One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like. — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
My vision for the future? ... a world completely free from poverty. — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Charity only perpetuates poverty by taking the initiative away from the poor. — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
What good does the theory [of economics] do if it is not working for people? — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
I am proposing to create another kind of business, based on "selflessness" that is in all of us. I am calling it… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
An individual poor person is an isolated island by himself and herself. IT can end that isolation overnight. — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
We have to get out of this mindset that the rich will do the business and the poor will have the charity. — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Credit is a human right that should be treated as a human right. If credit can be accepted as a human right,… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
We have done some of these in Bangladesh. Whenever I see a problem, I immediately go and create a company. That's what… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Poverty is the absence of all human rights. The frustrations, hostility and anger generated by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
I think, social business is the most logical thing to do. If we had done that, we could reduce all the problems… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
In the future the question will not be, "Are people credit-worthy", but rather, "Are banks people-worthy?" — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Hunger is the worst form of deprivation of a human being. Although inability to access food is the immediate cause of hunger,… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Once poverty is gone, we'll need to build museums to display its horrors to future generations. They'll wonder why poverty continued so… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
We can remove poverty from the surface of the earth only if we can redesign our institutions - like the banking institutions,… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
The new millennium began with a great global dream. World leaders gathered at the United Nations in 2000 and adopted, among others,… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Instead of concentrating on the war against poverty, global attention is focused on another kind of slaughter - on something that is… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Unprecedented technological capabilities combined with unlimited human creativity have given us tremendous power to take on intractable problems like poverty, unemployment, disease,… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
“Poverty is the absence of all human rights. The frustrations, hostility and anger generated by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Th direct elimination of elimination of poverty should be the objective of all development aid. Development should be viewed as a human… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
I strongly believe that we can create a poverty-free world, if we want to… In that kind of world, [the] only place… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
To me, the poor are like Bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed of the tallest tree in a six-inch deep… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
What I did not know yet about hunger, but would find out over the next twenty-one years, was that brilliant theorists of… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Business is about problem-solving, but it does not always have to be about maximizing profit. When I went into business, my interest… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
If we are looking for one single action which will enable the poor to overcome their poverty, I would go for credit.… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
We create institutions and policies on the basis of the way we make assumptions about us and others. We accept the fact… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
When we want to help the poor, we usually offer them charity. Most often we use charity to avoid recognizing the problem… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Like navigation markings in unknown waters, definitions of poverty need to be distinctive and unambiguous. A definition that is not precise is… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Poverty does not belong in civilized human society. Its proper place is in a museum. That's where it will be. — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
The current financial crisis makes it very clears that the system that we have isn't really working, and this is the right… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
If you think creating a world without any poverty is impossible, let's do it. Because it is the right thing to do. — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Poor people always pay back their loans. [...] It is us, the designers of institutions and rules, who keep creating trouble for them. — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world. All we have to do is to free them from the chains that we… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
... Women have plans for themselves, for their children, about their home, the meals. They have a Vision. A man wants to… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Poverty is not created by poor people. It is produced by our failure to create institutions to support human capabilities. — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
Some people think that poor people are lazy. Actually, it takes a lot of work to survive when you are dirt-poor. — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
If we are looking for one single action which will enable the poor to overcome their poverty, I would focus on credit — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share Image
What is entrepreneurship, after all? Bigness is not the issue. Poor people are the ones who take challenges every day. The guy who sells… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
Here we were talking about economic development, about investing billions of dollars in various programs, and I could see it wasn't billions of dollars… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
All human beings are very creative - full of potential, full of energy... So, money kind of allows them to express it... And if… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
Credit markets were originally created to serve human needs; to provide businesses and individuals with capital to start or expand businesses or fulfill other… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
We have a list of human rights - right to food, right to shelter, right to health, right to education, many such items which… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
If we are looking for one single action which will enable the poor to overcome their poverty, I would go for credit. Money is… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
What we are trying to do is to create a social business in Bangladesh, a joint venture to create restaurants for common people. Good,… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
There is the expression of selfishness and there is the expression of selflessness - but economists or theoreticians never touched that part. They said:… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
I did something that challenged the banking world. Conventional banks look for the rich; we look for the absolutely poor. All people are entrepreneurs,… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
Poverty is an artificial, external imposition on a human being; it is not innate in a human being. And since it is external, it… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
I made a list of people who needed just a little bit of money. And when the list was complete, there were 42 names.… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
I dismiss personal profit and focus exclusively on people and planet. That's what I call social business: a nondividend company dedicated to solving human… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
I have come to believe, deeply and firmly, that we can create a poverty free world if we want to. I came to this… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share
I was teaching in one of the universities while the country was suffering from a severe famine. People were dying of hunger, and I… — Muhammad Yunus Copy Share