65 Inspiring Development Quotes

Inspiration can be the spark that ignites greatness, propelling us toward personal and professional growth. In the journey of development, whether it be personal evolution or fostering growth within a team or organization, the right words can provide the motivation needed to overcome challenges and unlock potential. Our carefully curated collection of 65 inspiring development quotes offers a wealth of wisdom and encouragement from some of the most influential thinkers and leaders. Each quote captures the essence of growth and transformation, serving as a reminder that every step forward is a crucial part of the journey. As you explore these quotes, allow them to inspire and empower you on your path to development.

1. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality.To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” - Buckminster Fuller

2. “Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

3. “Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and perceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and last some crisis shows what we have become. ” - Brooke Foss Westcott

4. “How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.” - Winston Churchill

5. “Through others we become ourselves.” - Lev S. Vygotsky

6. “Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery. It is far better to be free, to leave the forts and barricades of fear, to stand erect and face the future with a smile. It is far better to give yourself sometimes to negligence, to drift with wave and tide, with the blind force of the world, to think and dream, to forget the chains and limitations of the breathing life, to forget purpose and object, to lounge in the picture gallery of the brain, to feel once more the clasps and kisses of the past, to bring life's morning back, to see again the forms and faces of the dead, to paint fair pictures for the coming years, to forget all Gods, their promises and threats, to feel within your veins life's joyous stream and hear the martial music, the rhythmic beating of your fearless heart. And then to rouse yourself to do all useful things, to reach with thought and deed the ideal in your brain, to give your fancies wing, that they, like chemist bees, may find art's nectar in the weeds of common things, to look with trained and steady eyes for facts, to find the subtle threads that join the distant with the now, to increase knowledge, to take burdens from the weak, to develop the brain, to defend the right, to make a palace for the soul. This is real religion. This is real worship” - Robert Green Ingersoll

7. “Nature shrinks as capital grows. The growth of the market cannot solve the very crisis it creates.” - Vandana Shiva

8. “Half, Not Half-Assed” - 37signals

9. “The American Society of Civil Engineers said in 2007 that the U.S. had fallen so far behind in maintaining its public infrastructure -- roads, bridges, schools, dams -- that it would take more than a trillion and half dollars over five years to bring it back up to standard. Instead, these types of expenditures are being cut back. At the same time, public infrastructure around the world is facing unprecedented stress, with hurricanes, cyclones, floods and forest fires all increasing in frequency and intensity. It's easy to imagine a future in which growing numbers of cities have their frail and long-neglected infrastructures knocked out by disasters and then are left to rot, their core services never repaired or rehabilitated. The well-off, meanwhile, will withdraw into gated communities, their needs met by privatized providers. ” - Naomi Klein

10. “Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.” - Bernard Berenson

11. “Childhood isn't just those years. It's also the opinions you form about them afterward. That's why our childhoods are so long.” - Kim Stanley Robinson

12. “What I did not know yet about hunger, but would find out over the next twenty-one years, was that brilliant theorists of economics do not find it worthwhile to spend time discussing issues of poverty and hunger. They believe that these will be resolved when general economic prosperity increases. These economists spend all their talents detailing the process of development and prosperity, but rarely reflect on the origin and development of poverty and hunger. A a result, poverty continues.” - Muhammad Yunus

13. “Th direct elimination of elimination of poverty should be the objective of all development aid. Development should be viewed as a human rights issue, not as a question of simply increasing the gross national product (GNP).” - Muhammad Yunus

14. “People.. were poor not because they were stupid or lazy. They worked all day long, doing complex physical tasks. They were poor because the financial institution in the country did not help them widen their economic base.” - Muhammad Yunus

15. “Perhaps the various burnings of the Alexandria Library were necessary, like those Australian Forest Fires without which the new seeds cannot burst their shells and make a young, healthy forest.” - William Golding

16. “Development is about transforming the lives of people, not just transforming economies.” - Joseph E. Stiglitz

17. “India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay.” - Shashi Tharoor

18. “He had also been demonstrative and intelligent from the very beginning, his questions startlingly insightful. She would watch him absorb a new idea and wonder what effect it would have on him, because, with Edgar, EVERYTHING came out, eventually, somehow. But the PROCESS – how he put together a story about the world’s workings – that was mysterious beyond all ken. In a way, she thought, it was the only disappointing thing about having a child. She’d imagined he would stay transparent to her, more PART of her, for so much longer. But despite the proximity of the daily work, Edgar had ceased long before to be an open book. A friend, yes. A son she loved, yes. But when it came to knowing his thoughts, Edgar could be opaque as a rock.” - David Wroblewski

