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The issue therefore in a capitalist democracy resolves itself into this: either poverty will use democracy to win the struggle against property, or property, in fear of poverty, will destroy democracy.

— Aneurin Bevan In Place of Fear (1952)

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Poverty

More quotes by Aneurin Bevan

A free health service is pure Socialism and as such it is opposed to the hedonism of capitalist society.

In Place of Fear (1952)

There is only one hope for mankind — and that is democratic Socialism.

No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied aid because of lack of means.

Soon, if we are not more prudent, millions of people will be watching each other starve to death through expensive television sets.

In Place of Fear (1952)

Not even the apparently enlightened principle of the ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ can excuse indifference to individual suffering. There is no test for progress other than its impact on the individual.

In Place of Fear (1952)

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We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known.

Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook (1962)

It is better to be poor and walk in integrity than to be stupid and speak lies.

Solomon

If a poor person envies a rich person, he is no better than the rich person.

Leo Tolstoy

The poor, by thinking unceasingly of money, reach the point of losing the spiritual advantages of non-possession, thereby sinking as low as the rich.

Emil Cioran The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Aneurin Bevan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.