prepared food to local organizations that are helping the hungry in our own communities. We can also support programs that supply commodities to food banks. It's all part of committing our country's wealth and resources to end childhood hunger.
-- John Travolta

The greatest wealth is health.
~ Virgil

"Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble people. Wherever one notices them, they constitute a sign of ignorance and brutality which cannot be painted over even by all the evidence of wealth and luxury."
-- Alexander Von Humbolt

"This is what you should do;
love the Earth and sun and the animals,
despite riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labour to others,
hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence towards the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown
or to any many or number of men...
re-examine all you have been told at school
or church or in any book,
dismiss what insults your soul,
and your very flesh shall be a great poem."
~ Walt Whitman

* It is not great wealth in a few individuals that proves a country is prosperous, but great general wealth evenly distributed among the people. . .
-- Victoria Woodhull

 

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