Edith B. Gelles Quotes & Sayings

Adam Smith, who suggested that the "horror of poverty" lay not in hunger but in "obscurity." Poor people suffer the indignity of being ignored. "To be wholly overlooked, and to know it, are intolerable." And if poor people cannot look to themselves, then they must look up to another person, whom they consider a hero. Their identification with heroes provided meaning in life. In a complicated set of discourses, John argued that all men, from the highest to the lowest ranks, depend upon titles to give meaning to their existence. — Edith B. Gelles