Quotes from Kofi Annan

On climate change, we often don't fully appreciate that it is a problem. We think it is a problem waiting to happen.

Sometimes I walk into a situation and know someone is going to provoke me, and I just simply refuse to be provoked.

We have the means and the capacity to deal with our problems, if only we can find the political will.

We seriously have to question the motivation of those people referred to as climate change sceptics, who are denying the evidence of human-caused climate change and preventing us from moving forward by spreading disinformation and supporting unchecked carbon pollution.

Children are our future, and their mothers are its guardians.

Education is, quite simply, peace-building by another name. It is the most effective form of defense spending there is.

The future of peace and prosperity that we seek for all the world's peoples needs a foundation of tolerance, security, equality and justice.

On this International Day of Peace, let us dare to imagine a world free of conflict and violence

Peace is never a perfect achievement.

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.

Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.

Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.

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.

A world government can intervene militarily in the internal affairs of any nation when it disapproves of their activities.

We shall not defeat any of the infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water, sanitation, and basic health care.

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.

Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope... Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition.

HIV/AIDS has become much more than a health issue. HIV/AIDS is a development issue, it's a security issue.

Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.

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.

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.

As one of my predecessors said, our objective is not to take people to heaven, but to prevent humanity from going to hell.

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.

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.