Kofi Annan Quotes

Extreme poverty anywhere is a threat to human security everywhere.

Children are our future, and their mothers are its guardians.

National markets are held together by shared values and confidence in certain minimum standards. But in the new global market, people do not yet have that confidence.

You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done.

Many African leaders refuse to send their troops on peace keeping missions abroad because they probably need their armies to intimidate their own populations.

The Lord had the wonderful advantage of being able to work alone.

Education is a human right with immense power to transform

Business cannot prosper in societies that fail.

Peace is never a perfect achievement.

However much one tries to suppress the will of the people they eventually will have the last word.

In their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda.

I laugh a lot inside and outside, and at myself sometimes.

We all make mistakes.

[Professional accountants ] should be encouraging companies to enhance their green credentials by switching to renewables, and to respect core labor standards and human rights.

Yehudi Menuhin was a citizen of the world in the fullest sense - one whose vision and culture gave him a deep empathy with fellow human beings of every creed and color.

A world government can intervene militarily in the internal affairs of any nation when it disapproves of their activities.

In the rush for justice it is important not to lose sight of principles the country holds dear.

The report [by a UN commission on Darfur] demonstrates beyond all doubt that the last two years have been little short of hell on earth for our fellow human beings in Darfur.

Iraq has a new opportunity to comply with all these relevant resolutions of the Security Council.

I was devastated by the atrocious bombings that struck London today. These vicious acts have cut us all to the core, for they are an attack on humanity itself. [7th July 2005 - on London bombings

The fight against HIV/AIDS requires leadership from all parts of government - and it needs to go right to the top. AIDS is far more than a health crisis. It is a threat to development itself.

Remembering is a necessary rebuke to those who say the Holocaust never happened or has been exaggerated.

All our efforts to defeat poverty and pursue sustainable development will be in vain if environmental degradation and natural resource depletion continue unabated.

Insecurity is love dressed in a child's clothing.

On this International Literacy Day, let us recall that literacy for all is an integral part of education for all, and that both are critical for achieving truly sustainable development for all.

I think that peacekeeping can do quite a lot, if they are given the right mandate with the commensurate resources to get the job done.

We need to keep hope alive and strive to do better.

The World is not ours to keep. We hold it in trust for future generations.

If the United Nations is not as united as it should be, that is because it is a reflection of the world we live in.

If information and knowledge are central to democracy, they are the conditions for development.

Education is the great equalizer of our time. It gives hope to the hopeless and creates chances for those without.

If one is going to err, one should err on the side of liberty and freedom.

There has to be a force on the horizon that can come very quickly. But the way we run and fund peacekeeping, this capacity is unavailable.

The UN doesn't work in a vacuum.

On this International Day of Peace, let us all honor those who have suffered from violence. Let us hold in our hearts the ideal of peace.

There is a certain tendency on the part of some Americans to treat the UN as a multilateralism à la carte where you pick and choose where it suits you and when it doesn't suit you, you pull back.

Justice has taken its course and the authority and legitimacy of the legal process must be respected.

The status quo cannot work.

Tolerance, inter-cultural dialogue and respect for diversity are more essential than ever in a world where peoples are becoming more and more closely interconnected.

When things are really desperate and hopeless and you can't do anything about this, and there's a sense that something must be done, that is something usually leads to the U.N.

Usually, when you look around the world, people are killing each other, fighting over scarce resources.

Nelson Mandela stands as an inspiration to us all

I urge the Iraqi leadership for sake of its own people... to seize this opportunity and thereby begin to end the isolation and suffering of the Iraqi people.

The problem is not with the faith, but with the faithful

Change is a process which has to be managed. If it's managed and managed well in the interest of the nation and the people, the likelihood is that it will end well.

Intelligence can be used to manipulate.

A United Nations that will not stand up for human rights is a United Nations that cannot stand up for itself.

I think the world has moved on.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq is illegal.

Invite politicians to dinner and let them tell the world how delicious it is. . . . They will proudly go around and say, 'I ate crickets, I ate locusts, and they were delicious.'