Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty Quotes

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I learned that things are never as complicated as we imagine them to be. It is only our arrogance which seeks to find complicated answers to simple problems.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

Changes are products of intensive efforts.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

When we want to help the poor, we usually offer them charity. Most often we use charity to avoid recognizing the problem and finding the solution for it. Charity becomes a way to shrug off our responsibility. But charity is no solution to poverty. Ch...

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

People.. were poor not because they were stupid or lazy. They worked all day long, doing complex physical tasks. They were poor because the financial institution in the country did not help them widen their economic base.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

What I did not know yet about hunger, but would find out over the next twenty-one years, was that brilliant theorists of economics do not find it worthwhile to spend time discussing issues of poverty and hunger. They believe that these will be resolv...

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

Th direct elimination of elimination of poverty should be the objective of all development aid. Development should be viewed as a human rights issue, not as a question of simply increasing the gross national product (GNP).

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

I believe that the emphasis on curbing population growth diverts attention from the more vital issue of pursuing policies that allow the population to take care of itself.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

UN studies conducted in more than forty developing countries show that the birth rate falls as women gain equality... I believe income-earning opportunities that empower poor women ... will have more impact on curbing population growth that the curre...

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

...one cannot but wonder how an environment can make people despair and sit idle and then, by changing the conditions, one can transform the same people into matchless performers.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

The process of breaking down fear was always my greatest challenge and it was made easier by the careful work and gentle voices of my female workers.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

When a destitute mother starts earning an income, her dreams of success invariably center around her children. A woman's second priority is the household. She wants to buy utensils, build a stronger roof, or find a bed for herself and her family. A m...

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

The system we have built refuses to recognize people. Only credit cards are recognized. Drivers' licenses are recognized. But not people. People haven't any use for faces anymore, it seems. They are busy looking at your credit card, your driver's lic...

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

If you go out into the real world, you cannot miss seeing that the poor are poor not because they are untrained or illiterate but because they cannot retain the returns of their labor. They have no control over capital, and it is the ability to contr...

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

The fact that the poor are alive is clear proof of their ability.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

Even today we don't pay serious attention to the issue of poverty, because the powerful remain relatively untouched by it. Most people distance themselves from the issue by saying that if the poor worked harder, they wouldn't be poor.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

Poverty does not belong in civilized human society. Its proper place is in a museum. That's where it will be.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

Like navigation markings in unknown waters, definitions of poverty need to be distinctive and unambiguous. A definition that is not precise is as bad as no definition at all.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

..things are never as complicated as they seem. It is only our arrogance that prompts us to find unnecessarily complicated answers to simple problems.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty