Being Poor Quotes

“You're broke, eh?"
I been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep

“An elder sister came from the town to visit her younger sister in the country. This elder sister was married to a merchant and the younger to a peasant in the village. The two sisters sat down for a talk over a cup of tea and the elder started boasting about the superiority of town life, with all its comforts, the fine clothes her children wore, the exquisite food and drink, parties and visits to the theatre.
The younger sister resented this and in turn scoffed at the life of a merchant's wife and sang the praise of her own life as a peasant.
'I wouldn't care to change my life for yours,' she said. 'I admit mine is dull, but at least we have no worries. You live in grander style, but you must do a great deal of business or you'll be ruined. You know the proverb, "Loss is Gain's elder brother." One day you are rich and the next you might find yourself out in the street. Here in the country we don't have these ups and downs. A peasant's life may be poor, but it's long. Although we may never be rich, we'll always have enough to eat.'
Then the elder sister said her piece.
'Enough to eat but nothing but those filthy pigs and calves! What do you know about nice clothes and good manners! However hard your good husband slaves away you'll spend your lives in the muck and that's where you'll die. And the same goes for your children.'
'Well, what of it?' the younger answered. 'That's how it is here. But at least we know where we are. We don't have to crawl to anyone and we're afraid of no one. But you in town are surrounded by temptations. All may be well one day, the next the Devil comes along and tempts your husband with cards, women and drink. And then you're ruined. It does happen, doesn't it?”
― Leo Tolstoy, How Much Land Does a Man Need?

“Whoever said that money didn't buy happiness was a damn fool. A damn fool who'd never been poor.”
― Tom Cooper, The Marauders

“All rich things look the same, but poor things always look different.”
― Karl Kristian Flores, Can I Tell You Something?

“On the back, it has the address, and says, free lunch! A chill runs up my spine. I don’t know why, but I don’t trust the word free anymore. Lunch here is supposed to be free, but it feels like it costs me a lot.”
― Rex Ogle, Free Lunch

“King is not, he who is not king of his time
Rich is not, he who lives on borrowed time
Poor is he who of himself is a zealot”
― Lamine Pearlheart

“The poor cannot fast, because he cannot abstain from the food he cannot afford.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Night of a Thousand Thoughts

“Poverty is so time consuming, I don’t want to be poor anymore.”
― Shon Mehta, Lair Of The Monster

“The only crime in this world is to be poor. That is the only crime. If you are not poor, you can do anything.”
― Lawrence Sanders, The Anderson Tapes

“...poor people are always told to wait. Time was our only currency and it keeps plummeting in value.”
― Asale Angel-Ajani, A Country You Can Leave