Annan's Quotes

#1. Kofi Annan's kangaroo court ... a clear and present danger to the war on terrorism and Americans fighting it all over the world.

Tom DeLay

#2. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.

Kofi Annan

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

Kofi Annan

#4. It is impossible to realize our goals while discriminating against half the human race. As study after study has taught us, there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women.

Kofi Annan

#5. If globalization is to succeed, it must succeed for poor and rich alike. It must deliver rights no less than riches. It must provide social justice and equity no less than economic prosperity and enhanced communication.

Kofi Annan

#6. Unfortunately, very few governments think about youth unemployment when they are drawing up their national plans.

Kofi Annan

#7. Kofi Annan was the U.N. Under-Secretary General for peacekeeping operations. He had the responsibilities in regards to the mounting and operation of peacekeeping missions around the world.

Romeo Dallaire

#8. You are never too young to lead and you should never doubt your capacity to triumph where others have not.

Kofi Annan

#9. A developed country is one that allows all its citizens to enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe environment

Kofi Annan

#10. Gather the five virtues (Dignity, Confidence, Courage, Compassion, and Faith). Then you are a man.

Kofi Annan

#11. I have never participated directly or indirectly in any business related to the United Nations.

Kojo Annan

#12. 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.'

Kofi Annan

#13. If there is one area where equity is crucial and essential,
I think it should be the issue of water.

Kofi Annan

#14. The right to development is the measure of the respect of all other human rights.That should be our aim: a situation in which all individuals are enabled to maximize their potential, and to contribute to the evolution of society as a whole.

Kofi Annan

#15. The preservation of biodiversity is not just a job for governments. International and non-governmental organisations, the private sector and each and every individual have a role to play in changing entrenched outlooks and ending destructive patterns of behaviour

Kofi Annan

#16. The happiness of any society begins with the well being of the families that live in it.

Kofi Annan

#17. In some ways, the challenges are even more daunting than they were at the peak of the cold war. Not only do we continue to face grave nuclear threats, but those threats are being compounded by new weapons developments, new violence within States and new challenges to the rule of law.

Kofi Annan

#18. To live is to choose.

Kofi Annan

#19. From this vision of the role of the United Nations in the next century flow three key priorities for the future: eradicating poverty, preventing conflict and promoting democracy.

Kofi Annan

#20. We need to create a world that is equitable, that is stable and a world where we bear in mind the needs of others, and not only what we need immediately. We are all in the same boat.

Kofi Annan

#21. 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

Kofi Annan

#22. The question is the morning after. What sort of Iraq do we wake up to after the bombing? What happens in the region? What impact could it have? These are questions leaders I have spoken to have posed.

Kofi Annan

#23. The path of politics should be cleared with the sword of the constitution

King Annan

#24. 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.

Kofi Annan

#25. Our biggest challenge in this new century is to take an idea that seems abstract - sustainable development - and turn it into a reality for all the world's people

Kofi Annan

#26. You saw the traumas that people lived through, and wondered what it will take to move us as a human community, as humanity, to help in these dangerous situations.

Kofi Annan

#27. I often quote an African proverb that says: "The world is not ours, the earth is not ours, It's a treasure we hold in trust for future generations." And I often hope we will be worthy of that trust.

Kofi Annan

#28. If the United Nations does not attempt to chart a course for the world's people in the first decades of the new millennium, who will?

Kofi Annan

#29. When so many lives are at risk, when so much killing is going on, when there's so much chaos and suffering, isn't the risk warranted? ... And if we don't take the risk of coming to the conference, what do we do? We let it continue?

Kofi Annan

#30. 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.

Kofi Annan

#31. Insecurity is love dressed in a child's clothing.

Kofi Annan

#32. We must ensure that the global market is embedded in broadly shared values and practices that reflect global social needs, and that all the world's people share the benefits of globalization.

Kofi Annan

#33. More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development.

Kofi Annan

#34. Sadly, I do my homework. I've a soft spot for the boring minutiae. I read the Charter of the United Nations before meeting with Kofi Annan. I read the Meltzer report, and then I'll read C. Fred Bergsten's defense of institutions like the World Bank and the I.M.F. It's embarrassing to admit.

