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Applaud Us When We Prevail, Correct Us When We Fail; But, Above All, Do Not Let This Indispensable, Irreplaceable Institution Wither, Languish Or Perish As A Result Of Member States' Indifference, Inattention Or Financial Starvation.

-Kofi Annan

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Applaud Us When We

Kofi Annan

Applaud Us When We Prevail, Correct Us When We Fail; But, Above All, Do Not Let This Indispensable, Irreplaceable Institution Wither, Languish Or Perish As A Result Of Member States' Indifference, Inattention Or Financial Starvation.

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[refugees] Cannot Be Stopped, But They Can And Must Be Managed Better, More Humanely, Protecting Migrants' Human Rights Whilst Accepting States' Rights To Control Their Borders.

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The Invasion And Occupation Of Iraq Is Illegal.

We May Have Different Religions, Different Languages, Different Colored Skin, But We All Belong To One Human Race.

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The Right To Development Is The Measure Of The Respect Of All Other Human Rights.that Should Be Our Aim: A Situation In Which All Individuals Are Enabled To Maximize Their Potential, And To Contribute To The Evolution Of Society As A Whole.

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Tony Blair Is A Very Able Politician; He's Perhaps One Of The Best Of His Generation. He Made A Major Contribution In Many Areas, But In Iraq I Believe He Got It Wrong. He Got It Wrong.

In All These Cases, Part Of The Reasons For Failure Perhaps Was Not Analyzing And Assessing The True Nature Of The Crisis, The Resources That Would Be Required, And Exaggerated Expectation Of What The U.n. Troops Can Do.

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Violence Against Women Is Perhaps The Most Shameful Human Rights Violation, And It Is Perhaps The Most Pervasive. It Knows No Boundaries Of Geography, Culture Or Wealth. As Long As It Continues, We Cannot Claim To Be Making Real Progress Towards Equality, Development And Peace

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Can The State, Which Represents The Whole Of Society And Has The Duty Of Protecting Society, Fulfill That Duty By Lowering Itself To The Level Of The Murderer, And Treating Him As He Treated Others? The Forfeiture Of Life Is Too Absolute, Too Irreversible, For One Human Being To Inflict It On Another, Even When Backed By Legal Process.

Usually, When You Look Around The World, People Are Killing Each Other, Fighting Over Scarce Resources.

When Things Are Really Desperate And Hopeless And You Can't Do Anything About This, And There's A Sense That Something Must Be Done, That Is Something Usually Leads To The U.n.

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I Laugh A Lot Inside And Outside, And At Myself Sometimes.

Inside And Outside

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The Reality Is That No Group Of Countries Has Any Grounds For Complacency About Its Own Human Rights Performance And No Group Of Countries Does Itself Justice By Automatically Slipping Into The "victim" Mode . . . .

The Lord Had The Wonderful Advantage Of Being Able To Work Alone.

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Without A Dream You'll Not Get Anywhere.

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Justice Has Taken Its Course And The Authority And Legitimacy Of The Legal Process Must Be Respected.

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Whether Our Task Is Fighting Poverty, Stemming The Spread Of Disease Or Saving Innocent Lives From Mass Murder, We Have Seen That We Cannot Succeed Without The Leadership Of The Strong And The Engagement Of All.

When We Talk About The Un, What Are We Really Talking About? We Are Talking About My Country, Your Country, Other Countries And Their Collective Will To Stand Together And Apply Pressure Or Offer Incentives To Steer Things In The Right Direction. When The Nations Of The World Come Together, With Collective Will, On An Issue And They Speak With A United Voice, They Have A Much Greater Impact. When There Is Division, Then The Impact Is Much, Much Less.

Elections With Integrity Are A Challenge Everywhere, Including In The West.

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Future Generation

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International Law Now Grants Rights To All Human Beings, Not Only To Citizens.

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Obama Saying Gaddafi Must Go. Putting It Upfront Like That... It's Not Very Helpful.

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.

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.

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?

Some Have Suggested That Ideally There Must Be Some International Body That Would Treat Areas Like The Arctic As A Global Commerce, A Bit Like The Way We Treat The Sea. It Doesn't Belong To Any Particular Country, But To All Of Us, But I'm Not Sure Some Of The Powerful Are Ready For That Sort Of Solution.

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.

My Intimate Knowledge Of The [un] System Allowed Me To Get Things Done Despite The Many Obstacles.

