Pope Francis Quotes

We need to tackle extreme inequality because it is morally indefensible and socially corrosive - undermining our health, affecting our well-being, and undermining peaceful societies.

How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion.

We cannot afford to leave the poor behind.

Economic growth doesn't mean anything if it leaves people out.

It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them.

There are two Americas - separate, unequal, and no longer even acknowledging each other except on the barest cultural terms. In the one nation, new millionaires are minted every day. In the other, human beings no longer necessary to our economy, to our society, are being devalued and destroyed.

We know that social exclusion is closely tied to the new economic world order, globalized, with free and open markets, which isn't bringing prosperity or social justice to all.

The issue of wealth inequality is ... the great moral issue of our time.

Poverty is the parent of revolution.

Global poverty is a powder keg ignitable by our own indifference.

The real threat to the democracy is the half a nation in poverty.

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 contest between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent.

This society cannot go forward, the way we have been going forward, where the gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing.

Inequality is bad for everyone, not just the middle class and the poor.

This country is very good at creating wealth, but not very good at distributing it.

Inequality of income is bad for everyone, not just the poor and the middle class.

Economic inequality is not about food stamps and homeless shelters. It is about being a devotee of social justice and equality.

High levels of inequality generate high costs for society, dampening social mobility, undermining the labour market prospects of vulnerable social groups, and creating social unrest.

While we have created prosperity for many, too many are being left behind.

Billions of people are being left behind by economic growth.

I consider the homeless just as important as the richest of the rich.

Everyone's seen poverty - well, most have.

A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much and so many have so little.

In America, we have freedom of choice. But some are free to choose between Lamborghini and Rolls Royce while others are free to choose which dumpster they're going to have their meal out of next. Some are free to choose which, you know, homes and farms to foreclosed on, while others choose which bridge they're going to sleep under tonight.

I was shocked when I came to New Orleans. I never knew there were beggars on the streets here. I didn't know that there were poor people. I thought this was Heaven, you know?