H Rosling Quotes & Sayings

My best friend in medical school was a magician. And we were shown an X-ray of a sword-swallower, and I tried it and failed. Then I got a sword-swallower as a patient, and he taught me. — Hans Rosling

When I have an argument with someone, even with someone I am not very close with, I can't sleep at night thinking about it. It's terrible. But I still manage speak out frankly because I have also been gifted with the ability to read people. I can sense when they start to get irritated with me, and then, I shift. — Hans Rosling

Well, the truth is I'm very scared for people to dislike me. I have conflict-avoidance. — Hans Rosling

The shining star in the world is Shanghai. That's what CEOs from big companies say - 'if I want mathematical analytical work done, it's done in China.' — Hans Rosling

Half of the energy is used by one seventh of the world's population. — Hans Rosling

There's still racism. Western Europe ... has taken the native cultures of the Americas, the African cultures, the Asian civilization and lumped them together into The Others. — Hans Rosling

What I'm really worried about is war. Will the former rich countries really accept a completely changed world economy, and a shift of power away from where it has been the last 50 to 100 to 150 years, back to Asia? — Hans Rosling

I have a neighbor who knows 200 types of wine ... I only know two types of wine - red and white. But my neighbor only knows two types of countries - industrialized and developing. And I know 200. — Hans Rosling

I have a motto: it's never too late to give up. It's never too late to give up what you are doing, and start doing what you realise you love. — Hans Rosling

I've done a lot of practical anthropology, living in villages with people and realizing how difficult it is to get out of poverty. When in poverty, people use their skill to avoid hunger. They can't use it for progress. — Hans Rosling

There is still a severe and scary amount of extreme poverty in rural parts of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma and sub-Saharan Africa. — Hans Rosling

While teaching a course on global development at Uppsala University in Sweden, I realized our students didn't have a fact-based worldview. They talked about 'we' and 'them.' They thought there were two groups of countries: the Western world, with small families and long lives, and the Third World, with large families and short lives. — Hans Rosling

Health cannot be bought at the supermarket. You have to invest in health. You have to get kids into schooling. You have to train health staff. You have to educate the population. — Hans Rosling

The database hugging in public institutions is hampering innovation. — Hans Rosling

Cancer is awful. It took 10 years until I didn't think about it every day. Nobody should go through this. Nobody. — Hans Rosling

If your economy grows [by] 4 percent, you ought to reduce child mortality 4 percent. — Hans Rosling

There are two billion fellow human beings who live on less than $2 a day. — Hans Rosling

There's about one sword-swallower per 2 to 4 million persons in each country. — Hans Rosling

Fame is easy to acquire; impact is much more difficult. — Hans Rosling

I meet so many that think population growth is a major problem in regard to climate change. But the number of children born per year in the world has stopped growing since 1990. The total number of children below 15 years of age in the world are now relatively stable around 2 billion. — Hans Rosling

My mother explained the magic with this washing machine the very, very first day. She said, 'Now Hans, we have loaded the laundry. The machine will make the work. And now we can go to the library.' Because this is the magic: you load the laundry, and what do you get out of the machine? You get books out of the machines, children's books. — Hans Rosling

You don't have to get rich to have [fewer] children. It has happened across the world. — Hans Rosling

Let the dataset change your mindset — Hans Rosling

Beyond 2050 the world population may start to decrease if women across the world will have, on average, less than 2 children. But that decrease will be slow. — Hans Rosling

Good analysis is very useful when you want to convert a political decision into an investment. It can also go the other way and drive policy. — Hans Rosling

Fame is a dangerous thing. It's what the post-industrial society wants. They want fame and many followers on Twitter. But to really make the world understandable, that challenge is remaining. — Hans Rosling

To get away from poverty, you need several things at the same time: school, health, and infrastructure - those are the public investments. And on the other side, you need market opportunities, information, employment, and human rights. — Hans Rosling

If you have democracy, people will vote for washing machines. They love them! — Hans Rosling

Thank you industrialization. Thank you steel mill. Thank you power station. And thank you chemical processing industry that gave us time to read books. — Hans Rosling

Eighteen fifty-eight was a year of great technological advancement in the West. That was the year when Queen Victoria was able, for the first time, to communicate with President Buchanan, through the Transatlantic Telegraphic Cable. And they were the first to 'Twitter' transatlantically. — Hans Rosling