Words matter. These are the best James Wolfensohn Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
You can’t compete globally unless you have appropriate communication skills.
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.
I was deeply concerned then, and have become more concerned since, that unless we can deal with the questions of development and the questions of poverty, there’s no way that we’re going to have a peaceful world for our children.
Rebuilding Afghanistan is not going to be solved by pouring billions in. Getting rid of the Taliban does not rid us of the problems of fundamentalism and instability.
I have travelled in the country enough to know that the concerns of villages in Rajasthan will be very different from the issues in the villages of Tamil Nadu. Anybody who makes a general remark about India probably doesn’t know India.
My observation on most people in national governments is that they have very little interest in and very little knowledge of the multinational institutions.
You need to have a secure Israel, which is very clear, and you need to have a Palestinian community that feels it can have hope.
The poor people of the world tend to be the places that al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups can recruit.
But when someone is on a winning horse, and everything looks wonderful, it’s very hard as an outsider to persuade them something is wrong.
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.
Most people recognize that to create jobs is really the essential element in their drive against poverty.
Well the specific role of the World Bank is to be ready with financial assistance immediately after this emergency takes place because you need to reconnect water, you need to reconnect power, you need roads, you need bridges, and that has to be done urgently.
As you look at the flow of Muslim fundamentalism, or fundamentalism in various areas and various religions, they all play on the people who have very little.
If you have Palestinians who have no hope, who don’t have a job, who’ve used up all their resources, the notion of getting rid of violence is a dream.
We have three billion people, half the world’s population today, living on less than two dollars a day.
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.
I think that so-called capitalism and trade is a very important element in giving people opportunity.
I’m not at all sure that Israel can determine what happens in Palestine, the Palestinian territories.
My view is to try and not demonize the Palestinians. I’m not denying that there are Palestinians who fire rockets and do terrible things; I know that that happens. But to get a fundamental solution, you have to have hope on both sides.
In a democracy, you can be right and still lose power.
You can’t wish away poverty overnight.
We have made a full frontal attack on corruption. The question is whether we can address the question of governance in developing countries and, particularly, corruption.
The notion of the world as a village is becoming a reality.
If you enter the World Bank office in Washington, D.C., you will see written on the left wall, ‘The purpose of the World Bank is to fight poverty with passion.’ I had it put up there because I wanted something that unites us as an institution.
It’s probably conventional wisdom now that you bring openness of markets only after the market has developed to a certain level.
