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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.

-Kofi Annan

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It Is Extreme Arrogance

Kofi Annan

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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.

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You Are Never Too Young To Lead And You Should Never Doubt Your Capacity To Triumph Where Others Have Not.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Women Themselves Have The Right To Live In Dignity, In Freedom From Want And Freedom From Fear. On This International Women's Day, Let Us Rededicate Ourselves To Making That A Reality.

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.

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.

On This International Day Of Un Peacekeepers, Let Us Pay Tribute To The Men And Women From Countries Across The World Who Serve Selflessly, Tirelessly And Fearlessly In Un Peacekeeping Operations. Let Us Remember The Heroes Who Have Laid Down Their Lives In Lands Far From Their Own In The Service Of Peace. And Let Us Reaffirm Our Commitment To Building A World Free From The Scourge Of War.

I Was An Ordinary Boy At School, A Young Man. In Fact, What Did The Headmaster Once Say? "you're Constantly Challenging Those In Authority; Questioning And Challenging Those In Authority." Which Was Not Really The Way I Saw It. I Felt There Were Questions That Had To Be Answered, And Things That Weren't Quite Right.

Education Is, Quite Simply, Peace-building By Another Name. It Is The Most Effective Form Of Defense Spending There Is.

The Main Point In Our Report Was To Recommend Decriminalization...because Of The Way Laws Are Applied, Which Have Not Worked. We Have Applied Them For Decades And It's Got The Prisons Filled With Lots Of Young People Who Sometimes Come Out Destroyed For Having Half An Ounce... We Should Approach It Through Education And Health Issues Rather Than A Brutal Reaction... There Is Need For Change In Policy, But It Has To Start With Debate And Discussion... I Think The Whole Approach Has To Be Reviewed.

If There Is One Area Where Equity Is Crucial And Essential, I Think It Should Be The Issue Of Water.

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

When Women Thrive, All Of Society Benefits, And Succeeding Generations Are Given A Better Start In Life.

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

Information Is Power

We Knew The Syrian Situation Was Complex And There Were Lots Of Divisions, Particularly On The Side Of The Opposition... This Is A Tough Job... It Can Perhaps Be Done If You Stand United And Work With Me In Putting Sustained Pressure On The Protagonists Or The Parties To Come Together And Seek A Political Settlement.

For Everyone, Everywhere, Literacy Is, Along With Education In General, A Basic Human Right.

Hiv/aids Has Become Much More Than A Health Issue. Hiv/aids Is A Development Issue, It's A Security Issue.

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.

The Problem Is This. The Spread Of Markets Outpaces The Ability Of Societies And Their Political Systems To Adjust To Them, Let Alone To Guide The Course They Take

Like Any Large Organisation, Public Or Private, The Un Is A Complex Machine.

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.

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.

We Have To Choose Between A Global Market Driven Only By Calculations Of Short-term Profit, And One Which Has A Human Face.

Economic Globalization

When So Many Lives Are At Risk, When So Much Killing Is Going On, When There's So Much Chaos And Suffering, Isn't The Risk Warranted? ... And If We Don't Take The Risk Of Coming To The Conference, What Do We Do? We Let It Continue?

We All Make Mistakes.

Making Mistakes

We All Make Mistakes

Literacy Is At The Heart Of Sustainable Development

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.

There Are Lots Of Questions Which Have To Be Answered.

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].

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

Safe Environment

Asked Whether Donor Nations May Be Becoming Fatigued ... The Fatigue May Be There, But I Don't Think We Can Justify It In The Face Of Such Misery. We May Need To Wake Up Our Conscience And Our Conscience Must Force Us To Act.

Young People Should Be At The Forefront Of Global Change And Innovation. Empowered, They Can Be Key Agents For Development And Peace. If, However, They Are Left On Society's Margins, All Of Us Will Be Impoverished. Let Us Ensure That All Young People Have Every Opportunity To Participate Fully In The Lives Of Their Societies.

Insecurity Is Love Dressed In A Child's Clothing.

Have Confidence In The Young People, Give Them A Chance, And They Will Surprise You.

Intelligence Can Be Used To Manipulate.

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.

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

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

We Have The Means And The Capacity To Deal With Our Problems, If Only We Can Find The Political Will.

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Jeff Greenfield

John Jay Chapman

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