19. “This is the basis for the most important critique of microfinance. The poor are not entrepreneurs. The idea that more than a few will turn tiny loans into a viable business is simply unrealistic.” - Ian Smillie

20. “Hours are long. Wages are pitiful. But sweatshops are the symptom, not the cause, of shocking global poverty. Workers go there voluntarily, which means—hard as it is to believe—that whatever their alternatives are, they are worse. They stay there, too; turnover rates of multinational-owned factories are low, because conditions and pay, while bad, are better than those in factories run by local firms. And even a local company is likely to pay better than trying to earn money without a job: running an illegal street stall, working as a prostitute, or combing reeking landfills in cities like Manila to find recyclable goods.” - Tim Harford

21. “To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required - not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” - John F. Kennedy

22. “Is then no nook of English ground secureFrom rash assault?” - William Wordsworth

23. “I have learned that I, we, are a dollar-a-day people (which is terrible, they say, because a cow in Japan is worth $9 a day). This means that a Japanese cow would be a middle class Kenyan... a $9-a-day cow from Japan could very well head a humanitarian NGO in Kenya. Massages are very cheap in Nairobi, so the cow would be comfortable.” - Binyavanga Wainaina

24. “Change, development and progress, according to the Islamic viewpoint, refer to the return to the genuine Islam enunciated and practised by the Holy Prophet (may God bless and give him Peace!) and his noble Companions and their Followers (blessing and peace be upon them all!) and the faith and practice of genuine Muslims after them; and they also refer to the self and mean its return to its original nature and religion (Islam).” - Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas

25. “Remember, aid cannot achieve the end of poverty. Only homegrown development base on the dynamism of individuals and firms in free markets can do that.” - William Easterly

26. “Without an informed electorate, politicians will continue to use the bottom billion merely for photo opportunities, rather than promoting real transformation.” - Paul Collier

27. “Change in the societies at the very bottom must come predominantly from within; we cannot impose it on them.” - Paul Collier

28. “Poverty is not intrinsically a trap, otherwise we would all still be poor.” - Paul Collier

29. “Not all developing countries are the same.” - Paul Collier

30. “Suppose a country starts its independence with the three economic characteristics that globally make a country prone to civil war: low income, slow growth, and dependence upon primary commodity exports. It is playing Russian roulette. That is not just an idle metaphor: the risk that a country in the bottom billion falls into civil war in any five-year period is nearly one in six, the same risk facing a player of Russian roulette.” - Paul Collier

31. “Persuading everyone to behave decently to each other because the society is so fragile is a worthy goal, but it may be more straightforward just to make the societies less fragile, which means developing their economies.” - Paul Collier

32. “Tough love may be tough to give, but it is a necessity of life and assurance of positive growth.” - T.F. Hodge

33. “El desarrollo esdesarrollo, sólo si es humano” - Daniel Ortega

34. “When good people consider you the bad guy, you develop a heart to help the bad ones. You actually understand them.” - Criss Jami

35. “Wisdom is nothing more than confirmed imagination: just because one did not study for his exam does not mean that he should leave it blank.” - Criss Jami

36. “A fourth-grade reader may be a sixth-grade mathematician. The grade is an administrative device which does violence to the nature of the developmental process.” - B.F. Skinner

37. “There is a master way with words which is not learned but is instead developed: a deaf man develops exceptional vision, a blind man exceptional hearing, a silent man, when given a piece of paper...” - Criss Jami

38. “Learning isn't acquiring knowledge so much as it is trimming information that has already been acquired.” - Criss Jami

39. “Faith, in its most correct form, never removes responsibility; it removes fear of responsibility. The results are complete opposites with the greater saying, 'God's will is my delight.” - Criss Jami

40. “I always make sure that the world will prove me right. It gives me the freedom to contradict myself.” - Criss Jami

41. “We do not have to be ashamed of what we are. As sentient beings we have wonderful backgrounds. These backgrounds may not be particularly enlightened or peaceful or intelligent. Nevertheless, we have soil good enough to cultivate; we can plant anything in it.” - CHOGYAM TRUNGPA

