Homeless Quotes

• We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

  Mother Teresa

  Motivational, Wise, Peace

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• There is a lot that happens around the world we cannot control. We cannot stop earthquakes, we cannot prevent droughts, and we cannot prevent all conflict, but when we know where the hungry, the homeless and the sick exist, then we can help.

  Jan Schakowsky

  Earthquakes, Sick, Around The World

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• Before you ignore another homeless person on the street, just remember that that could be someone's father or someone's mother and they have a story.

  Syesha Mercado

  Mother, Father, Stories

  "American Idol’s Syesha Mercado: On Honesty, Acceptance, and Being Present". Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

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• Freedom is meaningless if people cannot put food in their stomachs, if they can have no shelter, if illiteracy and disease continue to dog them.

  Nelson Mandela

  Dog, People, Shelter

  Nelson Mandela (2011). “Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations”, p.159, Pan Macmillan

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• People who are homeless are not social inadequates. They are people without homes.

  Sheila McKechnie

  Home, People, Social

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• Hungry not only for bread - but hungry for love. Naked not only for clothing - but naked of human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a home of bricks - but homeless because of rejection.

  Mother Teresa

  Love, Kindness, Home

  Mother Teresa (2001). “Mother Teresa: Essential Writings”

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• Not everyone who's homeless is a drug-addict or in need of mental health care. Some are normal people who've been knocked down, and it can happen to you, too. Not all of us made bad life choices.

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  People, Choices, Drug

  "Author Spotlight: Kevin J. Anderson & Sherrilyn Kenyon". Interview with Liz Argall, www.lightspeedmagazine.com. August 2016.

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• If you see a homeless person on the street, and they need food, housing, medical attention - if you can give that, do it. But at the same time, work with tonglen, because that is how you start dissolving the barrier between you and them.

  Pema Chodron

  Giving, Needs, Attention

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• Don't try to drive the homeless into places we find suitable. Help them survive in places they find suitable.

  Daniel Quinn

  Trying, Helping, Housing

  Daniel Quinn (1999). “Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure”, Harmony

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• If sometimes our poor people have had to die of starvation, it is not that God didn't care for them, but because you and I didn't give, were not an instrument of love in the hands of God, to give them that bread, to give them that clothing; because we did not recognize him, when once more Christ came in distressing disguise, in the hungry man, in the lonely man, in the homeless child, and seeking for shelter.

  Mother Teresa

  Lonely, Children, Men

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• Homeless shelters, child hunger, and child suffering have become normalized in the richest nation on earth. It's time to reset our moral compass and redefine how we measure success.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Children, Suffering, Earth

  "The State of America’s Children 2012" by Marian Wright Edelman, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 3, 2012.

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• After all, a homeless man has reason to cry, everything in the world is pointed against him.

  Jack Kerouac

  Men, World, Cry

  Jack Kerouac (1986). “The Dharma Bums”, p.122, Penguin

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• We have come dangerously close to accepting the homeless situation as a problem that we just can't solve.

  Linda Lingle

  Acceptance, Problem, Accepting

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• Was I always going to be here? No I was not. I was going to be homeless at one time, a taxi driver, truck driver, or any kind of job that would get me a crust of bread. You never know what's going to happen.

  Morgan Freeman

  Jobs, Struggle, Bread

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• Seven out of 10 Americans are one paycheck away from being homeless.

  Pras Michel

  Seven, Paychecks, Homelessness

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• There is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream, a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought -a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!

  Mark Twain

  Dream, Lonely, Loneliness

  The Mysterious Stranger ch. 11 (1916)

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• And homeless near a thousand homes I stood, And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food.

  William Wordsworth

  Home, Cooking, Tables

  William Wordsworth, Dorothy Wordsworth (1815). “Poems”, p.87

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• 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.

  Pope Francis

  Elderly, Two, Economic Inequality

  Pope Francis (2014). “The Joy of the Gospel”, p.21, BookBaby

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• Persons who have been homeless carry within them a certain philosophy of life which makes them apprehensive about ownership.

  Jerzy Kosinski

  Philosophy, Ownership, Certain

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• Another day, another dollar, another war, another tower Went up where the homeless had their home.

  Jewel

  War, Home, Justice

  Song: Who Will Save Your Soul, Album: Pieces Of You, 1995

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• Music is the fourth great material want, first food, then clothes, then shelter, then music.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Music, Clothes, Shelter

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• Jesus experienced homelessness at Christmas so that we could experience a love we could never lose.

  Timothy Keller

  Jesus, Homelessness, Loses

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• Government alone cannot solve the problems we deal with in our correctional facilities, treatment centers, homeless shelters and crisis centers - we need our faith-based and community partners.

  Dirk Kempthorne

  Government, Community, Needs

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• You can spend the money on new housing for poor people and the homeless, or you can spend it on a football stadium or a golf course.

  Jello Biafra

  Football, Golf, People

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• No one is asking what happened to all the homeless. No one cares, because it's easier to get on the subway and not be accosted.

  Richard Linklater

  Asking, Care, Subway

  "You can't hold back the human spirit". Interview With David Walsh, www.wsws.org. March 27, 1998.

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