Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899–1990) Norwegian philosopher, mountaineer, and author
Source: The Last Messiah (1933), To Be a Human Being https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4m6vvaY-Wo&t=1110s (1989–90)
A collection of quotes on the topic of beggar, other, man, people.
Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899–1990) Norwegian philosopher, mountaineer, and author
Source: The Last Messiah (1933), To Be a Human Being https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4m6vvaY-Wo&t=1110s (1989–90)
Bhakti Tirtha Swami (1950–2005) American Hindu writer
?
Books, The Beggar, Volume IV: Die Before Dying (Hari-Nama Press, 2005)
“He wrapped himself in quotations - as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.”
Rudyard Kipling book Many Inventions
The Finest Story in the World http://www.telelib.com/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/ManyInventions/fineststory.html (1893). <br class="br">Other works <br class="br">Source: Many Inventions <br class="br">Context: When next he came to me he was drunk—royally drunk on many poets for the first time revealed to him. His pupils were dilated, his words tumbled over each other, and he wrapped himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of emperors.
“[I] would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married.”
Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603) Queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until 1603
Statement to the envoy of Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg while discussing a proposal of marriage to the duke's son, Christoph. (26 January 1563), quoted by J. Horace Round in "A Visit to Queen Elizabeth," http://books.google.com/books?id=iP0CAAAAIAAJ&q=%22would+rather+be+a+beggar+and+single+than+a+queen+and+married%22&pg=PA629#v=onepage The Nineteenth Century magazine (October 1896)
George Orwell book Down and Out in Paris and London
On "Bozo", in Ch. 30
Down and out in Paris and London (1933)
“Beggars do not work, it is said; but then, what is work?”
George Orwell book Down and Out in Paris and London
Source: Down and out in Paris and London (1933), Ch. 31
Context: Beggars do not work, it is said; but then, what is work? A navvy works by swinging a pick. An accountant works by adding up figures. A beggar works by standing out of doors in all weathers and getting varicose veins, bronchitis etc. It is a trade like any other; quite useless, of course — but, then, many reputable trades are quite useless. And as a social type a beggar compares well with scores of others. He is honest compared with the sellers of most patent medicines, high-minded compared with a Sunday newspaper proprietor, amiable compared with a hire-purchase tout-in short, a parasite, but a fairly harmless parasite. He seldom extracts more than a bare living from the community, and, what should justify him according to our ethical ideas, he pays for it over and over in suffering.
George Orwell book Down and Out in Paris and London
Source: Down and out in Paris and London (1933), Ch. 38
Context: My story ends here. It is a fairly trivial story, and I can only hope that it has been interesting in the same way as a trivial diary is interesting. … At present I do not feel I have seen more than the fringe of poverty.
Still, I can point to one or two things I have definitely learned by being hard up. I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant. That is a beginning.
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam (1967)
Context: A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be changed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
Muhammad Yunus (1940) Bangladeshi banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient
The Daily Star (14 October 2006)
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer
Der Witzling ist der Bettler im Reich der Geister; er lebt von Almosen, die das Glück ihm zuwirft—von Einfällen.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 67.
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
The Great Day http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1626/ <br class="br">Last Poems (1936-1939)
“All true language
is incomprehensible,
Like the chatter
of a beggar’s teeth.”
Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French-Occitanian poet, playwright, actor and theatre director
Ci-Gît.
Andrzej Sapkowski book The Last Wish
Wiedźmin spotykał w życiu złodziei wyglądających jak rajcy miejscy, rajców wyglądających jak proszalne dziady, nierządnice wyglądające jak królewny, królewny wyglądające jak cielne krowy i królów wyglądających jak złodzieje. (pl.)
The Last Wish (1993)
Source: The lesser evil
“We are beggars: this is true.”
Wir sind bettler. Hoc est verum.
