If our animosities are born out of fear, then confident generosity is born out of hope. One of the central lessons I have learned after a half century of working in the developing world is that the replacement of fear by hope is probably the single most powerful trampoline of progress.

There appears to be momentum towards more and more misunderstandings between religions, a degradation of relations.

We cannot make the world safe for democracy unless we also make the world safe for diversity.

A proper home can provide the bridge across that terrible gulf between poverty and a better future.

The right to hope is the most powerful human motivation I know.

We try to avoid the single-building syndrome. You have to look at the big picture. If you try to put social and cultural development ahead of economic development, it doesn’t work. You have to do it all together.

Islam is probably the one that places the greatest emphasis on knowledge. The purpose is to understand God's creation.