“Dignity is more important to the human spirit than wealth” — Acumen Fund CEO/Founder Jacqueline Novogratz

“What we call governments are vampire states, which suck the economic vitality out of the people.” — Economist George Ayittey

“I want to make Africans rich. If you make Africans rich, they’ll be less poor. That’s my development strategy.” — Private equity pioneer Idris Mohammed

“What we’re trying to do is create a family tree for everyone alive today.” — Anthropologist and geneticist Spencer Wells, who’s leading the Genographic Project, a landmark study tracing human origins to their roots in Africa

“There is no region of the world and no period in history that farmers have had to bear the burden of risk that African farmers bear today. But I’m not here to lament or wring my hands. I’m here to tell you that change is in the air.” — Economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin, who is founding the first commodities market for farmers in Ethiopia

“World progress needs a good dose of spontaneous human intelligence to realize that the answers to many of the questions we ask ourselves are just around the corner.” — Architect Issa Diabete, who draws inspiration from innovative, makeshift urban solutions found in Africa’s sprawling squatter cities

“I’m hopeful because nature is amazing resilient. Seemingly dead tree stumps — if you stop hacking them for firewood, in 10 years you can have a 30 ft tree.” — Primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall

“I am a mathematician and I would like to stand on your roof.” — Mathematician Ron Eglash’s standard greeting to African families, when he was researching the intriguing fractal patterns observed in many villages across the continent

Technorati tags: tedglobal2007