Bono

#35. In an era of globalisation, AIESEC's programmes have helped young people around the world to develop a broader understanding of cultural socio-economic and business management issues.

Kofi Annan

#36. As one of my predecessors said, our objective is not to take people to heaven, but to prevent humanity from going to hell.

Kofi Annan

#37. The rising of the sun is an enough motivation to the chlorophyll

King Annan

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

Kofi Annan

#39. Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation, and it is perhaps the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace

Kofi Annan

#40. Drugs have destroyed many lives, but wrongheaded governmental policies have destroyed many more. I think it's obvious that after 40 years of war on drugs, it has not worked. There should be decriminalization of drugs.

Kofi Annan

#41. In the 21st century, I believe the mission of the United Nations will be defined by a new, more profound awareness of the sanctity and dignity of every human life, regardless of race or religion.

Kofi Annan

#42. Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations.

Kofi Annan

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

Kofi Annan

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

Kofi Annan

#45. If tolerance, respect and equity permeate family life, they will translate into values that shape societies, nations and the world.

Kofi Annan

#46. As I travel around the world, people think the only place where there is potential conflict [over] water is the Middle East, but they are completely wrong. We have the problem all over the world.

Kofi Annan

#47. Beneath the surface of states and nations, ideas and language, lies the fate of individual human beings in need. Answering their needs will be the mission of the United Nations in the century to come.

Kofi Annan

#48. The problem is this. The spread of markets outpaces the ability of societies and their political systems to adjust to them, let alone to guide the course they take

Kofi Annan

#49. Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.

Kofi Annan

#50. I am often asked what can people do to become a good global citizen? I reply that it begins in your own community.

Kofi Annan

#51. Let us all reaffirm our commitment to improving the well- being of families throughout the world.

Kofi Annan

#52. On climate change, we often don't fully appreciate that it is a problem. We think it is a problem waiting to happen.

Kofi Annan

#53. You have to wake up every day ready to start again.

Kofi Annan

#54. If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever.

Kofi Annan

#55. If you have a problem and you can't find a solution, you meet again tomorrow and you keep talking until you find a solution. You can disagree with behavior or a particular position, but you do not resort to calling an opponent worthless.

Kofi Annan

#56. Under international law, the responsibility for protecting civilians in conflict falls on the belligerents. Under military occupation, responsibility for the welfare of the population falls on the occupiers.

Kofi Annan

#57. I would never play any role in anything that involves the United Nations for obvious reasons.

Kojo Annan

#58. Landmines are among the most barbaric weapons of war, because they continue to kill and maim innocent people long after the war itself has ended. Also, fear of them keeps people off the land, and thus prevents them from growing food.

Kofi Annan

#59. No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline.

Kofi Annan

#60. The world has lost a visionary leader, a courageous voice for justice, and a clear moral compass. By showing us that the path to freedom and human dignity lies in love, wisdom and compassion for one another, Nelson Mandela stands as an inspiration to us all.

Kofi Annan

#61. The future belongs to you, but it can only belong to you if you participate and take charge

Kofi Annan

#62. Peace is never a perfect achievement.

Kofi Annan

#63. Does anyone seriously contend that any nation can fend for itself?

Kofi Annan

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

Kofi Annan

#65. 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.

Kofi Annan

#66. The international community ... allows nearly 3 billion people almost half of all humanity to subsist on $2 or less a day in a world of unprecedented wealth.

Kofi Annan

#67. There can be no doubt that these attacks are deliberate acts of terrorism, carefully planned and coordinated and as such I condemn them utterly. Terrorism must be fought resolutely wherever it appears.

Kofi Annan

#68. This is an historic step forward in the world's efforts to combat a truly global threat.

Kofi Annan

#69. Once you are really challenged, you find something in yourself. Man doesn't know what he is capable of until he is asked.

Kofi Annan

#70. Any society that does not succeed in tapping into the energy and creativity of its youth will be left behind.

Kofi Annan

#71. The death toll from small arms dwarfs that of all other weapons systems - and in most years greatly exceeds the toll of the atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In terms of the carnage they cause, small arms, indeed, could well be described as 'weapons of mass destruction'.

