Quotes by Kofi Annan

• Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.
• More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development.
• 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.
• 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.
• It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity.
• The Lord had the wonderful advantage of being able to work alone.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Iraq has a new opportunity to comply with all these relevant resolutions of the Security Council.
• 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.
• In the rush for justice it is important not to lose sight of principles the country holds dear.
• 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.
• 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?
• If one is going to err, one should err on the side of liberty and freedom.
• If information and knowledge are central to democracy, they are the conditions for development.
• 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.
• 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.
• Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.
• Business, labor and civil society organizations have skills and resources that are vital in helping to build a more robust global community.
• 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.
• In their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda.
• We have the means and the capacity to deal with our problems, if only we can find the political will.
• 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.
• We have to choose between a global market driven only by calculations of short-term profit, and one which has a human face.
• 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.
• We need to keep hope alive and strive to do better.
• 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.
• We need to think of the future and the planet we are going to leave to our children and their children.
• Strength comes not from the absence of fear, but from the courage to face it head on.