42. “But as the Everglades continued to wither, a few of their colleagues began to wonder if conservation really should mean development more than preservation. These heretics did not believe that God had created man in order to 'improve' or 'redeem' nature; they found God's grace in nature itself.” - Michael Grunwald

43. “Human beings have always been an unfinished species, a story in the middle, a succession of families, tribes, and societies in transition to new awarenesses. Although we have always prided ourselves on our willingness to adapt to all habitats, and on our skill at prospering and making ourselves comfortable wherever we are -- in a meadow, in a desert, on the tundra, or out on the ocean -- we don't just adapt to places, or modify them in order to ease our burdens. We're the only species that over and over again has deliberately transformed our surroundings in order to stretch our capacity for understanding and provoke new accomplishments. And our growing and enhanced understanding is our most valuable, and our most vulnerable, inheritance.” - Tony Hiss

44. “There are two kinds of people. One kind, you can just tell by looking at them at what point they congealed into their final selves. It might be a very nice self, but you know you can expect no more suprises from it. Whereas, the other kind keep moving, changing... They are fluid. They keep moving forward and making new trysts with life, and the motion of it keeps them young. In my opinion, they are the only people who are still alive. You must be constantly on your guard against congealing.” - Gail Godwin

45. “Let your motto then always be 'Excelsior', for by living up to it there is no such word as fail.” - P. T. BARNUM

46. “... money should not be spent according to what the West considers the most dramatic kind of suffering.” - William Easterly

47. “The barrier during self-improvement is not so much that we hate learning, rather we hate being taught. To learn entails that the knowledge was achieved on one's own accord - it feels great - but to be taught often leaves a feeling of inferiority. Thus it takes a bit of determination and a lot of humility in order for one to fully develop.” - Criss Jami

48. “La città di Leonia rifà se stessa tutti i giorni: ogni mattina la popolazione si risveglia tra lenzuola fresche, si lava con saponette appena sgusciate dall'involucro, indossa vestaglie nuove fiammanti, estrae dal più perfezionato frigorifero barattoli di latta ancora intonsi, ascoltando le ultime filastrocche che dall'ultimo modello d'apparecchio. Sui marciapiedi, avviluppati in tersi sacchi di plastica, i resti di Leonia d'ieri aspettano il carro dello spazzaturaio. Non solo i tubi di dentifricio schiacciati, lampadine fulminate, giornali, contenitori, materiali d'imballaggio, ma anche scaldabagni, enciclopedie, pianoforti, servizi di porcellana: più che dalle cose di ogni giorno vengono fabbricate vendute comprate, l'opulenza di Leonia si misura dalle cose che ogni giorno vengono buttate via per far posto alle nuove. Tanto che ci si chiede se la vera passione di Leonia sia davvero come dicono il godere delle cose nuove e diverse, o non piuttosto l'espellere, l'allontanare da sé, il mondarsi d'una ricorrente impurit à. Certo è che gli spazzaturai sono accolti come angeli, e il loro compito di rimuovere i resti dell'esistenza di ieri è circondato d'un rispetto silenzioso, come un rito che ispira devozione, o forse solo perché una volta buttata via la roba nessuno vuole più averci da pensare.Dove portino ogni giorno il loro carico gli spazzaturai nessuno se lo chiede: fuori dalla città, certo; ma ogni anno la città s'espande, e gli immondezzai devono arrestrare più lontano; l'imponenza del gettito aumenta e le cataste s'inalzano, si stratificano, si dispiegano su un perimetro più vasto. Aggiungi che più l'arte di Leonia eccelle nel fabbricare nuovi materiali, più la spazzatura migliora la sua sostanza, resiste al tempo, alle intemperie, a fermantazioni e combustioni. E' una fortezza di rimasugli indistruttibili che circonda Leonia, la sovrasta da ogni lato come un acrocoro di montagne. Il risultato è questo: che più Leonia espelle roba più ne accumula; le squame del suo passato si saldano in una corazza che non si può togliere; rinnovandosi ogni giorno la città conserva tutta se stessa nella sola forma definitiva: quella delle spazzature d'ieri che s'ammucchiano sulle spazzature dell'altroieri e di tutti i suoi giorni e anni e lustri.Il pattume di Leonia a poco a poco invaderebbe il mondo, se sullo sterminato immondezzaio non stessero premendo, al di là dell'estremo crinale, immondezzai d'altre città, che anch'esse respingono lontano da sé le montagne di rifiuti. Forse il mondo intero, oltre i confini di Leonia, è ricoperto da crateri di spazzatura, ognuno con al centro una metropoli in eruzione ininterrotta. I confini tra le città estranee e nemiche sono bastioni infetti in cui i detriti dell'una e dell'altra si puntellano a vicenda, si sovrastano, si mescolano.Più ne cresce l'altezza, più incombe il pericolo delle frane: basta che un barattolo, un vecchio pneumatico, un fiasco spagliato rotoli dalla parte di Leonia e una valanga di scarpe spaiate, calendari d'anni trascorsi, fiori secchi sommergerà la città nel proprio passato che invano tentava di respingere, mescolato con quello delle altre città limitrofe, finalmente monde: un cataclisma spianerà la sordida catena montuosa, cancellerà ogni traccia della metropoli sempre vestita a nuovo. Già dalle città vicine sono pronti coi rulli compressori per spianare il suolo, estendersi nel nuovo territorio, ingrandire se stesse, allontanare i nuovi immondezzai.” - Italo Calvino

