Mechai Viravaidya Quotes

“When you start learning how to give when you're young, when you get older it is second nature. Just like stealing. Start young and you keep on stealing forever. Ask my politicians.”

— Mechai Viravaidya

“In the Buddhist scriptures, it said many births cause suffering, so Buddhism is not against family planning.”

— Mechai Viravaidya

“I find it disturbing that men who are products of highly developed economies come to a developing nation solely to exploit their women and their children.”

— Mechai Viravaidya

“The condom has saved so many lives, and it'll save so many more lives. We really owe a great deal to the rubber tree.”

— Mechai Viravaidya

“Take No as a question.”

— Mechai Viravaidya

“People were having sex before I was born. My parents had sex before I was born, nothing to do with me. I'm not trying to stop sex. I'm trying to stop people from dying from sex.”

— Mechai Viravaidya

AIDS is still around. Therefore, you have to practice safe sex.

— Mechai Viravaidya

Most people don't want to work in commercial sex. They have little choice.

— Mechai Viravaidya

People like to have fun and they like to laugh. And when you laugh, it's much easier to convince people and they laugh with you, rather than being angry. And I think laughter's always nice and I've always liked it.

— Mechai Viravaidya

“What could I do with $1 million? What can I do with the satisfaction that I perhaps today helped somebody to have a better life. That's real reward. The million dollars, nothing.”

— Mechai Viravaidya

“I left the government because I saw the only way to get family planning moving, was to do it outside the government. I was never disillusioned with government.”

— Mechai Viravaidya

“We're the ones causing global warming. In fact, what we ought to be saying is population growth is a major cause of it, so I hope to have a T-shirt out very, very soon: Stop global warming, use condoms.”

— Mechai Viravaidya