Invite Politicians To Dinner And Let Them Tell The World How Delicious It Is. . . . They Will Proudly Go Around And Say, 'i Ate Crickets, I Ate Locusts, And They Were Delicious.'

Justice Has Taken Its Course And The Authority And Legitimacy Of The Legal Process Must Be Respected.

Depending On Where You Live, Your Threat Is Much Different From The Other Person. If You Ask A New Yorker Today, Because Of The Way The Press Plays It, He Will Say Terrorism Is His Biggest Fear. But For Somebody Living On A Small Island State, Then It Is Climate Change, The Rise Of The Sea Level, For His Whole Island May Be Washed Away. If I Go To Southern Africa, They Tell Me It Is Hiv/aids And Somewhere In Asia It Is Poverty. This Is Also Why You Will Find It Difficult To Find Agreements, Because If You Want Someone To Be Concerned About Your Threat, Then You Should Be Concerned About His.

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.

The Future Of Peace And Prosperity That We Seek For All The World's Peoples Needs A Foundation Of Tolerance, Security, Equality And Justice. That Foundation Is The Family. It Is Only By Protecting Families, From Famine As Well As From Fragmentation, That They Can Prosper And Contribute To The Family Of Nations That Is The United Nations.

In An Era Of Globalisation, Aiesec's Programmes Have Helped Young People Around The World To Develop A Broader Understanding Of Cultural Socio-economic And Business Management Issues.

Human Beings Are Not Property. On The International Day For The Abolition Of Slavery, Let Us Reaffirm The Inherent Dignity Of All Men, Women And Children. And Let Us Redouble Our Efforts So That The Words Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights - 'no One Shall Be Held In Slavery Or Servitude' - Ring True.

This Is An Historic Step Forward In The World's Efforts To Combat A Truly Global Threat.

We Often Hear A Lot About Subsidies, Because It's Often The Powerful Talking About The Poor; The Poor Don't Have Enough Voice To Question The Privileges.

You Saw The Traumas That People Lived Through, And Wondered What It Will Take To Move Us As A Human Community, As Humanity, To Help In These Dangerous Situations.

Dangerous Situations

In Fact Un Is More Of A Galaxy Of Organisations And Agencies Than One Machine.

As One Of My Predecessors Said, Our Objective Is Not To Take People To Heaven, But To Prevent Humanity From Going To Hell.

A Developed Country Is One That Allows All Its Citizens To Enjoy A Free And Healthy Life In A Safe Environment

Safe Environment

One Has To Have The Strength Of Character To Say The Time Has Come To Move On... Unless You Are A King.

Literacy Unlocks The Door To Learning Throughout Life, Is Essential To Development And Health, And Opens The Way For Democratic Participation And Active Citizenship.

Access To Safe Water Is A Fundamental Human Need And Therefore A Basic Human Right.

The United Nations Has Long Recognised That The Imagination, Ideals And Energies Of Young Men And Women Are Vital For The Continuing Development Of The Societies In Which They Live. And Since Its Inception In 1948, Aiesec Has Contributed To This Development By Serving As An Agent Of Positive Change Trough Education And Cultural Exchange.

The U.n. Power Comes From Concerted Action Of The Governments.

We Have Seen Recently, Almost Every Major Head Of State Goes To India And Says, We Believe India Should Be In The Council. They Go Back Home And Do Nothing About It. But This Cannot Be Sustained For Long. If They Want To Keep The Un As A Global Forum Where They Discuss Incidents And Take Some Meaningful Decisions, They Should [reform].

I Used To Tell The Story About As A Young Man In High School One Of The Professors Came In And Put A Broad White Sheet On The Board With A Dot In The Right Hand Corner And Said, "boys, What Do You See?" And We All Shouted, A Black Dot. He Stood Back And Said, "not A Single One Of You Saw The Broad White Sheet, You All Saw The Black Dot." He Went On To Tell Us To Focus On The Broader Picture, Don't Focus On The Negative.

Let Us Be Good Stewards Of The Earth We Inherited. All Of Us Have To Share The Earth's Fragile Ecosystems And Precious Resources, And Each Of Us Has A Role To Play In Preserving Them. If We Are To Go On Living Together On This Earth, We Must All Be Responsible For It.

