Kofi Annan Quotes
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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In today’s world, the security of every one of us is linked to that of everyone else.
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We cannot allow situations where leaders threaten war on television or on Twitter.
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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.
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I am a stubborn optimist: I was born an optimist and will remain an optimist.
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More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Unfortunately, very few governments think about youth unemployment when they are drawing up their national plans.
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It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity.