Today there are a lot places where people say they're just hopeless. If I can come from a hopeless country, get an education, become a hyphenated American and become president of the World Bank, it's my moral duty to make sure that every single person on the planet has that opportunity.

Unless you invest in people, you are not going to see growth in the long term, the medium term, and maybe even the short term.

One of the most important things about leadership is that you have to have the kind of humility that will allow you to be coached.

No matter how good you think you are as a leader, my goodness, the people around you will have all kinds of ideas for how you can get better. So for me, the most fundamental thing about leadership is to have the humility to continue to get feedback and to try to get better - because your job is to try to help everybody else get better.

Water and sanitation has not had the same kind of champion that global health, and even education, have had.

A lot of young people dont think they can make a difference. Thats really what I am at Dartmouth to do. Im there to tell the young people, Look, a few committed souls can change the world.

Why is it that when it comes to our most cherished social goal [health care], we not only tolerate poor execution, sometimes we even celebrate it?