Robert Zoellick Quotes

“All of us make mistakes. The key is to acknowledge them, learn, and move on. The real sin is ignoring mistakes, or worse, seeking to hide them.”

— Robert Zoellick

“There are many roads to prosperity, but one must be taken. Inaction leads nowhere.”

— Robert Zoellick

“Japan rose from the ashes of World War II as a 'trading state,' the model for export-led growth. It is not clear that the old export model of growth will be sustainable in a more 'balanced' global economy that does not rely so heavily on the U.S. consumer.”

— Robert Zoellick

“Private sector development and the creation of small businesses spur investment, jobs, opportunity, and hope. It empowers the market to meet local needs, whether for food, basic goods, or services.”

— Robert Zoellick

“When I work with countries struggling to pay for budgets or finance trade deficits, I reflect on how Americans do not spend a moment considering the unique advantages of being able to issue bonds and print money freely.”

— Robert Zoellick

“Don't just analyze a problem - solve it.”

— Robert Zoellick

“My true love is history, but I didn't know how I could make a living at it.”

— Robert Zoellick

“It is vital that the World Bank Group continually challenges itself to refresh our development thinking. It is vital that a modernized multilateralism be open to new ideas.”

— Robert Zoellick

“One of the challenges for sub-Saharan Africa is that markets are of modest size. This makes regional integration important.”

— Robert Zoellick

“Rwanda is a landlocked country, but it hasn't stopped developing. They built a high-end tourism industry around the mountain gorillas.”

— Robert Zoellick

“The most effective executive branch officials try to help legislators develop explanations for the votes they are being asked to take.”

— Robert Zoellick

“The Congress has had an uneasy relationship with banks and bankers since Alexander Hamilton. It took the United States until 1913 to set up a central bank. The Federal Reserve earned its hard-won independence over years of effort.”

— Robert Zoellick

“When I consider a problem, it is now instinctive for me to think about the institutions involved, the authorizing environment, possible coalitions, likely opposition, implementation, legal issues, resource dimensions, communications - and how the problem fits into a stream of other issues.”

— Robert Zoellick

Since I came to the World Bank in 2007, I have argued that we must 'modernize multilateralism.'

— Robert Zoellick

“It is much harder for economies to prosper if they cannot sell to, buy from, invest with, and even transit their neighbors. Landlocked countries with failed or failing neighbors can lose access to the world economy.”

— Robert Zoellick

“An empowered public is the foundation for a stronger society, more effective government, and a more successful state.”

— Robert Zoellick

“Great upheavals produce shock waves that widen cracks in political, economic, and security orders. Sometimes the old orders break. Yet it can be in the power of leaders and peoples to shape the directions of change.”

— Robert Zoellick

It is clearly the case that programs in Europe and the United States that have increased biofuel production have contributed to the added demand for food.

— Robert Zoellick

“In London, Washington, and Paris people talk of bonuses or no bonuses. In parts of Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, the struggle is for food or no food.”

— Robert Zoellick

Corruption is a cancer that steals from the poor, eats away at governance and moral fibre and destroys trust.

— Robert Zoellick

“The world is only one poor harvest away from chaos. We are so close to the edge that politically destabilising food prices could come at any time”

— Robert Zoellick

“In the US and Europe over the last year we've been focused on the prices of gasoline at the pump. While many worry about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs. And it's getting more and more difficult every day.”

— Robert Zoellick

“Climate change policies cannot be the frosting on the cake of development; they must be baked into the recipe of growth and social development.”

— Robert Zoellick