49. “A lack of illusion is golden, and it is quite possible that creativity is the highest form of intelligence. One might further develop oneself in the creative sense and, therefore, at times, find some degree of shame more so than pride when having always followed that of the safe and ever-praised academia.” - Criss Jami

50. “Our devotions are not measured by the clock, but time is of the essence. The ability to wait, and stay, and press belongs essentially to our intercourse with God.” - E.M. Bounds

51. “Economic development is something much wider and deeper than economics, let alone econometrics. Its roots lie outside the economic sphere, in education, organisation, discipline and, beyond that, in political independence and a national consciousness of self-reliance.” - E.F. Schumacher

52. “There's a difference between thinking you can't be wrong and having no regrets. Wrongness is what occurs prior to empiricism, in hindsight a counterpart of revelation, and revelation is nothing to regret.” - Criss Jami

53. “Creativity sparks originality, which then manifests itself into what we call evolution. To depreciate imagination is to depreciate life.” - Al Stone

54. “Measured in terms of the World Bank poverty standard, the number of poor people in China fell from 652 million to 135 million between 1981 and 2004 - in other words, more than half a billion people were lifted out of poverty. The number of poor people in the developing world as a whole declined by only 400 million over the same period. In other words, but for China, there would have been an increase in the number of poor people in the developing world. No wonder a World Bank report said that "a fall in the number of poor of this magnitude over such a short period is without historical precedent.” - Wang Shaoguang

55. “It is in the nature of helping and counselling to be a process moving towards something rather than arriving at a state of completion.” - Pete Sanders

56. “A city is not an accident but the result of coherent visions and aims.” - Léon Krier

57. “It's a good sign but rare instance when, in a relationship, you find that the more you learn about the other person, the more you continue to desire them. A sturdy bond delights in that degree of youthful intrigue. Love loves its youth.” - Criss Jami

58. “As man develops, he places a greater value upon his own rights. Liberty becomes a grander and diviner thing. As he values his own rights, he begins to value the rights of others. And when all men give to all others all the rights they claim for themselves, this world will be civilized.” - Robert G. Ingersoll

59. “Growth of consciousness does not depend on the might of the intellect but on the conviction of the heart.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

60. “It's much easier on the emotions when one sees life as an experiment rather than a struggle for popularity.” - Criss Jami

61. “Once upon a time, began the story of you.Many perilous, wonderful, harrowing, brilliant, delightful, profound things happened.And yet—the most exciting twists and best turns are yet to come. And it absolutely does not matter how old or young you are.Like a bright carpet of wonders, enjoy the unrolling of your story.” - Vera Nazarian

62. “As a writer of philosophy, it's good to ask oneself, 'Will I still believe this a week from now, or months, or even years?” - Criss Jami

63. “Businesses, like babies and books, need nurturing, time, energy, love, planning and, yes, money to develop, grow and prosper.” - Rachael Bermingham

64. “Our outer relationships are a mirror of the relationship and communication between our own inner male and female sides. Our outer relationships with a man or a woman are a possibility to understand our own inner man or woman.” - Swami Dhyan Giten

65. “I believe that even 'returning-to-nature' and anti pollution activities, no matter how commendable, are not moving toward a genuine solution if they are carried out solely in reaction to the over development of the present age.” - Masanobu Fukuoka