Quotes by Hans Rosling

My mother explained the magic with this washing machine the very, very first day. She said, Now Hans, we have loaded the laundry. The machine will make the work. And now we can go to the library. Because this is the magic: you load the laundry, and what do you get out of the machine? You get books out of the machines, childrens books.

I meet so many that think population growth is a major problem in regard to climate change. But the number of children born per year in the world has stopped growing since 1990. The total number of children below 15 years of age in the world are now relatively stable around 2 billion.

The 1 to 2 billion poorest in the world, who dont have food for the day, suffer from the worst disease: globalization deficiency. The way globalization is occurring could be much better, but the worst thing is not being part of it. For those people, we need to support good civil societies and governments.

My best friend in medical school was a magician. And we were shown an X-ray of a sword-swallower, and I tried it and failed. Then I got a sword-swallower as a patient, and he taught me.

To get away from poverty, you need several things at the same time: school, health, and infrastructure - those are the public investments. And on the other side, you need market opportunities, information, employment, and human rights.

“Data must be used to tell the truth, not to call to action, no matter how noble the intentions.”

“Factfulness, like a healthy diet and regular exercise, can and should become part of your daily life. Start to practice it, and you will be able to replace your overdramatic worldview with a worldview based on facts.”

“We have many instincts that used to be useful thousands of years ago, but we live in a very different world now.”

“The numbers will never tell the full story of what life on Earth is all about.”

“The concept of climate refugees is mostly a deliberate exaggeration, designed to turn fear of refugees into fear of climate change, and so build a much wider base of public support for lowering CO2 emissions.”

“The misconception that the world is getting worse is very difficult to maintain when we put the present in its historical context. We shouldnt diminish the tragedies of the droughts and famines happening right now. But knowledge of the tragedies of the past should help everyone realize how the world has become both much more transparent and much better at getting help to where its needed.”

“We humans have always struggled hard to make our families survive, and finally we are succeeding.”