“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”
― Kofi Annan
“More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together. And that, my friends, is why we have the United Nations.”
― Kofi Annan
“Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.”
― Kofi Annan
“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
“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
“The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the states in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being.”
― Kofi Annan
“No single solution or actor can deal with the complex and interrelated challenges to electoral integrity arising from manipulated data, hate speech, and fake news. These phenomena are not new; they have been part of electoral cycles since the advent of democracy.”
― Kofi Annan
“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.”
― Kofi Annan
“It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity.”
― Kofi Annan
“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
“As long as inequality and other social problems plague us, populists will try to exploit them.”
― Kofi Annan
“Unfortunately, very few governments think about youth unemployment when they are drawing up their national plans.”
― Kofi Annan
“Change is a process which has to be managed.”
― Kofi Annan
“Governments have to conclude a fair, universal, and binding climate agreement, by which every country commits to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.”
― Kofi Annan
“We need to keep hope alive and strive to do better.”
― Kofi Annan
“We seriously have to question the motivation of those people referred to as climate change sceptics, who are denying the evidence of human-caused climate change and preventing us from moving forward by spreading disinformation and supporting unchecked carbon pollution.”
― Kofi Annan
“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
“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
“Often we mistake stability, in terms of security and economic activity, to mean a country is doing well. We forget the third and important pillar: rule of law and respect for human rights.”
― Kofi Annan
“We cannot wait for governments to do it all. Globalization operates on Internet time. Governments tend to be slow moving by nature, because they have to build political support for every step.”
― Kofi Annan
“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
“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
“Above all else, we need a reaffirmation of political commitment at the highest levels to reducing the dangers that arise both from existing nuclear weapons and from further proliferation.”
― Kofi Annan
“We have the means and the capacity to deal with our problems, if only we can find the political will.”
― Kofi Annan
“Developing and newer democracies are much more susceptible to the tactics of populists and demagogues – they often do not have strong institutions, free press, or the infrastructure required to defend their nascent democracies.”
― Kofi Annan
“The skills you need to fight the colonial power and the skills you need to gain independence are not necessarily the same you need to run a country.”
― Kofi Annan
“What governments and people don’t realise is that sometimes the collective interest – the international interest – is also the national interest.”
― Kofi Annan
“The Arab Spring reminds me a bit of the decolonisation process where one country gets independence, and everybody else wants it.”
― Kofi Annan
“If citizens do not believe they can change their leaders through the ballot box, they will find other ways, even at the risk of destabilizing their countries.”
― Kofi Annan
“My own advice to people who would be in office for two or three terms is that they must accept democratic rotation: ideally, not put themselves up for re-election and allow the system to work.”
― Kofi Annan
“Eating insects is good for the environment and balanced diets.”
― Kofi Annan
“Sometimes I walk into a situation and know someone is going to provoke me, and I just simply refuse to be provoked.”
― Kofi Annan
“Sometimes leaders slide from the role of freedom fighter into the presidency, which they may be unsuited for, but everyone accepts it until they hit the bump in the road.”
― Kofi Annan
“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.”
― Kofi Annan
“Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world.”
― Kofi Annan
“More countries have understood that women’s equality is a prerequisite for development.”
― Kofi Annan
“If one is going to err, one should err on the side of liberty and freedom.”
― Kofi Annan
“If we can come up with innovations and train young people to take on new jobs, and if we can switch to clean energy, I think we have the capacity to build this world not dependent on fossil-fuel. I think it will happen, and it won’t destroy economy.”
― Kofi Annan
“I think it is important to speak out.”
― Kofi Annan
“I am a stubborn optimist: I was born an optimist and will remain an optimist.”
― Kofi Annan
“There is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole – women and men alike – than the one which involves women as central players.”
― Kofi Annan
“I think that my darkest moment was the Iraq war and the fact that we could not stop it.”
― Kofi Annan
“Business, labor and civil society organizations have skills and resources that are vital in helping to build a more robust global community.”
― Kofi Annan
“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
“In their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda.”
― Kofi Annan
“Many African leaders refuse to send their troops on peace keeping missions abroad because they probably need their armies to intimidate their own populations.”
― Kofi Annan
“The Lord had the wonderful advantage of being able to work alone.”
― Kofi Annan
“We need to think of the future and the planet we are going to leave to our children and their children.”
― Kofi Annan
“I have always believed that on important issues, the leaders must lead. Where the leaders fail to lead, and people are really concerned about it, the people will take the lead and make the leaders follow.”
― Kofi Annan
“Iraq has a new opportunity to comply with all these relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”
― Kofi Annan
“If information and knowledge are central to democracy, they are conditions for development.”
― Kofi Annan
“In the rush for justice it is important not to lose sight of principles the country holds dear.”
― Kofi Annan
“I don’t share the view that the ICC is anti-African. The ICC is not putting Africa on trial. The ICC is fighting impunity and individuals who are accused of crimes.”
― Kofi Annan
“When economic conditions are difficult, people tend to be less generous and protect themselves; the question of solidarity doesn’t mean much to them at that time.”
― Kofi Annan
“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
“We cannot allow situations where leaders threaten war on television or on Twitter.”
― Kofi Annan
“To some extent, Rwanda became a victim of the Somalia experience.”
― Kofi Annan
“The U.N. doesn’t have any troops; we borrow them from governments.”
― Kofi Annan
“I think it is not just the U.N. speaking, but the concept of a third party, a third party to a conflict speaking out. You know, sometimes saying, ‘Stop, this is enough. This cannot be allowed to happen,’ gives the victims and the people who are caught in that situation courage, encouragement, support.”
― Kofi Annan
“One has to have the strength of character to say the time has come to move on… unless you are a king.”
― Kofi Annan
“Shifting towards low-carbon energy systems can avert climate catastrophe while creating new opportunities for investment, growth, and employment.”
― Kofi Annan
“Could you imagine if the U.N. had endorsed the war in Iraq, what our reputation would be like?”
― Kofi Annan
“When people say the U.N. is useless, I ask the question, which U.N. are we talking about? We have the U.N. that is a secretariat led by the secretary general, and we have a U.N. made up of member states who give us our mandate.”
― Kofi Annan
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