Top 100 Quotes About The U.n
#1. The U.N. can be very frustrating and at times impotent, but it can also be a valuable forum for discussion and resolution of world problems. We should not walk away from it just because it's failed to live up to its promise.
Robert Foster Bennett
#2. I'm working on a film called 'Bonnie.' Bonnie means water. It's in English, and it's dealing with a future world in a megacity - which is what the U.N. says we're going to be - but in this megacity, a city that runs out of water.
Shekhar Kapur
#3. It was during the Reagan years that defiance of international law and the U.N. Charter became entirely open.
Noam Chomsky
#4. If the U.N. didn't exist, we'd be inventing it right now.
Sam Farr
#5. I'm not going to be an interpreter at the U.N. I'm not going to live in Africa on a farm or whatever, but I am going to see the world through those eyes when I make those films.
Sydney Pollack
#6. The U.N. acts as the world's conscience, and over eighty-five percent of the work that is done by the United Nations is in the social, economic, educational and cultural fields.
Shirley Temple
#7. After going to war against the U.N.'s expressed wishes, the U.S. is now admitting it needs the U.N.'s help. It's the geopolitical equivalent of the 2 a.m. phone call ever parent dreads: 'Mom, I'm not saying I wrecked the car, but I need a ride home.'
Jon Stewart
#8. I fully support U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his Global Education First Initiative and the work of U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown and the respectful president of the U.N. General Assembly Vuk Jeremic. I thank them for the leadership they continue to give.
Malala Yousafzai
#9. The main part of the Hyde bill is to withhold U.S. contributions to the regular assessed budget of the U.N. unless they make real and substantial reforms in the way they operate.
Cliff Stearns
#10. All the other members of the U.N. were admitted, at the outset or subsequently, but Israel was created by the U.N. as a Jewish state, on the motion of Stalin's ambassador, seconded by President Truman's.
Conrad Black
#11. The U.N. is worse than disaster. The U.N. creates conflicts. Look at the disgraceful U.N. Human Rights Council: It transmits norms which are harmful, anti-liberty and anti-Semitic, among other things. The world would be better off in its absence.
Charles Krauthammer
#12. For many people in the U.N., the 1990s was the worst decade the organization experienced. This was the decade of Somalia, Srebrenica, of Rwanda and so forth, and yet the reality is, during this period, although there were these awful conflicts, the overall number of wars had gone down.
Andrew Mack
#13. Iraq should commit itself to implement the U.N. resolutions, and the Iraqi leadership should put the interests of its people into consideration.
Hosni Mubarak
#14. The liberal vision of America is that it should be less arrogant, less unilateral, more internationalist. In Obama's view, America would subsume itself under a fuzzy internationalism in which the international community, which I think is a fiction, governs itself through the U.N.
Charles Krauthammer
#15. Russia's actions in Syria are not the only reasons to distrust Mr. Putin. Moscow has opposed attempts by the U.N. in November 2011 to increase sanctions against Iran for its illicit nuclear program.
John Barrasso
#16. It's time to save the U.N. from its own scandals and mismanagement. It's time for U.N. Reform with teeth.
Mike Pence
#17. There's no such thing as the United Nations. If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.
John Bolton
#18. Bolton's exactly what the U.N. needs at this point. The president's right on the mark in picking him.
Mitch McConnell
#19. Had someone from Serbia flown a 'Greater Serbia' flag in Tirana or Pristina, it would become an issue for the U.N. Security Council.
Ivica Dacic
#20. The U.N. has been so disappointing to date on the whole Rwanda issue that despite the people they've sent through, and I have no doubt their competence, in the end, the decision is going to be made by other people and not by them.
Tony Greig
#21. We need to go to the niceties of approaching the U. N. and let them have a chance to take it over, but we should set some sort of date and begin to move out and leave it to whoever takes over.
William Odom
#23. In Argentina, urban poverty plummeted from 54.7 percent in 2003 to 6.5 percent in 2011, according to government data collected by the U.N.
Naomi Klein
#24. Our goals are the same as those of the U.N.'s founders, who sought to replace a world at war with one where the rule of law would prevail, where human rights were honored, where development would blossom, where conflict would give way to freedom from violence.
