Quote of the Day for 2016-10-01

"Poverty is the mother of crime."

— Cassiodorus (circa 485-585 CE) Variae Epistolae, book 9, epistle 13 (537 CE)

Mugshot of Alice Caush, arrested for larceny in North Shields (October 31, 1903) Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

Quote of the Day for 2016-03-19

"That people who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain than to an honest, upright man in poverty, almost deserve to be enslaved; they plainly show that wealth, however it may be acquired, is, in their esteem, to be preferred to virtue."

— John Hancock (1737-1793) Speech in Boston on the fourth anniversary of the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1774

Four panels from "Point the Finger" by Robert Crumb, HUP Comics #3 (1989) Satyricon

Quote of the Day for 2016-03-07

"In truth, poverty is an anomaly to rich people. It is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell."

— Walter Bagehot (1826-1877) "The Waverley Novels," The National Review, April 1858

The Uprising by Honoré Daumier (1860)

Quote of the Day for 2015-11-13

"Parsons always seem to be specially horrified about things like sunbathing and naked bodies. They don't mind poverty and misery and cruelty to animals nearly so much."

— Susan Ertz (1894-1985) The Story of Julian

Starbucks 2015 holiday cups, which some Christian conservatives allege is part of the so-called "War on Christmas." (Photograph courtesy of Starbucks)