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“A nation's progress cannot be measured solely in economic terms. Growth that excludes dignity, justice, and equity is hollow and unstable. Sustainable development begins when policy places human well-being above political convenience.”

Last update Sept. 26, 2026. History

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“We must pursue a balanced development path, with policies that enhance inclusion, integrity and sustainability as well as delivering economic growth for the continued prosperity of Malaysians.”

Mohamed Azmin Ali (1964) Malaysian politician

Mohamed Azmin Ali (2018) cited in " Azmin: A different economic logic for Malaysia https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2018/10/08/azmin-a-different-economic-logic-for-malaysia/" on The Star Online, 8 October 2018

“This new model of development would be based clearly on the goal of sustainable human well-being. It would use measures of progress that clearly acknowledge this goal. It would acknowledge the importance of ecological sustainability, social fairness, and real economic efficiency. Ecological sustainability implies recognizing that natural and social capital are not infinitely substitutable for built and human capital, and that real biophysical limits exist to the expansion of the market economy.”

Robert Costanza (1950) American economist

Source: Toward a New Sustainable Economy, 2008, p. 45

“Africa’s progress will depend on unleashing economic growth -- not just for the few at the top, but for the many, because an essential element of dignity is being able to live a decent life. That begins with a job. And that requires trade and investment.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2015, Remarks to the People of Africa (July 2015)

“Real economic efficiency implies including all resources that affect sustainable human well-being in the allocation system, not just marketed goods and services. Our current market allocation system excludes most non-marketed natural and social capital assets and services that are critical contributors to human well-being. The current economic model ignores this and therefore does not achieve real economic efficiency. A new, sustainable ecological economic model would measure and include the contributions of natural and social capital and could better approximate real economic efficiency.”

Robert Costanza (1950) American economist

Source: Toward a New Sustainable Economy, 2008, p. 46

“Globalization presumes sustained economic growth. Otherwise, the process loses its economic benefits and political support.”

Paul A. Samuelson (1915–2009) American economist

Quoted in: Richard Duncan (2011) The Dollar Crisis, p. 232
New millennium

“Justice and equity are twin Guardians that watch over men. From them are revealed such blessed and perspicuous words as are the cause of the well-being of the world and the protection of the nations.”

Bahá'u'lláh Epistle to the Son of the Wolf

Epistle to the Son of the Wolf

“These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Ramadan Message http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-President-Barack-Obama-in-Ramadan-Message Washington, DC (21 August 2009) <br class="br">2009

“I said bring equity back on the national agenda. And equity is a broad concept with facets like political equity, decentralisation, electoral reforms, freedom of the press. It includes economic and social equity: for women, for SCs and STs, for the minorities.”

V. P. Singh (1931–2008) Indian politician

We are ruled by an upper caste Hindu raj

“Among minor alterations, I may mention the substitution for the name political economy of the single convenient term economics. I cannot help thinking that it would be well to discard, as quickly as possible, the old troublesome double-worded name of our science.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

Preface To The Second Edition, p. 8.
The Theory of Political Economy (1871)

“When we planned our country's economic development, we had the strategic objective of our Revolution in mind. It was not planned for economic development [to be] solely an end in itself. There are some who have forgotten that the sole basis of our revolutionary struggle was the ideology and politics which we follow…”

Mengistu Haile Mariam (1937) Former dictator of Ethiopia

As quoted in John M. Cohen (1987) Integrated Rural Development: The Ethiopian Experience and the Debate, p. 213

“A nation's progress cannot be measured solely in economic terms. Growth that excludes dignity, justice, and equity is hollow and unstable. Sustainable development begins when policy places human well-being above political convenience.”

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