I Did Not Always Achieve What I Set Out To Do. Nevertheless, My Personal Example Certainly Suggests That Hands-on Experience Can Be Helpful To Future Leaders.

Intelligence Can Be Used To Manipulate.

In Countries Where Democracy Is Either Non-existent Or In Development, On The Other Hand, Citizens Crave Those Freedoms. Maybe That Is One Lesson Western Citizens Can Learn From Those Countries: Treasure What You Have. Use Your Rights And Freedoms To Effect The Change You Want.

Reform Is A Process, And Not An Event.

We Had A Rule In The School That When You're Punished, You Carry Out The Punishment And Then Complain, Which I Felt Was Absolutely Unfair: If I'd Done It, What Was The Point Of Complaining?

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.

Children Are Our Future, And Their Mothers Are Its Guardians.

Nelson Mandela Stands As An Inspiration To Us All

I Think Over Time You Learn To Know A Bit More About Yourself - You Develop A Certain Amount Of Self-insight And Self-awareness, And You Know What You Can Absorb, And What You Cannot; What Gets To You And What Doesn't.

To Build A More Healthy, Peaceful And Equitable World The Classrooms Of The World Have To Be Full Of Girls As Well As Boys.

Literacy Is A Bridge From Misery To Hope. It Is A Tool For Daily Life In Modern Society. It Is A Bulwark Against Poverty, And A Building Block Of Development, An Essential Complement To Investments In Roads, Dams, Clinics And Factories.

The Global Work Of The United Nations Is Not Without Reason Compared To That Of A Family - Striving For A Common Goal In Concert With All Members For A Better Future.

We Will Not Enjoy Security Without Development, We Will Not Enjoy Development Without Security, And We Will Not Enjoy Either Without Respect For Human Rights.

I Think We Can Make A Difference In The Lives Of The Poor, And The Millions.

Making A Difference

Sometimes I Walk Into A Situation And I Know Somebody Is Going To Provoke Me - Not Maybe, I Know He Will Provoke Me - I Know He Will Provoke Me! And There Are Times When I Simply Refuse To Be Provoked. And The Other Times You Have To Use That Superior Knowledge To Carry On At Work Without Distraction, And Don't Allow Yourself To Be Distracted.

I Often Quote An African Proverb That Says: "the World Is Not Ours, The Earth Is Not Ours, It's A Treasure We Hold In Trust For Future Generations." And I Often Hope We Will Be Worthy Of That Trust.

Education Is A Human Right With Immense Power To Transform

Democracies Have

We Were All Children Once. And We All Share The Desire For The Well-being Of Our Children, Which Has Always Been And Will Continue To Be The Most Universally Cherished Aspiration Of Humankind.

Ignorance And Prejudice Are The Handmaidens Of Propaganda. Our Mission, Therefore, Is To Confront Ignorance With Knowledge, Bigotry With Tolerance, And Isolation With The Outstretched Hand Of Generosity. Racism Can, Will, And Must Be Defeated.

The Gap Between The Rich And The Poor Cannot Keep Growing Without Nothing Being Done About It.

Ignorance And Prejudice Are The Handmaidens Of Propaganda. Our Mission, Therefore, Is To Confront Ignorance With Knowledge, Bigotry With Tolerance, And Isolation With The Outstretched Hand Of Generosity. Racism Can, Will, And Must Be Defeated.

When You Have Difficult Issues On The Table For Discussion, Then Sometimes For Africa You May Have Burundi Or Gambia Representing Them On The Security Council; And Then For Latin America You May Have A Country Like Costa Rica, Which Is A Wonderful Country But They Don't Have The Same Weight As Others From The Other Regions. And Sometimes They Get Bullied. Sometimes Their Capitals Come Under Lots Of Pressure To Take A Position.

In The Rush For Justice It Is Important Not To Lose Sight Of Principles The Country Holds Dear.

The Reality Is That No Group Of Countries Has Any Grounds For Complacency About Its Own Human Rights Performance And No Group Of Countries Does Itself Justice By Automatically Slipping Into The "victim" Mode . . . .

Jewish People Have Been Victims Of Anti-semitism In Many Parts Of The World, And In Europe They Were The Target Of The Holocaust, The Ultimate Abomination. Yet, We Cannot Expect Palestinians To Accept This As A Reason Why The Wrongs Done To Them.

The International Community... Allows Nearly 3 Billion People - Almost Half Of All Humanity - To Subsist On $2 Or Less A Day In A World Of Unprecedented Wealth.