Ronald Reagan
#25. Allowing the U.N. into Iraq will demonstrate to the Iraqis that the international community as a whole is committed to bringing stability and safety to their country.
Jay Rockefeller
#26. 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
#27. I think we've already voted at the U.N., in the Security Council, to get rid of nuclear weapons. Let's get rid of them. Let's get rid of ours and then Iran will stop, I believe. And so everybody else will, because if everybody doesn't have them, then we're safe, at least safe from a nuclear attack.
Ted Turner
#28. It's very liberating for me to realize that I don't have to step up to the plate with a plot that involves the U.N. Security Council.
Jonathan Franzen
#29. We've talked to the Europeans about it. It's clear if those negotiations fail, then we are agreed with the Europeans that the next step is to take the matter to the U.N. Security Council.
Stephen Hadley
#30. Nobody would think of asking the U.N. General Assembly what it thinks because it is dominated by nations with no power and less legitimacy
Dick Morris
#31. I think today that it is essential that the Rwandan tribunal continues to prosecute efficiently. And if the U.N. fails to do that, it is sending entirely the wrong message to people who are in the position to complete these atrocities again.
Tony Greig
#32. Where the U.N. is concerned, accountability is very thin on the ground in general.
Glenn Reynolds
#33. Donald Trump will make sure that any agreement with Iran meets the original goals of the U.N and our allies: a non-nuclear Iran.
Rudy Giuliani
#34. Currently, the United States provides 22 percent of the U.N. annual budgets, over $900 million in fiscal year 2007, and some of that funding goes to the Human Rights Council.
Michael McCaul
#35. Turning the Internet over to the U.N. or some other phony international organization would be a disaster, and I am not willing to stand by and let it happen.
John Doolittle
#36. A final and long-lasting solution to the Kosovo issue cannot be achieved without an agreement with Serbia, especially in regard to the U.N.
Ivica Dacic
#37. We're strongly in favor of the U.N. plan for a solution to the Cyprus conflict. Hopefully a solution can be found before the end of this summit, but we cannot and will not let it block our decisions on enlargement.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
#38. The mere fact that I'm former head of state and former under-secretary in the U.N. system, it means that I can get in touch with anybody in the world, in theory.
Martti Ahtisaari
#39. The United States invented the Internet and it has been our gift to the world, paid for by our taxpayers. The U.N.'s desire to take that gift as a means of increasing its power must be stopped.
John Doolittle
#40. You ought to dialogue first before you start throwing spears. And I think the U.N. provides an opportunity for dialogue.
Johnny Isakson
#41. The U.N. can meet and discuss, but we don't need their permission.
Andrew Card
#42. The U.N. Security Council ordered Iraq in April 1991 to relinquish all capabilities to make biological, chemical and nuclear weapons as well as long-range missiles.
Barton Gellman
#43. Gender equality and women's empowerment have been a top priority for me from day one as Secretary-General. And I am committed to making sure that the U.N. leads by example.
Ban Ki-moon
#44. But it became clear as time went on that in Mr. Bush's mind the New World Order was founded on a convergence of goals and interests between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, so strong and permanent that they would work as a team through the U.N. Security Council.
A. M. Rosenthal
#45. If it was up to the U.N., Saddam Hussein would still be killing his own people.
Tucker Carlson
#46. The U.N.'s humanitarian agencies rely on charitable donations from the public as well as the generosity of governments to continue their lifesaving work in response to natural disasters, armed conflicts and other emergencies.
Ban Ki-moon
#47. The U.N. is an American-based bastion of foreign spies. Russia has more spies in the U.S. than there are members of the F.B.I.
Meldrim Thomson Jr.
#48. Well, the U.N. Security Council resolution 1973 is very clear. It says all necessary measures to be taken to protect civilians and civilian areas. I mean, that to me is very clear.
Mike Jackson
#49. The true measure of success for the U.N. is not how much we promise, but how much we deliver for those who need us most.
Ban Ki-moon
#50. I don't understand the United Nations. They have selected Iran to sit on the U.N.'s women's rights panel. Iran! Also on the panel - Ben Roethlisberger, Chris Brown, Phil Spector, Robert Blake and committee chairman O.J. Simpson.
Jay Leno
#51. I have concluded that the U.N. can do a few things well.
