Transforming Quotes

"Our righteous minds were designed to unite us into teams, divide us against other teams and blind us to the truth ... we need to step out of the moral matrix and cultivate moral humility.. we are passionately involved to improve our world but we are also passionately committed to the truth ... and use our passionate commitment to the truth and turn it into a better future for us all."

- Jonathan Haidt - Author,"Happiness Hypothesis" (TED talk on moral roots of liberals and conservatives)

We apply fight-or-flight reflexes not only to predators, but to data itself ... We're not driven only by emotions, of course—we also reason, deliberate.  But reasoning comes later, works slower—and even then, it doesn't take place in an emotional vacuum. Rather, our quick-fire emotions can set us on a course of thinking that's highly biased, especially on topics we care a great deal about ...

... we have other important goals besides accuracy—including identity affirmation and protecting one's sense of self—and often those make us highly resistant to changing our beliefs when the facts say we should.

... paradoxically, you don't lead with the facts in order to convince. You lead with the values—so as to give the facts a fighting chance.

Chris Mooney  - The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science

... "We have the power of our moral sense allied to the power of communications and our ability to organize internationally ... One of the reasons why an institution is not in itself enough is that we have to persuade people around the world to change their behavior as well "...

... "National identity remains important. But it's not at the expense of people accepting their global responsibilities ... And whatever the short-run price for taking action on climate change or taking action on security, or taking action to provide opportunities for people for education, these are prices that are worth paying so that you build a stronger global society ...the prosperity of this world is indivisible ... we should not lose the chance in this generation, in this decade in particular ...  We have now, and are the first generation with, the power to do this ..."

- UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown - Ted Talks on Global Ethics

Non-believers and believers can flourish together in life.

The opposite would be like saying Airbus can't get Jews and Muslims or Straights and Gays or Socialists and the rest of us ... to work together. If we can do something amazing like build an airplane with these differences, getting on together in life outside of work and changing the World is easy.

I just think religious differences are a tiny thing compared to the common ground we have as amazing human beings who can work together to achieve great things.

- James Walker, Managing Director at Mofilm, Strategic Development Director at SSA & Company (TED Conversation excerpt bit.ly/TedCommon)

Currently, we can say that there is a dignity gap in the world. According to the UN, 50,000 people die every day for easily preventable causes, such as malnutrition and simple diseases like diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, and tuberculosis. If the same amount of lives was lost in rich countries on any day we would react immediately and we would find the resources to tackle the problem right away. This fact means that we actually do not give the same value to African and Western lives. 

- Mission Statement - GlobalDignity.org

The list of intergovernmental initiatives in which progress is halting or stalled outright is dismayingly long ...

The world has paid a severe price for its complacency about systemic financial and macroeconomic risks that were well publicized but nevertheless allowed to accumulate for too long. Many other serious global risks are accumulating, awaiting a proactive cooperative response.

- WEF 2010 Global Redesign Initiative p.19

At the Annual Meeting, and across the world, the one key ingredient to growth was in evidence: “Hope is a very large driver of the human race,”

- Ellen Kullman, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, DuPont, USA.  (WEF - The Global Agenda in 2011 Weforum.org)

“Revolution” is urgently needed in thinking and policy to bring about sustainable economic growth that can both protect the environment and raise living standards.

- Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General (WEF - The Global Agenda in 2011 Weforum.org)

One key reason for hope is that so far we have barely scraped the surface of human potential. Throughout history, the vast majority of humans have not been the people they could have been...

Two ingredients might be enough to do that. Knowledge and inspiration. If you learn of ideas that could transform your life, and you feel the inspiration necessary to act on that knowledge, there's a real chance your life will indeed be transformed ...

- Chris Anderson - Curator, TED Conference (Edge.org)

Note:  This is not a conclusive list of transforming quotes.  As stated in vision statement, all of us know our universal true ideas from the past to the present, it is our challenge to let these ideas speak louder in a universal language and transform us.