To Look Into Some Aspects Of The Future, We Do Not Need Projections By Supercomputers. Much Of The Next Millennium Can Be Seen In How We Care For Our Children Today. Tomorrow's World May Be Influenced By Science And Technology, But More Than Anything, It Is Already Taking Shape In The Bodies And Minds Of Our Children.

I Think The Generational Change Is Going To Be So Important For Africa That We Really Should Encourage And Push It As Much As We Can, Because Some Of These Younger Men And Women, Who Are Men And Women Of Their Times, And Are Also Connected To The Rest Of The World, Wouldn't Even Know How To Behave In The Way Some Of The Old Leaders Do.

The Fight Against Hiv/aids Requires Leadership From All Parts Of Government - And It Needs To Go Right To The Top. Aids Is Far More Than A Health Crisis. It Is A Threat To Development Itself.

There Was A Time, With The Berlin Wall Down, That [it Looked As If] The Un Finally Could Do What It Was Set Up To Do, The Rivalry Between The Two Camps Would Dissipate, And We Could All Co-operate. And Then, Of Course, Iraq Came And Blew It All Apart. These Upheavals Will Always Take Place In The World, And The Design And Construct Of The Un Ideally Should Be Such That It Can Deal With These Upheavals, And Possibly Influence Them, And Survive And Thrive, But It Doesn't Work Out That Way, Because As An Organisation We Are So Dependent On The Same Member States.

Most Governments Only Want To Deploy A Peacekeeping Force Where There Is A Peace Agreement And There Is Peace To Keep. They Are Very Hesitant About Putting Their Men And Women In Harm's Way. It Is Extremely Difficult To Get The Troops If You Do Not Have The Consent Of The Country Where You Are Deploying.

It Is Extreme Arrogance For One To Think He Is The Only One Who Can Govern His Country And Nobody Else Can Do It. We're All Human. After 10, 15 Years You Get Tired, You Run Out Of Steam And Ideas, You Have To Give A Chance To Somebody Else. And Whether You Yourself Are Inclined To Stay On, All Those Around You Are Pushing You To Stay On For What They Will Gain. One Has To Have The Strength Of Character To Say The Time Has Come To Move On...unless You Are A King.

The [un Security Council] P5 Ought To Be Dissuaded From Using Their Veto Power, Which Can Paralyze The United Nations. The Country Blocking Action Ought To Have To Explain Its Decision And Propose An Alternative Solution. It Has Been Suggested That A Veto Only Becomes Effective If The Vetoing State Has The Support Of Two Or Three Other Permanent Members.

Founded On The Principles Of Private Initiative, Entrepreneurship And Self-employment, Underpinned By The Values Of Democracy, Equality And Solidarity, The Co-operative Movement Can Help Pave The Way To A More Just And Inclusive Economic Order.

In An Age Where Community Involvement And Partnerships With Civil Society Are Increasingly Being Recognized As Indispensable, There Is Clearly A Growing Potential For Cooperative Development And Renewal Worldwide.

Sadly, A Prize For Peace Is A Rarity In This World. Most Nations Have Monuments Or Memorials To War, Bronze Salutations To Heroic Battles, Archways Of Triumph. But Peace Has No Parade, No Pantheon Of Victory.

When We Talk About The Un, What Are We Really Talking About? We Are Talking About My Country, Your Country, Other Countries And Their Collective Will To Stand Together And Apply Pressure Or Offer Incentives To Steer Things In The Right Direction. When The Nations Of The World Come Together, With Collective Will, On An Issue And They Speak With A United Voice, They Have A Much Greater Impact. When There Is Division, Then The Impact Is Much, Much Less.

People Of Different Religions And Cultures Live Side By Side In Almost Every Part Of The World, And Most Of Us Have Overlapping Identities Which Unite Us With Very Different Groups. We Can Love What We Are, Without Hating What – And Who – We Are Not. We Can Thrive In Our Own Tradition, Even As We Learn From Others, And Come To Respect Their Teachings.

Literacy Is A Bridge From Misery To Hope.

The Global Hiv/aids Epidemic Is An Unprecedented Crisis That Requires An Unprecedented Response. In Particular It Requires Solidarity - Between The Healthy And The Sick, Between Rich And Poor, And Above All, Between Richer And Poorer Nations. We Have 30 Million Orphans Already. How Many More Do We Have To Get, To Wake Up?