Gordon Smith
#52. The U.N. charter bars the threat of force.
Noam Chomsky
#53. 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
#54. The broad goal, laid out by Congress, the Obama administration, and the U.N. Security Council, was that Iran would suspend all enrichment-related activities and not be permitted a path to ever pursue a nuclear weapons program.
Rob Portman
#55. Israel expanded beyond its original boundaries only because the Arab powers attacked Israel and the U.N. demarcation unsuccessfully in 1948. The endless caterwauling about the 1967 borders is rubbish.
Conrad Black
#56. We've had the U.N. for almost 60 years, yet we've never actually made a fundamental list of all the big things that we can do in the world, and said, 'Which of them should we do first?'
Bjorn Lomborg
#57. In the United States, there is a broadly shared view that the U.N. is one of many potential instruments to advance U.S. issues, and we have to decide whether a particular issue is best done through the U.N. or best done through some other mechanism.
John Bolton
#58. If you get the U.N. to say we're going to solve the Syrian problem, if you get the Russians involved in a productive posture, you are making progress, but the Republican core says no strategy or failed strategy.
Juan Williams
#59. The U.N. bureaucracy has grown to elephantine proportions. Now that the Cold War is over, we are asking that elephant to do gymnastics.
Madeleine Albright
#60. As you know, I have over the years written critically about the U.N. I have consistently stressed in my writings that American leadership is critical to the success of the U.N., an effective U.N., one that is true to the original intent of its charter's framers.
John Bolton
#61. The joke was that President Bush only declared war when Starbucks was hit. You can mess with the U.N. all you want, but when you start interfering with the right to get caffeinated, someone has to pay.
Chris Kyle
#62. The U.N. Population Fund has a maternal health program in some Cameroon hospitals, but it doesn't operate in this region. It's difficult to expand, because President Bush has cut funding.
Nicholas D. Kristof
#63. We saw there was no consensus in the U.N. Security Council. It was impossible, due to the threatened veto by some.
Jose Maria Aznar
#64. There is an ongoing debate about the reform of the U.N. system.
Joschka Fischer
#65. That was not part of the U.N. resolution; it was not part of the mandate to go on to Baghdad and, frankly, if we had gone into Baghdad and pushed Saddam Hussein off, we would have inherited an even bigger mess than the mess we inherited with the refugee problem.
Les Aspin
#66. President Obama made a big speech. He welcomed the members of the U.N. General Assembly to New York, and he said, 'I'd like to encourage you to do some shopping while you're here.' I think it worked because China immediately bought eight banks, two car companies, and the state of Wyoming.
Conan O'Brien
#67. The utter incompetence of the U.N. is literally incomprehensible.
Malcolm Wallop
#68. It is high time that the international community tell Saddam Hussein and his regime that this is not an issue of negotiation with the U.N. about obligations that they undertook in 1991.
Condoleezza Rice
#69. If the nuclear dossier is referred to the U. N. Security Council, Iran will have to resume uranium enrichment.
Ali Larijani
#70. If the U.N. were to be successful in its efforts to control the Internet, countries where human rights records range from questionable to criminal could be put in charge of determining what is and is not allowed to appear online.
John Doolittle
#71. Time and again, when member states and the governments are faced with an insoluble problem, and they're under pressure to do something, that something usually ends up being referred to the U.N.
Kofi Annan
#72. In 1963, the U.N. Security Council declared a voluntary arms embargo on South Africa. That was extended to a mandatory embargo in 1977. And that was followed by economic sanctions and other measures - sometimes officials, countries, cities, towns - some organized by popular movements.
Noam Chomsky
#73. I think it is wrong that we went against The U.N. and that we have alienated our allies and invaded a country that hasn't threatened us, that it is a pre-emptive strike.
Rosanne Cash
#74. I'm rooting for Saudi Arabia getting a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Gary Weiss
#75. In any area of the U.N. we ... have to agree on certain language that can represent the same spirit, but that can be accepted by everyone.
Michelle Bachelet
#76. Now is the time to divest and invest to let our world leaders know that we, as individuals and institutions, are taking action to address climate change, and we expect them to do their part this December in Paris at the U.N. climate talks.
Leonardo DiCaprio
#77. India seeks to be a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council ... things like this don't happen automatically, you need constant dialogue and discussion with the world.
