Quotes by Muhammad Yunus

“Poverty is the absence of all human rights. The frustrations, hostility and anger generated by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any society.”

“My greatest challenge has been to change the mindset of people. Mindsets play strange tricks on us. We see things the way our minds have instructed our eyes to see.”

“To overcome poverty and the flaws of the economic crisis in our society, we need to envision our social life. We have to free our mind, imagine what has never happened before and write social ficti...”

“The Grameen Bank Ordinance with amendments up to 2008 is a beautiful legal structure for the fulfillment of the ideals and objectives of the bank. Any change in this structure will be devastating f...”

“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.”

“Today, the concept of business is to make money. Making money is the name of the business.”

“There is the expression of selfishness and there is the expression of selflessness - but economists or theoreticians never touched that part. They said: 'Go and become a philanthropist.' I said, 'N...”

“I’m encouraging young people to become social business entrepreneurs and contribute to the world, rather than just making money. Making money is no fun. Contributing to and changing the world is a ...”

“One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like.”

“If you are born into a poor family, if you are a woman you have seen the worst of poverty. In a cultural way in the families in Bangladesh it's the women who eats last. So if you have a scarcity in...”

“'I believe that government, as we know it today, should pull out of most things except for law enforcement and justice, national defense and foreign policy, and let the private sector, a Grameenize...”

“To me poor people are like bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed of the tallest tree in a flower-pot, you get a replica of the tallest tree, only inches tall. There is nothing wrong with the s...”

“Poor people always pay back their loans. It's us, the creators of institutions and rules, who keep creating trouble for them.”

“The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world — all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them.”

“Poverty has been created by the economic and social system that we have designed for the world. It is the institutions that we have built, and feel so proud of, which created poverty.”

“I will not spend the money for myself. I will rather spend it in special business on a no-profit-no-loss policy. We will also establish an eye hospital where even beggars will be given treatment at...”

“We will make yogurt with all kinds of nutritious elements. We want to provide nutrition to the poor and children.”

“All human beings have an innate skill — survival skill. The fact that poor are still alive is a proof of their ability to survive. We do not need to teach them how to survive. They know this already.”

“Always remember, job is a wrong idea. Don't ever look for a job, always tell yourself that I'm a job creator. I'm not a job seeker, I'm a job creator. So be a job creator.”

“What happens to the rest of the world? It’s as if the rest of the world will be forgotten... This is a vaccine that is needed by 8 billion people. What happens to poor people? What happens to poor ...”