You Have To Develop A Certain Healthy Distance To Allow You To Keep A Clear Head, To Be Able To Analyse The Situation, Lead Your Team, And Move Forward With Them, Because There Are Times If I'm Not Careful... If You Get Too Involved, It Will Consume You; It Will Consume You, And You Will Not Be Good To Your Team; The Issues You Are Dealing With.

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.

Reform Is A Process, And Not An Event.

Literacy Is A Bridge From Misery To Hope. It Is A Tool For Daily Life In Modern Society. It Is A Bulwark Against Poverty, And A Building Block Of Development, An Essential Complement To Investments In Roads, Dams, Clinics And Factories.

I've Been Around Enough To Realise That There Are Two Things That Once People Have Them, They Don't Want To Give Up, And It's Extremely Difficult To Convince Them To Give Up: One Is Privileges, And The Other Is Subsidies.

I Think The World Has Moved On.

There Can Be No Doubt That These Attacks Are Deliberate Acts Of Terrorism, Carefully Planned And Coordinated And As Such I Condemn Them Utterly. Terrorism Must Be Fought Resolutely Wherever It Appears.

Let Us Be Good Stewards Of The Earth We Inherited. All Of Us Have To Share The Earth's Fragile Ecosystems And Precious Resources, And Each Of Us Has A Role To Play In Preserving Them. If We Are To Go On Living Together On This Earth, We Must All Be Responsible For It.

Tony Blair Is A Very Able Politician; He's Perhaps One Of The Best Of His Generation. He Made A Major Contribution In Many Areas, But In Iraq I Believe He Got It Wrong. He Got It Wrong.

We Were All Children Once. And We All Share The Desire For The Well-being Of Our Children, Which Has Always Been And Will Continue To Be The Most Universally Cherished Aspiration Of Humankind.

The United Nations Has Long Recognised That The Imagination, Ideals And Energies Of Young Men And Women Are Vital For The Continuing Development Of The Societies In Which They Live. And Since Its Inception In 1948, Aiesec Has Contributed To This Development By Serving As An Agent Of Positive Change Trough Education And Cultural Exchange.

Un Is Made Even More Complex By The Constant Interplay Of Politics And Bureaucracy And Can Certainly Be Bewildering For A Novice.

In An Age Of Interdependence, Global Citizenship - Based On Trust And Sense Of Shared Responsibility - Is A Crucial Pillar Of Progress. At A Time When More Than One Billion People Are Denied The Very Minimum Requirements Of Human Dignity, Business Cannot Afford To Be Seen As The Problem. Rather, It Must Work With Governments And All Other Actors In Society To Mobilize Global Science, Technology And Knowledge To Tackle The Interlocking Crises Of Hunger, Disease, Environmental Degradation And Conflict That Are Holding Back The Developing World.

Un Is Made Even More Complex By The Constant Interplay Of Politics And Bureaucracy And Can Certainly Be Bewildering For A Novice.

Microfinance Recognizes That Poor People Are Remarkable Reservoirs Of Energy And Knowledge, Posing An Untapped Opportunity To Create Markets, Bring People In From The Margins And Give Them The Tools With Which To Help Themselves.

You Will Recall That For Months After 9/11, There Was Incredible Support And Sympathy For The Us. I Really Hoped And Wished They Had Played On That, And Kept All These Friends They Had Made, And Found A Way Of Dealing With The Terrorists Through Co-operation Of International Intelligence Services, Police Exchange Of Information.

Intelligence Services

Knowledge Is Power. Information Is Liberating.

Knowledge Is Power

Most People Forget That Even In Iraq, By The Time The Air And No-fly Zone Was Established, The Air Defence System Had Been Removed Through The First Gulf War. All Of Them Had Been Neutralised.

...let Us Recognize That Extreme Poverty Anywhere Is A Threat To Human Security Everywhere. Let Us Recall That Poverty Is A Denial Of Human Rights. For The First Time In History, In This Age Of Unprecedented Wealth And Technical Prowess, We Have The Power To Save Humanity From This Shameful Scourge. Let Us Summon The Will To Do It.

We Don’t Need Any More Promises. We Need To Start Keeping The Promises We Already Made.

The U.n. Power Comes From Concerted Action Of The Governments.

