Top ten quotes of the day from Davos

The role of central banks and why it’s better to be wise than fat – catch up on some of the highlights from a busy day at Davos.

“When you have a single currency you move inexorably towards a banking union and forms of fiscal union, and that has huge implications for countries like the UK who are not in the Euro and are frankly never likely to join.”
David Cameron, UK Prime Minister, in his Special Address

“The UK alone would be an unconnected island somewhere between the US and Europe.”
Mark Rutte, Netherlands Prime Minister, in The Eurozone Crisis

“We in Germany believe that central banks shouldn’t sweep up the mess left by politicians…… We still wish for many others to join us in the Euro.”
Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor of Germany, in her Special Address

“America thinks of itself as a land of opportunity. In fact it’s one of the worst places for equality of opportunity.”
Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz in An Insight, An Idea

“If you eat three times a day, you become fat. If you read three times a day, you become wise. It’s better to be wise than fat.”
Shimon Peres, President of Israel, in his Conversation

“Are we going to fire the father to hire the son? We want to create jobs for young people, but not at the expense of others.”
Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the ITUC, in Preventing a Lost Generation

“I call on countries to stop supplying arms to Syria. We must push for a political solution.”
Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the UN, in his Special Address

“Good teachers teach. Great teachers transform.”
Queen Rania of Jordan in The Global Development Outlook

“The old regimes will not come back… If there is one very sacred term of the Arab Spring, it is dignity, and democracy is the best system to respond to the search for dignity.”
Ahmet Davutoglou, Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, in Is Democracy Winning

“In the next 15 years, we can halve childhood deaths. That’s doable.”
Bill Gates, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in The Global Agenda Outlook

 

Most of the quotes were paraphrased for Twitter

Image: Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2013