Martin Luther book Table Talk
"The Last Written Words of Luther," Table Talk No. 5468, (16 February 1546), in Dr. Martin Luthers Werke (1909) as translated by James A. Kellerman, Band 85 (TR 5) 317–318 http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/beggars.txt <br class="br">Table Talk (1569)
Thomas Paine book Rights of Man
Part 2.7 Chapter V. Ways and means of improving the condition of Europe, interspersed with miscellaneous observations
1790s, Rights of Man, Part 2 (1792)
Julian (emperor) (331–363) Roman Emperor, philosopher and writer
Letter to Arsacius, High-priest of Galatia (June? 362), as translated by Emily Wilmer Cave Wright, in The Works of the Emperor Julian, Volume III (1913)
General sources
Context: The Hellenic religion does not yet prosper as I desire, and it is the fault of those who profess it; for the worship of the gods is on a splendid and magnificent scale, surpassing every prayer and every hope. May Adrasteia pardon my words, for indeed no one, a little while ago, would have ventured even to pray for a change of such a sort or so complete within so short a time. Why, then, do we think that this is enough, why do we not observe that it is their benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done most to increase atheism? I believe that we ought really and truly to practise every one of these virtues. And it is not enough for you alone to practise them, but so must all the priests in Galatia, without exception. … In every city establish frequent hostels in order that strangers may profit by our benevolence; I do not mean for our own people only, but for others also who are in need of money. I have but now made a plan by which you may be well provided for this; for I have given directions that 30,000 modii of corn shall be assigned every year for the whole of Galatia, and 60,000 pints of wine. I order that one-fifth of this be used for the poor who serve the priests, and the remainder be distributed by us to strangers and beggars. For it is disgraceful that, when no Jew ever has to beg, and the impious Galilaeans support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us. Teach those of the Hellenic faith to contribute to public service of this sort, and the Hellenic villages to offer their first fruits to the gods; and accustom those who love the Hellenic religion to these good works by teaching them that this was our practice of old.
Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French sociologist and philosopher
New York (p. 15)
1980s, America (1986)
Context: Yet there is a certain solitude like no other - that of the man preparing his meal in public on a wall, or on the hood of his car, or along a fence, alone. You see that all the time here. It is the saddest sight in the world. Sadder than destitution, sadder than the beggar is the man who eats alone in public. Nothing more contradicts the laws of man or beast, for animals always do each other the honour of sharing or disputing each other’s food. He who eats alone is dead (but not he who drinks alone. Why is this?).
“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”
Joanne Harris (1964) British author
Source: The Girl with No Shadow
“"Choosers will be beggars if the begging’s not their choosing," said the Dog.”
Source: Old Kingdom series (The Abhorsen Trilogy), Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr (2001), p. 398.
“If wishes were horses, even beggars would ride. (Dark-Hunter)”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist
Source: Sins of the Night
“People are fascinated by the rich: Shakespeare wrote plays about kings, not beggars.”
Dominick Dunne (1925–2009) writer, journalist
R. Scott Bakker book The Judging Eye
TRIAMIS I, JOURNALS AND DIALOGUES
Source: The Judging Eye (2009)
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–1859) British historian and Whig politician
On Moore’s Life of Lord Byron (1830)
Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883) English poet and writer
Chronomoros. In Letters and Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald (1889), pg. 461.
Francis Parkman (1823–1893) American historian
Pt. I, Ch. 2
Pioneers of France in the New World (1865)
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer
I like such things. I like to hear of them. I like to repeat them.
My Reviewers Reviewed (lecture from June 27, 1877, San Francisco, CA)
Source: You Can't Win, Chapter Two
“I am a freeman and jolly as a beggar.”
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) American politician, 19th President of the United States (in office from 1877 to 1881)
On retiring as governor of Ohio, in a letter to William Johnston (7 January 1872)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)
Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night
27
Journey to the End of the Night (1932)
Harry Chapin (1942–1981) American musician
She Sings Songs Without Words
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)
John Mortimer (1923–2009) English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author
And so the deal was done.
Source: Where There's a Will: Thoughts on the Good Life (2003), Ch. 24 : Giving Money to Beggars
Baba Amte (1914–2008) Indian freedom fighter, social worker
An incident which he often narrated which profoundly affected him, page=4
Baba Amte: A Vision of New India
“2144. He that has no Fools, Knaves nor Beggars in his Family, was begot by a Flash of Lightning.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855–1896) American writer
The Way to Arcady. Compare Louise Chandler Moulton, The Secret of Arcady (1892).
Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907) German artist
And then it cries, 'When will it come? Soon?'
excerpt of her Journal, Paris 1897; as quoted in Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 195
1897
John Constable (1776–1837) English Romantic painter
Quote from Constable's Lecture, given at Hamptstead (July 1836), as quoted in Leslie Parris and Ian Fleming-Williams, Constable, Tate Gallery Publications, London 1993, p. 391
1830s, his lectures History of Landscape Painting (1836)
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–1859) British historian and Whig politician
This quotation is commonly said to have been spoken by Macaulay during a speech to the British Parliament in 1835. Since Macaulay was in India at the time, it is more likely to have come from his Minute on Indian Education http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html. However, these words do not appear in that text. According to Koenraad Elst http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/hinduism/macaulay.html, these words were printed in The Awakening Ray, Vol. 4, No. 5, published by the Gnostic Center, preceded by: "His words were to the effect." Burjor Avari cites this misattribution as an example of "tampering with historical evidence" in India: The Ancient Past ISBN 9780415356169, pp. 19–20), writes: "No proof of this statement has been found in any of the volumes containing the writings and speeches of Macaulay. In a journal in which the extract appeared, the writer did not reproduce the exact wording of the Minutes, but merely paraphrased them, using the qualifying phrase: ‘His words were to the effect.:’ This is extremely mischievous, as numerous interpretations can be drawn from the Minutes." For a full discussion, see Koenraad Elst, The Argumentative Hindu (2012) Chapter 3 <br class="br">Misattributed
“Set a beggar on horseback and he will ride a gallop.”
Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy
Section 2, member 2.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part II
Alun Lewis (1915–1944) Welsh poet
"The Mahratta Ghats", line 22; p. 44.
Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets (1945)
George Bancroft (1800–1891) American historian and statesman
"The Office of the People in Art, Government and Religion", p. 424
Literary and Historical Miscellanies (1855)
Salman Khan (1965) Indian film actor
Quotes By Salman
Source: http://celebrity.psyphil.com/salman-khan-movies-list-new-films-list-latest-movie-list-filmography/
John Bright (1811–1889) British Radical and Liberal statesman
Letter to Cobden (September 1849), quoted in G. M. Trevelyan, The Life of John Bright (London: Constable, 1913), p. 164.
1840s
“Since when has America with all its hordes of gangsters and beggars become God's Kingdom?”
Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) Icelandic author
the heckler at Brennugjá
Paradísarheimt (Paradise Reclaimed) (1960)
Denis Healey (1917–2015) British Labour Party politician and Life peer
Speech to the twelfth congress of the Confederation of Socialist Parties of the EEC in Paris (12 November 1982), quoted in The Times (13 November 1982), p. 3
1980s
“The Alliance for Progress is an alliance between one millionaire and many beggars.”
Fidel Castro (1926–2016) former First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Cuba
Interview with C. L. Sulzberger, The New York Times (November 7, 1964), p. 26.
Tristan Corbière (1845–1875) French poet
Heures, http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Heures third stanza, from Les arountia tyinse (1865).
“If wishes were stories, beggars would read…”
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist
“Stories”, p. 141
A Sad Heart at the Supermarket: Essays & Fables (1962)
Mo Yan book The Republic of Wine
Source: The Republic of Wine (1992), Chapter Five, Section IV, 'Yichi the Hero'
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) English politician
Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections
Fidel Castro (1926–2016) former First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Cuba
Speech on the 25th anniversary of the Moncada Barracks attack (26 July 1978) http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1978/esp/f260778e.html
Anthony Fitzherbert (1470–1538) English judge, scholar and legal author
Source: The book of the husbandry. (1523/1882), p. 42; Cited in footnote of Varro's Rerum Rusticarum Libri Tres https://archive.org/stream/cu31924062805209#page/n105/mode/2up/search/husbandry, A Virginia farmer (translator) (1913). p. 85.
Balasaraswati (1918–1984) Indian dancer
[Knight, Douglas M., Balasaraswati: Her Art and Life, http://books.google.com/books?id=Q3EsA2NooW4C, 15 June 2010, Wesleyan University Press, 978-0-8195-6906-6, 17-18]
Quote
“961. Beggars and Borrowers must be no Chusers.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“… to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains.”
Guy Fawkes (1570–1606) English member of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605
Remark as quoted in "Gunpowder Treason and Plot" (1976) by Cyril Northcote Parkinson. It was said in response to one of the lords of the King's Privy Chamber, who had asked what Fawkes intended to do with such a large amount of gunpowder.
Tony Benn (1925–2014) British Labour Party politician
Speech at an anti-EEC rally (3 June 1975), quoted in 'Heath attack by Mr Benn', The Times (4 June 1975), p. 6
1970s
Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam
Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 4, hadith number 531
Sunni Hadith
Joseph Strutt (1749–1802) British engraver, artist, antiquary and writer
pg. 185
The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (1801), Minstrels
“3941. Pride is as loud a Beggar as Want; and a great deal more saucy.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1750) : Pride is as loud a Beggar as Want, and a great deal more saucy. .
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Artur Balder (1974) Spanish film director
Invocation of the Nordic god Odin, from "Invocations and Oracles", Germanic Appendices, Volume V of the Teutoburg Saga, as quoted in advance posting (30 September 2014) https://m.facebook.com/ArturBalderWeb/photos/a.328905527173875.77327.224962374234858/757576457640111/?type=1
Tad Williams (1957) novelist
Source: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, The Dragonbone Chair (1988), Chapter 10, “King Hemlock” (p. 139).