Kofi Annan

#72. There was no moon, no stars, but even the darkest of nights steals light from somewhere.

Kate Thompson

#73. Globalization is a fact of life. But I believe we have underestimated its fragility.

Kofi Annan

#74. Sadly, a prize for peace is a rarity in this world. Most nations have monuments or memorials to war, bronze salutations to heroic battles, archways of triumph. But peace has no parade, no pantheon of victory.

Kofi Annan

#75. His Holiness brings a wealth of experience to this exalted office. The United Nations and the Holy See share a strong commitment to peace, social justice, human dignity, religious freedom and mutual respect among the world's religions.

Kofi Annan

#76. More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together. And that is why we have the United Nations.

Kofi Annan

#77. Let us choose to unite the power of markets with the authority of universal ideals. Let us choose to reconcile the creative forces of private entrepreneurship with the needs of the disadvantaged and the requirements of future generations.

Kofi Annan

#78. Let us be good stewards of the Earth we inherited. All of us have to share the Earth's fragile ecosystems and precious resources, and each of us has a role to play in preserving them. If we are to go on living together on this earth, we must all be responsible for it.

Kofi Annan

#79. On this International Day of Peace, let us dare to imagine a world free of conflict and violence

Kofi Annan

#80. What will the U.S. senators have to say if there is, as many over here and in the rest of the world suspect, no substance to the allegations against my father and me?

Kojo Annan

#81. Both Bush as well as Tony Blair are undermining an idea [the United Nations]. Is this because the secretary general of the United Nations [Ghanaian Kofi Annan] is now a black man? They never did that when secretary generals were white.

Nelson Mandela

#82. In an era of global abundance, our world has the resources to reduce dramatically the massive divides that persist between rich and poor, if only those resources can be unleashed in the service of all peoples.

Kofi Annan

#83. Ignorance and prejudice are the handmaidens of propaganda. Our mission, therefore, is to confront ignorance with knowledge, bigotry with tolerance, and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. Racism can, will, and must be defeated.

Kofi Annan

#84. We must bring a message of solidarity, of mutual respect and, above all, of hope. Business cannot afford to be seen as the problem.

Kofi Annan

#85. We at the U.N. have to take some of the blame, because we have not lowered expectations creating the impression we are here to save people, even when we have very limited resources.

Kofi Annan

#86. Literacy is at the heart of sustainable development

Kofi Annan

#87. The long-lasting humanitarian impact of these inhuman weapons continues to deny communities the opportunity to rebuild long after the end of the conflicts.

Kofi Annan

#88. When women thrive, all of society benefits, and succeeding generations are given a better start in life.

Kofi Annan

#89. It is my aspiration that health finally will be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for.

Kofi Annan

#90. 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.

Kofi Annan

#91. No nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over all others. We all share responsibility for each other's security, and only by working to make each other secure can we hope to achieve lasting security for ourselves.

Kofi Annan

#92. Let us, above all, be clear that, without a convincing program of debt relief to start the new millennium, our objective of halving world poverty by 2015 will be only a pipe dream.

Kofi Annan

#93. The future of peace and prosperity that we seek for all the world's peoples needs a foundation of tolerance, security, equality and justice.

Kofi Annan

#94. We have to choose between a global market driven only by calculations of short-term profit, and one which has a human face.

Kofi Annan

#95. Microfinance is an idea whose time has come.

Kofi Annan

#96. I feel the whole issue has been a witchhunt from day one as part of a broader Republican political agenda.

Kojo Annan

#97. Fierce national competition over water resources has prompted fears that water issues contain the seeds of violent conflict.

Kofi Annan

#98. Children are our future and if we use them in battle, we are destroying the future. We must reclaim them, every one of them, one at a time.

Kofi Annan

#99. Asked whether donor nations may be becoming fatigued ... The fatigue may be there, but I don't think we can justify it in the face of such misery. We may need to wake up our conscience and our conscience must force us to act.

Kofi Annan

#100. In an age where community involvement and partnerships with civil society are increasingly being recognized as indispensable, there is clearly a growing potential for cooperative development and renewal worldwide.

Kofi Annan