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The question

If you could put a message on a giant billboard, what would it say and why?
Malala Yousafzai

Education campaigner; co-founder of the Malala Fund; United Nations Messenger of Peace

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
Why is it that countries which we call strong are so powerful in creating wars but are so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it, why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so hard?

Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 10 December 2014 source ↗

2 versions

Earlier wording is kept rather than replaced. This is the record of how the answer moved, not evidence that it should not have.

  1. Version 1 superseded 28 Aug 2026
    Why is it that countries which we call strong" are so powerful in creating wars but are so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it, why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so hard?
  2. Version 2 Current

    Corrected against the source.

    Why is it that countries which we call strong are so powerful in creating wars but are so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it, why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so hard?

Others on this question

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Jacinda Ardern Prime Minister of New Zealand, 2017–2023; Leader of the Labour Party 2017–2023
We are the richer for our difference, and poorer for our division. Through genuine debate and dialogue, through rebuilding trust in information and one another, through empathy – let us reclaim the space in between.
Recorded Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard Magazine, 26 May 2022 source ↗
Angela Merkel Chancellor of Germany, 2005–2021; Leader of the Christian Democratic Union 2000–2018
Tear down walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness, for nothing has to stay as it is.
Recorded Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Harvard Gazette, Harvard University, 30 May 2019 source ↗
Richard Feynman Theoretical physicist; Nobel laureate in Physics, 1965
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you've not fooled yourself, it's easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that.
Recorded Caltech commencement address, Pasadena, California, Caltech Engineering and Science (Caltech Library archive), 1 June 1974 source ↗
Jimmy Carter 39th President of the United States, 1977–1981; Governor of Georgia 1971–1975
War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 10 December 2002 source ↗

More from Malala Yousafzai

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Question What is one of the best investments you have made — of money, time, or energy? Money & investment
Her story is why I dedicate the Nobel Peace Prize money to the Malala Fund, to help give girls quality education, everywhere, anywhere in the world and to raise their voices. The first place this funding will go to is where my heart is, to build schools in Pakistan—especially in my home of Swat and Shangla.
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 10 December 2014 source ↗

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