When I travel, I make certain that I spend at least half of my time in the field. You have to get out to meet people that are in poverty, that are looking to improve their lives. That's something that you can't read in books.
Interpretation
Experiencing life directly is crucial for understanding poverty and making a difference.
James Wolfensohn emphasizes the importance of firsthand experiences in understanding and addressing poverty. He argues that while books can provide valuable information, true comprehension and empathy towards those facing poverty can only be gained through real interactions and engagements in the field, allowing one to connect with individuals striving for better lives.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about the importance of fieldwork in social programs.
In this time of globalization, with all its advantages, the poor are the most vulnerable to having their traditions, relationships and knowledge and skills ignored and denigrated, and experiencing development with a great sense of trauma, loss and social disconnectedness.
The only way really to influence countries, in terms of poverty, is to get them to change their policies and get them to understand what the issues are.
Too many of the conflicts which are caused today are caused by the problems that emerge from people who are in poverty.
So the first thing you need to do about conflict is to prevent it, and the best way of preventing it is by dealing with the question of poverty.
The Bank had never used the word 'corruption' at all until I got there, and the reason for that was, as the general counsel pointed out to me, that quite a number of our shareholders represented were not immune from corruption in their governments.
The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance.
And if we must educate our poets and artists in science, we must educate our masters, labour and capital, in art.
It's extraordinary to think that if you walked into a room and said you had never heard of Hamlet, you would be regarded as a Philistine. But you could walk into the same room and say, 'I don't know what a proton is,' and people would just laugh and say, 'Why should you know?'
What do we teach our children? . . . We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique . . . You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything.
It is the responsibility of every adult... to make sure that children hear what we have learned from the lessons of life and to hear over and over that we love them and that they are not alone.
I always think of books as being like people. Even the dull ones are worthy of decent respect, but you don't have to seek them out and spend time with them.
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