“In the affairs of this world, poverty alone is without envy.”
Giovanni Boccaccio book The Decameron
Sola la miseria è senza invidia nelle cose presenti.
Fourth Day, Introduction
The Decameron (c. 1350)
Auream quisquis mediocritatem
diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
sobrius aula.
Book II, ode x, line 5
Odes (c. 23 BC and 13 BC)
“In the affairs of this world, poverty alone is without envy.”
Giovanni Boccaccio book The Decameron
Sola la miseria è senza invidia nelle cose presenti.
Fourth Day, Introduction
The Decameron (c. 1350)
Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator
Source: The moon and the bonfire (1950), Chapter XXIX, p. 167
Aga Khan IV (1936) 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailism
Speech at the Innauguration of the Aga Khan Baug, Versova, India (17 January 1983) http://ismaili.net/speech/s830117.html <!-- ***Source: Selection of Speeches: 1976-1984<br>Source: Africa Ismaili, XIV, 2 (July 1983), pp. 20-22<br>Source: American Ismaili, (July 11, 1983), pp. 15-16 --> <br class="br">Context: There are those... who enter the world in such poverty that they are deprived of both the means and the motivation to improve their lot. Unless these unfortunates can be touched with the spark which ignites the spirit of individual enterprise and determination, they will only sink back into renewed apathy, degradation and despair. It is for us, who are more fortunate, to provide that spark.
Jodie Foster (1962) American actor, film director and producer
Incorrectly attributed to Foster, according to snopes.com https://www.snopes.com/attacking-the-rich/ <br class="br">Misattributed
Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist
Originally from Stuart Chase
Misattributed
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer
Wer die materiellen Genüsse des Lebens seinen idealen Gütern vorzieht, gleicht dem Besitzer eines Palastes, der sich in den Gesindestuben einrichtet und die Prachtsäle leer stehen lässt.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 53.
E. F. Schumacher (1911–1977) British economist
Source: Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered (1973), p. 36.