Extreme poverty is the best breeding ground on earth for disease, political instability, and terrorism.
Jeffrey SachsRead
My colleagues and I took a stand in our work several years ago that we would not look for the magic bullet, because there is none. These are just basic problems requiring basic work. Nothing magic about it.
Interpretation
Success comes from addressing fundamental issues rather than seeking quick solutions.
In this quote, Jeffrey Sachs emphasizes the importance of recognizing that many challenges we face are not due to complex magical solutions, but rather stem from basic, underlying problems that demand straightforward and diligent work to solve. He suggests that rather than chasing unattainable, miraculous fixes, we should focus on addressing the essentials with dedicated effort.
In practice
During a business presentation to highlight the company's approach to problem-solving.
Extreme poverty is the best breeding ground on earth for disease, political instability, and terrorism.
All of the incessant debate about development assistance, and whether the rich are doing enough to help the poor, actually concerns less than 1% of rich world income. The effort required of the rich is indeed so slight that to do less is to announce brazenly to a large part of the world: 'You count for nothing.' We should not be surprised, then, if in later years the rich reap the whirlwind of that heartless response.
Soil mapping is one of the pillars to the challenge of sustainable development
The key to ending extreme poverty is to enable the poorest of the poor to get their foot on the ladder of development. The ladder of development hovers overhead, and the poorest of the poor are stuck beneath it. They lack the minimum amount of capital necessary to get a foothold, and therefore need a boost up to the first rung.
Without restoring an ethos of social responsibility, there can be no meaningful and sustained economic recovery.
Our challenge, our generation's unique challenge, is learning to live peacefully and sustainably in an extraordinarily crowded world. Our planet is crowded to an unprecendented degree. It is bursting at the seams. It's bursting at the seams in human terms, in economic terms, and in ecological terms
Those who make no mistakes are making the biggest mistakes of all - they are attempting nothing new.
He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.
There is a universal respect and even admiration for those who are humble and simple by nature, and who have absolute confidence in all human beings irrespective of their social status.
At the beginning of every winter people are careful to install storm windows. These extra panes of glass protect their houses against the bitter winds. We do something very similar to protect our minds through the practice of meditation.
Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from the inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves. Forgive, Edward. Forgive...no one is born with anger. And when we die, the soul is freed of it. But now, here, in order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did, and why you no longer need to feel it.' She touched his hand. 'You need to forgive your father.' ~pgs 141-142
Undoubtedly a man is to labor to better his condition, but first to better himself.
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