Pratibha Patil
#78. Now, in this U.N. stuff, the commander, although he has troops, they don't really belong to him. They're loaned by the country to the U.N. to be used, but each of these countries provide a contingent commander, a senior guy who communicates directly back to his capital.
Romeo Dallaire
#79. The key to U.N. reform is giving Americans a clearer picture of what the U.N. is and what it isn't, what it can be and what it can't be.
Samantha Power
#80. The U.N. had such lofty goals to eliminate poverty and stop war and cure diseases and help refugees - things that no one country could do.
Ted Turner
#81. I wonder how Colin Powell sleeps at night. I would like to have a word with him because he lied. He lied. He lied to me. He lied to my face through the camera at the U.N.
Henry Rollins
#82. I have lectured at the U.N. and travelled widely, giving lectures on human rights and gender inequalities in universities. But this is a life I do not wish to live. I don't want to be a showcase, I want to be in a battlefield where I can stand beside the oppressed and the poor.
Taslima Nasrin
#83. The U.N.'s impartiality allows it to negotiate and operate in some of the toughest places in the world. And time and again, studies have shown that U.N. peacekeeping is far more effective and done with far less money than what any government can do on its own.
Ban Ki-moon
#84. I've been involved in and out of the U.N. for many years - in fact my first internship was in 1971, so it goes back a couple of years!
Edward Luck
#85. Well, I think everybody is frustrated by the finances of the U.N. and the inability to solve problems of war and peace.
George H. W. Bush
#86. When it comes to meetings and preparing for that, it doesn't matter if it's a meeting with the U.N.; with a large operator, CEO, or chairman; or if I have an internal meeting - in all cases, I know that the energy and the engagement in every discussion is extremely important.
Hans Vestberg
#87. Chavez made a compete fool of himself in front of the entire world while giving the U.N. a black eye. But the real losers are the Venezuelan people who have to put up with this unstable character every day.
J. D. Hayworth
#88. The U.N. is asking Italy to oversee this effort. And if a government is formed, you're likely to see up to 5,000 Italian troops maybe go in to provide security and also train a Libyan army.
Tom Bowman
#89. Spaniards were condemned for appeasing terrorism by voting for withdrawing troops from Iraq in the absence of U.N. authorization - that is, for taking a stand rather like that of 70 percent of Americans, who called for the U.N. to take the leading role in Iraq.
Noam Chomsky
#90. Electing Sudan to the U.N. body mandated to promote and protect human rights worldwide is like putting Jack the Ripper in charge of a women's shelter.
Hillel Neuer
#91. Let us face it, the U.N. has failed. It has failed in its mission to promote world peace.
Ginny Brown-Waite
#92. Those crazies in Montana who say, 'We're going to kill ATF agents because the U.N.'s going to take over'? Well, they're beginning to have a case.
Dick Morris
#93. The Olympics is a time primarily for sport and celebration, but diplomacy does not stop at the door of the U.N., and for it to work, it must be sustained and consistent.
Douglas Alexander
#94. President Bush has delivered a new resolution to the U.N. saying that Saddam has failed to cooperate with U.N. resolutions, freeing us to get our war on. Don't mess with us France, or we'll send Jerry Lewis to Iraq as a human shield.
Craig Kilborn
#95. The United Nations is a mess, riddled with scandals. In fact, the U.N. itself is a scandal.
Ginny Brown-Waite
#96. The U.N. Security Council did not to condemn the Qana massacre, due to the U.S. veto.
Hassan Nasrallah
#97. I've heard people say in the U.N. community among mediators they don't like women as mediators because they're too quick to compromise.
Abigail Disney
#98. Sudan replaced the U.S. on the U.N. Human Rights Commission joining Syria, and Cuba. So now, the commission members have no interest in upholding the stated mission of the panel. It's just like the Senate Ethics Committee.
Argus Hamilton
#99. The U.N.'s current projection is that humanity will number 9.3 billion individuals in 2050 and then hit 10.1 billion by 2100. Meanwhile, our energy resources are dwindling, and droughts threaten our food supplies.
Annalee Newitz
#100. When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, the U.N. vetoed several resolutions right away, calling for an end to the fighting and so on, and that was a hideous invasion.
Noam Chomsky
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