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Portrait of Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus

(1940) Banker

182 quotes in 1008 categories

Muhammad Yunus built a legacy around micro‑finance and empowerment. Here, 182 of his statements illuminate the compassionate logic behind his groundbreaking ideas.

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Muhammad Yunus is a banker, best known for Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle against World Poverty.

Quick Facts About Muhammad Yunus

Born: June 28, 1940
Profession: Banker
Notable works: Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle against World Poverty

About Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and statesman. Yunus pioneered the modern concept of microcredit and microfinance, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. He is the founder of Grameen Bank and the first Bangladeshi to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Following the July Uprising, he was appointed as the 5th chief adviser of Bangladesh, the head of the interim government, serving from 2024 to 2026.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Muhammad Yunus

Poverty is unnecessary.

Finance

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Business money is limitless.

Business

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Changes are products of intensive efforts.

Change

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Human beings have enormous resilience.

Beings

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All people are entrepreneurs, but many don't have the opportunity to find that out.

Business

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

Grandchildren

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...a culture that holds people back should and can be changed...

Changed

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The only place where poverty should be is in museums.

Inspirational

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

Business

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The crisis is the price for the capitalist system

Capitalism

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What good does the theory [of economics] do if it is not working for people?

Doe

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Charity only perpetuates poverty by taking the initiative away from the poor.

Appease

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Some people think that poor people are lazy. Actually, it takes a lot of work to survive when you are dirt-poor.

Dirt

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All human beings are born entrepreneurs. Some get a chance to unleash that capacity. Some never got the chance, never knew that…

Born

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I was an economist now turning into a human being - as if these are two different things. I don't know but…

Different

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Poverty is not created by poor people. It is produced by our failure to create institutions to support human capabilities.

Capability

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They explained to me that the bank cannot lend money to poor people because these people are not creditworthy.

Money

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I avoid grandiose plans. I start with a small piece that I can do. I go to the root of the problem…

Action

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Nothing is more valuable to people than health care, and by paying, they feel less like beggars and more like 'customers' who…

Care

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A charity dollar has only one life; a Social Business dollar can be invested over and over again.

Charity

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I began my career as an economics professor but became frustrated because the economic theories I taught in the classroom didn't have…

Any

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They said, we have education, but what about jobs? So I started telling them, you should be taking a pledge, and the…

Education

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Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong in their seeds. Simply, society never gave them the base to grow on.…

Bonsai

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What is entrepreneurship, after all? Bigness is not the issue. Poor people are the ones who take challenges every day. The guy…

Business

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Engaging in social business is beneficial to a company because it leverages on business competencies to address social issues, involves one-time investment…

Addresses

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If we want to help poor people out, one way to do that is to help them explore and use their own…

Capability

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Each of us has much more hidden inside us than we have had a chance to explore. Unless we create an environment…

Chance

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Soon we saw that money going to women brought much more benefit to the family than money going to the men. So…

Changed

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When a destitute mother starts earning an income, her dreams of success invariably center around her children. A woman's second priority is…

Attention

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“We are faced with famine in 1974 and people are dying of hunger. When people are dying of hunger, and you are…

Death

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“The system we have built refuses to recognize people. Only credit cards are recognized. Drivers' licenses are recognized. But not people. People…

Credit

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“I am not a capitalist in the simplistic left/right sense. But I do believe in the power of the global free-market economy…

Capitalist

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Business is about problem-solving, but it does not always have to be about maximizing profit. When I went into business, my interest…

Accounts

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When we want to help the poor, we usually offer them charity. Most often we use charity to avoid recognizing the problem…

Appease

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“In the United States I saw how the market liberates the individual and allows people to be free to make personal choices.…

Health care

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We create institutions and policies on the basis of the way we make assumptions about us and others. We accept the fact…

Accepting

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My vision for the future? ... a world completely free from poverty.

Dreams

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Making money is no fun. Contributing to and changing the world is a lot more fun.

Changing the world

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The able bodied poor don't want or need charity… All they need is financial capital.

Able

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Young people should think in a different way - they should be job givers not job seeker.

Different

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Muhammad Yunus by topic

Poverty (68) People (55) Poor (46) Humans (33) Business (32) Money (30) World (29) Rich (25) Poor people (19) Social (18) Ifs (18) Should (16) Kind (15) Human beings (15) Economic (15) Way (14) Human (13) Want (12) Economics (12) Education (11) Problem (10) Opportunity (10) Needs (10) Entrepreneur (10) Credit (10)