Sustainable Human Development Quotes & Sayings

measures like GDP per person give only a rough reflection of the overall level of wellbeing of an individual or a nation. But for sustainable development we are interested in raising human wellbeing, not just in raising income, still less in a mad race for more riches for people who are already rich. Therefore, it is important to ask how we can best measure wellbeing (or life satisfaction) beyond GDP per capita. — Jeffrey D. Sachs

Respect for human rights requires transparent and accountable institutions and governance as well as the effective participation of all individuals and civil society, who are an essential part of realizing social and people-centred sustainable development. — Alfred-Maurice De Zayas

Capitalism, as practiced, is a financially profitable, non-sustainable aberration in human development. — Paul Hawken

The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function. — Albert A. Bartlett

In the long term, it will be the human race that must take responsibility for the development of sustainable life-styles and economies that are not insistent on continuing growth and a throw away society. — David De Kretser

Investing in women's lives is an investment in sustainable development, in human rights, in future generations - and consequently in our own long-term national interests. — Liya Kebede

My dear friends, God's creation is one and it is good. The concerns for nonviolence, sustainable development, justice and peace, and care for our environment are of vital importance for humanity. They cannot, however, be understood apart from a profound reflection on the innate dignity of every human life from conception to natural death: a dignity conferred by God himself and thus inviolable. — Pope Benedict XVI

Preservation of the environment, promotion of sustainable development and particular attention to climate change are matters of grave concern for the entire human family. — Pope Benedict XVI

Sustainable development requires human ingenuity. People are the most important resource. — Dan Shechtman

The invention of the concept of sustainable human development and that of so-called human security, as opposed to territorial security of nation- states, and its promotion by the UN is in clear contradiction to all that we, the Group of 77, and the UN Charter itself consider inalienable, namely national sovereignty and security. — Pranab Mukherjee

To realize lasting peace and sustainable development in human society, members of the international community have to cooperate with one another fully and make concerted efforts. — Wu Bangguo

There can be no real growth without healthy populations. No sustainable development without tackling disease and malnutrition. No international security without assisting crisis-ridden countries. And no hope for the spread of freedom, democracy and human dignity unless we treat health as a basic human right. — Gro Harlem Brundtland

If we human beings learn to see the intricacies that bind one part of a natural system to another and then to us, we will no longer argue about the importance of wilderness protection, or over the question of saving endangered species, or how human communities must base their economic futures - not on short-term exploitation - but on long-term, sustainable development. — Gaylord Nelson

Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development. — Kofi Annan

Global markets must be balanced by global values such as respect for human rights and international law, democracy, security and sustainable economic and environmental development. — Anna Lindh

The totalitarian greens, sometimes called ecofascists, would like to see most other humans eliminated in genocide and so leave a perfect Earth for them alone. At the other end of the spectrum are those who would like to see universal human welfare and rights, and somehow hope that luck, Gaia or sustainable development will allow this dream to come true. Greens could be defined as those who have sensed the deterioration of the natural world and would like to do something about it. They share a common environmentalism but differ greatly in the means for its achievement. — James E. Lovelock