Klaus Schwab Quotes

#1. Change can be frightening, and the temptation is often to resist it. But change almost always provides opportunities - to learn new things, to rethink tired processes, and to improve the way we work.

Klaus Schwab

#2. The key issue is the shift of the centre of gravity from the West to the East, the rise of China and India.

Klaus Schwab

#3. For all the opportunities that arise from the Fourth Industrial Revolution - and there are many - it does not come without risks. Perhaps one of the greatest is that the changes will exacerbate inequalities. And as we all know, a more unequal world is a less stable one.

Klaus Schwab

#4. The best answer to the extremists is to build a better world.

Klaus Schwab

#5. New technologies and approaches are merging the physical, digital, and biological worlds in ways that will fundamentally transform humankind. The extent to which that transformation is positive will depend on how we navigate the risks and opportunities that arise along the way.

Klaus Schwab

#6. Of all the many leaders I have met in the course of my life, none made a deeper impression on me than Nelson Mandela. His courage, compassion, humility and wisdom were without parallel on the world stage, and he himself was an enduring source of inspiration.

Klaus Schwab

#7. when two people are talking, the mere presence of a phone on the table between them or in their peripheral vision changes both what they talk about and their degree of connectedness.65

Klaus Schwab

#8. Diversity does not preclude political stability.

Klaus Schwab

#9. Entrepreneurship is the engine fuelling innovation, employment generation and economic growth. Only by creating an environment where entrepreneur- ship can prosper and where entrepreneurs can try new ideas and empower others can we ensure that many of the world's issues will not go unaddressed.

Klaus Schwab

#10. I am an enthusiastic European, and my first-hand experience of war and hatred has strengthened that conviction. I have seen how misguided unilateral nationalistic identities have brought destruction and death. I am, however, a world citizen, too.

Klaus Schwab

#11. Nelson Mandela understood that social transformation and economic transformation go hand in hand.

Klaus Schwab

#12. Technological change is never an isolated phenomenon. This revolution takes place inside a complex ecosystem which comprises business, governmental and societal dimensions. To make a country fit for the new type of innovation-driven competition, the whole ecosystem has to be considered.

Klaus Schwab

#13. We must address, individually and collectively, moral and ethical issues raised by cutting-edge research in artificial intelligence and biotechnology, which will enable significant life extension, designer babies, and memory extraction.

Klaus Schwab

#14. A winner-takes-all economy that offers only limited access to the middle class is a recipe for democratic malaise and dereliction.

Klaus Schwab

#15. I like, very much, nature. Since I'm always together with people, I like to retreat.

Klaus Schwab

#16. We are now living in a completely digitalized world and a completely globalized world, so we have to find some new mechanisms and values to deal with this post-digitalized and post-globalized world.

Klaus Schwab

#17. The world must become aware of the fantastic transformational power of social entrepreneurship and the Foundation will work as a catalyst in this effort.

Klaus Schwab

#18. When you can't cope with change, you feel overwhelmed, and you look for a simple solution.

Klaus Schwab

#19. Sometimes, if a country's currency is overvalued in real terms, and it looks like the current account is going to be in deficit for the foreseeable future, devaluation can make sense.

Klaus Schwab

#20. The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production.

Klaus Schwab

#21. In the new world, it is not the big fish which eats the small fish, it's the fast fish which eats the slow fish,

Klaus Schwab

#22. As technology increasingly takes over knowledge-based work, the cognitive skills that are central to today's education systems will remain important; but behavioral and non-cognitive skills necessary for collaboration, innovation, and problem solving will become essential as well.

Klaus Schwab

#23. Receiving an economic boost from the digital era is not a luxury - it is essential to ensuring that Europe continues to grow and deliver levels of prosperity that meet the rising expectations of its citizens.

Klaus Schwab

#24. I do not deny my German identity. But I also feel Swiss. Of my eight great-grandparents, seven were born Swiss. I have been living in Switzerland for more than 50 years.

Klaus Schwab

#25. Technology is going to revolutionize almost every sector, leading to the demise of many traditional professions. Economic and political power will be determined less by a country's size than by its technological superiority.

Klaus Schwab

#26. As the physical, digital, and biological worlds continue to converge, new technologies and platforms will increasingly enable citizens to engage with governments, voice their opinions, coordinate their efforts, and even circumvent the supervision of public authorities.

Klaus Schwab

#27. The Fourth Industrial Revolution can compromise humanity's traditional sources of meaning - work, community, family, and identity - or it can lift humanity into a new collective and moral consciousness based on a sense of shared destiny. The choice is ours.

Klaus Schwab

#28. It was a hallmark of Nelson Mandela's leadership that being open to change made him appear not weaker, but even stronger.

Klaus Schwab

#29. In Switzerland, we have a centuries-old tradition of living together in one confederation and one society. That holds us back from excesses. We are a civilized and enlightened community and, by practising multicultural tolerance, we manage to stop extreme developments from going too far.

Klaus Schwab

#30. As the novelty of wearable tech gives way to necessity - and, later, as wearable tech becomes embedded tech - will we be deprived of the chance to pause, reflect, and engage in meaningful, substantive conversations? How will our inner lives and ties to those around us change?

Klaus Schwab

#31. The biggest change in the world today is that the young don't learn from the old, they teach the old about the world today.

Klaus Schwab

#32. We have too large a disparity in the world; we need more inclusiveness ... If we continue to have uninclusive growth and we continue with the unemployment situation, particularly youth unemployment, our global society is not sustainable.

Klaus Schwab

#33. I am a great enthusiast and early adopter of technology, but sometimes I wonder whether the inexorable integration of technology in our lives could diminish some of our quintessential human capacities, such as compassion and cooperation.

Klaus Schwab

#34. The Millennials, a generation born digital, will have a much stronger impact on social behaviour than we currently assume. Global climate change and resource security will influence our lives in substantial ways.

Klaus Schwab

#35. We have a great obligation not only to look after our own interests, but to engage and to make sure that this meeting is at the beginning of a renaissance of trust.

Klaus Schwab

#36. We often hear people talk about the concept of 'uberization,' where a new technology completely turns an industry on its head and forces us to rethink the way things have always been done. No industry will remain untouched by these forces.

Klaus Schwab

#37. A great leader has brains, vision, soul, values and a heart.

Klaus Schwab

#38. The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has long been used as an effective lens through which to examine the actions business can take toward ensuring mutual long-term well-being and sustainability.

Klaus Schwab

#39. Of course, technology is not an exogenous force over which humans have no control. We are not constrained by a binary choice between acceptance and rejection. Rather, the decisions we make every day as citizens, consumers, and investors guide technological progress.

Klaus Schwab

#40. When the World Economic Forum was established in 1971, the global population was four billion, of which 50% lived in poverty.

Klaus Schwab

#41. New technologies, however remarkable they might seem, are fundamentally just tools made by people for people.

Klaus Schwab

#42. One new reality is global interconnectivity and the fact that all challenges must be addressed on the basis of 'togetherness.' Thus the most crucial factor in accepting the new reality and confronting its opportunities and risks is our willingness to develop shared norms on all levels.

Klaus Schwab

#43. Talent is a by-product of education; the quality of a country's human capital depends on it.

Klaus Schwab

#44. The trends that are shaping the twenty-first-century world embody both promise and peril. Globalization, for example, has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty while contributing to social fragmentation and a massive increase in inequality, not to mention serious environmental damage.

Klaus Schwab

#45. Europe has never had a single or unified voice in world affairs: a common foreign policy. It has often appeared to be rudderless and unable to make quick decisions when faced with economic crises, presenting instead an image of division and hopelessness.

Klaus Schwab

#46. We do not want to just define issues; we want to help to create solutions

Klaus Schwab