'Too often we participate in the globalization of indifference. May we strive instead to live global solidarity.'

Pope Francis and his distinctive approach to leading the Catholic Church

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was known for promoting social and economic justice rather than just traditional moral teachings while he led the Catholic Church. During his papacy, he exhibited a more open point of view towards historically controversial matters related to marriage, sexuality, the priesthood, and celibacy—and not without criticism. Reflect on his legacy and how he changed the church in this video.

'We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.'

- President Jimmy Carter (1924-2024)

'Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.'

- Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968)

'To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.'

- Diplomat Kofi Annan (1938-2018)

'We are more fulfilled when we are involved in something bigger than ourselves.'

- Astronaut John Glenn (1921–2016)

'Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men.'

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)

In 2026, Pope Leo XIV published a 42,000-word document on AI, written with the advice of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

'How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.' - Anne Frank

'The true measure of all our actions is how long the good in them lasts.'

- Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022)

'Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.'

- Muhammad Ali (1942-2016)

‘A Spirit of Dialogue’ is the theme of Davos 2026

Each year, Davos introduces a new overarching theme to guide the discussions at the event. The 2026 World Economic Forum theme is intended to spark conversation around global challenges including cooperation in a contested world, investing in people, deploying innovation responsibly at scale, building prosperity within planetary boundaries, and more.

'Through this unique means, I convey to you and all mankind, America’s wish for peace on Earth and goodwill to men everywhere.'

- President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) sending a message from space

Ten writers and thinkers on what growing older actually requires of us

The Marginalian's Maria Popova curates a collection arguing our culture has learned to dread aging while forgetting it is a privilege, and that the antidote is sustaining passions strong enough to keep us from turning inward. Voices include Simone de Beauvoir, Joan Didion, Pablo Casals, and Kahlil Gibran.

'Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.'

- Polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk (1914–1995)

'There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.'

- Philosopher Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980)

'The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.'

- Saint Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

A quote by award-winning actor Tom Hanks

"We are still in the position of waking up and having a choice. Do I make the world better today somehow, or do I not bother?"

Tracing the history of the philosophy of human extinction

Global catastrophe is at the center of much contemporary debate over climate, war, science, technology, and more, and our period is marked by a lurking sense everything we know—including the human species—could end overnight. It wasn't always...

How global conditions have improved over 200 years

In an era of 24-hour news, it can feel as if the world is on a perpetual downward spiral. This set of visualizations zoom out, and show how global living conditions have improved in recent centuries. The percentage of people living in extreme...

'If the time is not ripe, we have to ripen the time.'

- Activist Dorothy Height (1912-2010)

Social work pioneer Jane Addams (1860 - 1935) on civilization

"Civilization is a method of living, an attitude of equal respect for all men."

'One man can make a difference and every man should try.'

- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994)

'The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.'

- Boxing champion Muhammad Ali (1942-2016)

'The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.'

- Marine biologist and environmentalist Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

'No one has ever become poor by giving.'

- Anne Frank (1929-1945)

Joan Didion's 1975 commencement speech at UCR encouraged graduates to think outside of themselves

Filled with many widely circulated quotes, the talk addresses people's tendency to focus only on their personal ideologies and perceptions of the world. Didion advocates for being an active participant in the world, rather than existing only in our own bubbles.

'We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.'

- Playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

'Hearts are the strongest when they beat in response to noble ideals.'

- American diplomat Ralph Bunche (1904–1971)

'Don't gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.'

-Reggae pioneer Bob Marley (1945-1981)

Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1941 speech framed World War II as a global fight for universal rights

Eleven months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt outlined four fundamental freedoms that, in his words, people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy—speech, worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

'Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.'

- Author James Baldwin (1924–1987)

'When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.''

- Mister Rogers (1928-2003)

A quote by Ralph Bunche

"The well-being and the hopes of the peoples of the world can never be served until peace - as well as freedom, honor and self-respect - is secure."

Catholic education has grown smaller in the 21st Century

Declining numbers of priests and nuns, who often worked in the schools for free, led schools to increase tuition, which inadvertently turned away the schools’ primary demographic: working-class immigrant families. At the same time, the sexual abuse scandals of the early 2000s left many others feeling like Catholic schools were dangerous.

Much of the Global South responded to the Russia-Ukraine war by pursuing a strategy of 'active nonalignment'

Boston University scholar Jorge Heine suggests that countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America are avoiding taking sides between Washington and Beijing—viewing the rules-based order as increasingly unresponsive to the needs of developing nations and considering the West's framing of the war irrelevant to its own interests.

History’s largest intergenerational wealth transfer is happening in the next few decades

The founder of a multifamily office firm offers lessons on how to preserve wealth for generations from a global perspective, like educating younger family members.

'You don't get to choose how you're going to die or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.'

- Musician and activist Joan Baez (1941-present)

'One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world'

- Activist and author Malala Yousafzai (1997-present)

'I've come to the conclusion that life is for the taking and just too short to dwell on the negative.'

- Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan (1971-2018)

'Pioneering is never done in front of cheerleaders urging on a roaring grandstand of popular approval.'

- "Star Trek" actor George Takei (1937-present)

'Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.'

Meyer Wolfsheim in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby"

Barbara Brown Taylor reflects on the oft-used phrase "spiritual but not religious"

Released on Holy Thursday 2023, this conversation with the Episcopal priest and preacher argues that the human appetite for the sacred is strong, despite declining church membership. Taylor and longtime host of the "On Being" podcast, Krista Tippett, explore wilderness, embodied faith, and what holiness actually feels like when the institution no longer appears to supply it.

'We are on the move now ... Like an idea whose time has come, not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. We are moving to the land of freedom ...'

- Martin Luther King Jr. at the conclusion of the five-day, 54-mile march

Read the WEF’s Global Risks Report for 2025

The Global Risks Report is the World Economic Forum’s annual assessment of the most pressing threats facing the world. The 2025 edition highlights declining global optimism, deepening geopolitical and economic tensions, and rising social fragmentation across societies.

Hear Carl Sagan reflect on the smallness of humanity

'What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through.'

- First African American Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)

'Be silent, if you choose; but when it is necessary, speak—and speak in such a way that people will remember it.'

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Read Swami Vivekananda's 1893 speech to the World's Parliament of Religions

The Hindu monk’s appearance at the conference, which many credit with introducing the US to Hindusim, emphasized tolerance and bemoaned religious violence and bigotry. “I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism,” he told those assembled.

Communal iftars are now a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage

The tradition of breaking fast together where strangers and families share a table at sundown has been recognized by the United Nations' cultural body as significant. The designation sheds light on iftar's social side, beyond just the food.

'Mutual ignorance breeds mutual distrust.'

- Businessman Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919)