Both Parties Accept This Vision. But We Can Reach It Only If We Move Rapidly And In Parallel On All Fronts. The So-called 'sequential' Approach Has Failed.

Knowledge Is Power. Information Is Liberating. Education Is The Premise Of Progress, In Every Society, In Every Family.

Information Is Power

Today, No Walls Can Separate Humanitarian Or Human Rights Crises In One Part Of The World From National Security Crises In Another. What Begins With The Failure To Uphold The Dignity Of One Life All Too Often Ends With A Calamity For Entire Nations.

I Think The World Has Moved On.

Good, Healthy Democratic Societies Are Built On Three Pillars: There's Peace And Stability, Economic Development, And Respect For Rule Of Law And Human Rights. And Where All Three Are Present, You Stand A Very Good Chance Of Making A Go Of It.

There Is No Tool For Development More Effective Than The Education Of Girls And The Empowerment Of Women... When Women Are Fully Involved, The Benefits Can Be Seen Immediately: Families Are Healthier; They Are Better Fed; Their Income, Savings, And Reinvestment Go Up. And What Is True Of Families Is True Of Communities And, Eventually, Whole Countries.

It Is True That The Principle Of National Citizenship, Associated With Rights, And The Control Of A Country's Borders Are Two Key Aspects Of Modern 'sovereign' Nation States As They Emerged In The Westphalian Order. But There Has Been Much Progress Since 1648.

I Think Over Time You Learn To Know A Bit More About Yourself - You Develop A Certain Amount Of Self-insight And Self-awareness, And You Know What You Can Absorb, And What You Cannot; What Gets To You And What Doesn't.

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.

Economic Globalization

Once You Are Really Challenged, You Find Something In Yourself. Man Doesn't Know What He Is Capable Of Until He Is Asked.

When You Have Difficult Issues On The Table For Discussion, Then Sometimes For Africa You May Have Burundi Or Gambia Representing Them On The Security Council; And Then For Latin America You May Have A Country Like Costa Rica, Which Is A Wonderful Country But They Don't Have The Same Weight As Others From The Other Regions. And Sometimes They Get Bullied. Sometimes Their Capitals Come Under Lots Of Pressure To Take A Position.

To Look Into Some Aspects Of The Future, We Do Not Need Projections By Supercomputers. Much Of The Next Millennium Can Be Seen In How We Care For Our Children Today. Tomorrow's World May Be Influenced By Science And Technology, But More Than Anything, It Is Already Taking Shape In The Bodies And Minds Of Our Children.

Remembering Is A Necessary Rebuke To Those Who Say The Holocaust Never Happened Or Has Been Exaggerated.

It's Always A Difficult Time To Be Secretary General.

Difficult Times

Access To Safe Water Is A Fundamental Human Need And Therefore A Basic Human Right.

I Was Devastated By The Atrocious Bombings That Struck London Today. These Vicious Acts Have Cut Us All To The Core, For They Are An Attack On Humanity Itself. [7th July 2005 - On London Bombings

Business Cannot Prosper In Societies That Fail.

If One Is Going To Err, One Should Err On The Side Of Liberty And Freedom.

How Can You Have A World Of Today Where India Is Not Represented In The Security Council; Japan, The Second Contributor, Is Not There; The Whole Continent Of Africa, Soon To Be 54 Countries, Don't Have A Single Permanent Seat; And Latin America Is Absent? It's Not Realistic.

Peace Is Never A Perfect Achievement.

[refugees] Cannot Be Stopped, But They Can And Must Be Managed Better, More Humanely, Protecting Migrants' Human Rights Whilst Accepting States' Rights To Control Their Borders.

I Am Often Asked What Can People Do To Become A Good Global Citizen? I Reply That It Begins In Your Own Community.

If We Get Agriculture Right In Africa, Where Most Of The People Now Are Working In That Sector, Not Only Would It Help Boost Development But We Will Be Secure In Terms Of Food And Nutrition And Then Be Able To Move On To Other Areas.

Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.

2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.

2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.

2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.

3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.

3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.

3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.

4. Proper Usage of Quotes

4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.

4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.

4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

5. Common Mistakes to Avoid

5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.

5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.

5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.

6. Quotes in Different Contexts

6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.

6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.

6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.

7. Punctuation and Formatting

Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:

Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.

Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.

Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.

8. Ethical Considerations

Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes

Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.

Conclusion

Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.

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