Wangari Maathai Quotes

if you give a man a fish he'll eat for a day, if you teach a man to fish he'll eat all the fish you may have caught for yourself

One thing that I love about World Vision is every place they go, they go in with an exit plan, they don't want people dependent on them.

I think that if all kids aspire to reach a point where they could feed themselves and a few of their friends, this would be good for the world surely.

If you give a person a fish, they'll fish for a day. But if you train a person to fish, they'll fish for a lifetime.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

When charity perpetuates dependency and subordination, it is unjust…. You can help desperately needy people in ways that disempower them and turn them into permanent clients, or you can help them in ways that promote their independence and enable them to help themselves.

Instead of giving people fish, teach them how to use hooks.

Whenever you take on a project, there should be an exit policy. You cannot help people forever.

Your goal as a leader isn't to be indispensable to the people you lead; it is to leave your people something that is indispensable to them.

We give people fish. We teach them to fish. We tear down the walls that have been built up around the fish pond. And we figure out who polluted it.

A consultant solves other people"s problems. I could never do that. I want to help other people solve their own problems.

If you calculate every single thing you could possibly need in your life, you would need no more than 200 people to keep all that afloat: a doctor, food, wine, cheese-eating friends, the person who makes paper, the shoemaker.

People need to feed themselves, next they need to feed their own communities.

Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment.

That's the only way we're going to get through these programs. That is true compassion. Having people become dependent on others is not compassion at all.

Freedom is the slogan which speaks to the ears of people who feel strong enough to manage on their own using their own resources, who can do without dependency because they can do without others caring for them.

People who sit back and wait for somebody to take care of them are the people that if shown a way, can be useful to our society.

You are not likely to bring out the best in people or nurture their creativity if every time you hear about their problems you instantly offer a solution Encourage people to look for their own solutions-and project the knowledge that they are capable of doing so.

Never allow others to think you always have the best answers. This will only make them dependent on you.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Don't teach a man to fish and you feed yourself. He's a grown man, fishing's not that hard.

Aid leads to more aid and more aid and more aid and less independence of the people that are receiving aid.

I think it is astounding that people could argue for "you just must trust someone else to fix it" instead of "you could fix it yourself, or hire someone to fix it." There is a contractor base out there that can solve these problems as well as or better than the major vendors could. But I think the major vendors are still having more luck at getting the ear of the press.

Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment. In the last analysis, the welfare of the workers depends upon their own initiative. Whatever is done under the guise of philanthropy or social morality which in any way lessens initiative is the greatest crime that can be committed against the toilers. Let social busybodies and professional "public morals experts" in their fads reflect upon the perils they rashly invite under this pretense of social welfare.

I would like to remind the black ministry and indeed all black people that God is not in the habit of coming down from heaven to solve people's problems on earth.