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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
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Iraq has a new opportunity to comply with all these relevant resolutions of the Security Council.
Kofi Annan
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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.
Kofi Annan
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We cannot allow situations where leaders threaten war on television or on Twitter.
Kofi Annan
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Thank you, Senator Hagel for that wonderful introduction. It is a great honour to be introduced by such a distinguished legislator.
Kofi Annan
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He is very calm-very, very calm. Never raises his voice. Well-informed, contrary to the sense outside that he is ill-informed and isolated. And decisive.
Kofi Annan
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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
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More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development.
Kofi Annan
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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
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It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity.
Kofi Annan
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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
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I am a stubborn optimist: I was born an optimist and will remain an optimist.
Kofi Annan
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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
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The intention was really to do something dignified, something that is honest and reflects the work that this Organization does. And it is with that spirit that the producers and the directors approached their work, and I hope you will all agree they have done that.
Kofi Annan
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Business, labor and civil society organizations have skills and resources that are vital in helping to build a more robust global community.
Kofi Annan
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What a pleasure, and a privilege, to be here in Missouri. It is almost a homecoming for me. Nearly half a century ago I was a student about 400 miles north of here, in Minnesota.
Kofi Annan
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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
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Over the past five years, I have often recalled that the United Nations' Charter begins with the words: 'We the peoples.' What is not always recognized is that 'we the peoples' are made up of individuals whose claims to the most fundamental rights have too often been sacrificed in the supposed interests of the state or the nation.
Kofi Annan
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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
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We need to think of the future and the planet we are going to leave to our children and their children.
Kofi Annan
