Human ordeals thrive on ignorance. To understand a problem with clarity is already half way towards solving it.

Imparting education not only enlightens the receiver, but also broadens the giver - the teachers, the parents, the friends.

I think East Asian countries, I think they're very fortunate to have Buddhism survive as a strong influence because right from the time when Buddha himself, 2,500 years ago, made the point about the importance of education, and the word "Buddha" also means enlighten[ed] or educated. So all the Buddhist countries, not only Japan and Korea and China and Hong Kong and Thailand but also even Burma and Sri Lanka, had a higher level of education.

[Globalization] has enriched the world scientifically and culturally and benefited many people economically as well.

I believe that virtually all the problems in the world come from inequality of one kind or another.

80 percent of the export of armament in the world comes from the G8 countries. [The] United States alone exports about 50 percent of the world's armament, [for] which, of course, there has to be buyers, and the buyers are very terribly keen, very often military dictator[s] or sometimes not military dictator[s] but for military purposes. But the sellers are also promoting this trade. And two thirds of the arm exports go to developing countries. I'm in favor of putting a control on it, a ban on it.

Democracy is a universal value