Benjamin Mkapa (1938) Tanzanian politician and former president
2008-05-17 http://ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2008/05/17/114573.html <br class="br">2008
Speech for the "Make Poverty History" campaign http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4232603.stm. Trafalgar Square, London (3 February 2005). <br class="br">2000s <br class="br">Context: Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.
Benjamin Mkapa (1938) Tanzanian politician and former president
2008-05-17 http://ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2008/05/17/114573.html <br class="br">2008
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Cooper Union speech (1860)
Context: Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed. There is a judgment and a feeling against slavery in this nation, which cast at least a million and a half of votes. You cannot destroy that judgment and feeling — that sentiment — by breaking up the political organization which rallies around it. You can scarcely scatter and disperse an army which has been formed into order in the face of your heaviest fire; but if you could, how much would you gain by forcing the sentiment which created it out of the peaceful channel of the ballot-box, into some other channel?
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher
The Educational Theory of Immanuel Kant (1904)
Context: Man has his own inclinations and a natural will which, in his actions, by means of his free choice, he follows and directs. There can be nothing more dreadful than that the actions of one man should be subject to the will of another; hence no abhorrence can be more natural than that which a man has for slavery. And it is for this reason that a child cries and becomes embittered when he must do what others wish, when no one has taken the trouble to make it agreeable to him. He wants to be a man soon, so that he can do as he himself likes.
Part III : Selection on Education from Kant's other Writings, Ch. I Pedagogical Fragments, # 62
Wei Jingsheng (1950) Chinese democracy activist and dissident
"In Exile, Free Speech at Last in The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/11/22/in-exile-free-speech-at-last/4591c34b-12c4-4a86-be28-261f6a260b8d/ (22 November 1997)
Jacinda Ardern (1980) Prime Minister of New Zealand
Interview with Lisa Owen at Newshub Nation, 21 October 2017
“It is in the nature of the human being to seek afor his actions.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer
Source: The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation V-VII
George Fitzhugh (1806–1881) American activist
Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 72
“…Poverty and violence are not God made, they are man made. Poverty and peace cannot coexist.”
Ela Bhatt (1933) founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association of India (SEWA)
Discussion with Ela Bhatt, Founder, Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)
“Human nature. I don’t like human nature, but I do like human beings.”
Ellen Glasgow book In This Our Life
Source: In This Our Life
“You have said that your first priority is the eradication of extreme poverty.”
Kofi Annan (1938–2018) 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations
So spoke United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on September 8, 2000, to an assembly of the world’s most powerful men and women. WOL http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102005521?q=annan&p=par