Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
A developed country is one that allows all its citizens to enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe environment
Unfortunately, very few governments think about youth unemployment when they are drawing up their national plans.
Education is the great equalizer of our time. It gives hope to the hopeless and creates chances for those without.
We must restore the sacredness of the family as a bedrock of humane values everywhere, in peace as well as in war.
We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.
We need to ensure the poorest in the planet - who will be hardest hit by the financial crisis - are not forgotten.
I am often asked what can people do to become a good global citizen? I reply that it begins in your own community.
Sometimes I walk into a situation and know someone is going to provoke me, and I just simply refuse to be provoked.
If the United Nations is not as united as it should be, that is because it is a reflection of the world we live in.
Poverty devastates families, communities and nations. It causes instability and political unrest and fuels conflict.
On climate change, we often don't fully appreciate that it is a problem. We think it is a problem waiting to happen.
Normally when people resign they will organise their champagne farewell parties... and then they resurface somewhere.
Education is, quite simply, peace-building by another name. It is the most effective form of defense spending there is.
Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.
Let us work in partnerships between rich and poor to improve the opportunities of all human beings to build better lives.
Once you are really challenged, you find something in yourself. Man doesn't know what he is capable of until he is asked.
A world government can intervene militarily in the internal affairs of any nation when it disapproves of their activities.
Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope... Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition.
As one of my predecessors said, our objective is not to take people to heaven, but to prevent humanity from going to hell.
To build a more healthy, peaceful and equitable world the classrooms of the world have to be full of girls as well as boys.
We have to choose between a global market driven only by calculations of short-term profit, and one which has a human face.
Fierce national competition over water resources has prompted fears that water issues contain the seeds of violent conflict.
Each crisis is different, has its own specificities, and we need to look at it critically; look at each one in its own terms.
It's not that easy to quit. When you look back in the American system it is very rare that people quit on issues of principle.
It is my aspiration that health finally will be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for.
You may have noticed over the years that the UN became a bit more media-friendly, a bit more open to the media than in the past.
I don't see a situation where one side will win militarily, take over Syria, and there will be peace and quiet, a clean victory.
The Arab Spring reminds me a bit of the decolonisation process where one country gets independence, and everybody else wants it.
UN is made even more complex by the constant interplay of politics and bureaucracy and can certainly be bewildering for a novice.
Sometimes when you take a tough action against one side in the conflict, they see you as part of the conflict and they attack you.
We must bring a message of solidarity, of mutual respect and, above all, of hope. Business cannot afford to be seen as the problem.
If tolerance, respect and equity permeate family life, they will translate into values that shape societies, nations and the world.
If you are neutral in a situation where one side is patently being mistreated, the conclusion is that you're siding with this wrong.
Young people should be at the forefront of global change and innovation. Empowered, they can be key agents for development and peace.
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?
I think that peacekeeping can do quite a lot, if they are given the right mandate with the commensurate resources to get the job done.
It is extreme arrogance for one to think he...and it's usually he, is the only one who can govern his country and nobody else can do it.
On this International Day of Peace, let us all honor those who have suffered from violence. Let us hold in our hearts the ideal of peace.
There has to be a force on the horizon that can come very quickly. But the way we run and fund peacekeeping, this capacity is unavailable.
Children are our future and if we use them in battle, we are destroying the future. We must reclaim them, every one of them, one at a time.
Business, labor and civil society organizations have skills and resources that are vital in helping to build a more robust global community.
The future of peace and prosperity that we seek for all the world's peoples needs a foundation of tolerance, security, equality and justice.
Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.
Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline; it is condemned to bleed to death.
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.
These divisions in the international community - the Syrians bear quite a lot of the blame, but we have enabled it by the divisions between us.
Shifting towards low-carbon energy systems can avert climate catastrophe while creating new opportunities for investment, growth, and employment.
I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time - without UN approval and much broader support from the international community.
What governments and people don't realise is that sometimes the collective interest - the international interest - is also the national interest.
Revolution by its nature can not be overly programmed or directed. There are so many forces at work that you don't know where and how it all ends.