Kofi Annan Quotes

Germany is determined to provide substantial help. So are the Netherlands and other states. But a day will come when we have to count on our own resources.

The world before 1914 was already a world in which the welfare of each individual nation was inextricably bound up with the prosperity of the whole community of nations.

We are now physically, politically, and economically one world and nations so interdependent that the absolute national sovereignty of nations is no longer possible.

We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations far away. We have learned that we must live as men, not as ostriches

The welfare of America is closely bound up with the welfare of mankind

In a global economy, the Bush doctrine of unilateralism - going it alone - has been disastrous. It's becoming increasingly clear that we're all in this together. Your happiness is my happiness, your suffering is my suffering, your recession is my recession.

However fragmented the world, however intense the national rivalries, it is an inexorable fact that we become more interdependent every day. I believe that national sovereignties will shrink in the face of universal interdependence. The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: We are all in the same boat.

No nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over all others. We all share responsibility for each other's security, and only by working to make each other secure can we hope to achieve lasting security for ourselves.

In a world that is deepening its mutual interdependence, inward-focused thinking is no longer able to safeguard the peace of Japan. We will fully defend the lives and assets of our nationals as well as our territory, territorial waters, and territorial airspace in a resolute manner.

The international body must have the institutions and powers it needs to do what it is created to do; in other words it must be boldly and openly set up as a super-state on a level above the national sovereignties, and that, in turn, means that the Member States must have accepted in advance as much limitation and subordination of their particular sovereignties as this superior sovereign power requires.

No nation can ever be safe in the position it holds among nations, however great and however imposing, unless it recognizes those principles of justice and equality which bind together the nations of the world.

I do not applaud our quitting the League [of Nations]. The people act as if by withdrawing we have achieved something great …. This shows the shallowness of thought of the Japanese public.

An isolationist America would be everyone's nightmare.

Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life. .

We must creep before we can walk. Protect the manufacturers for the present, and in a little time, they will protect themselves and us. They have the potential of releasing us from our dependence on foreigners and quieting their intrigues.

There is no nation on the earth that wants, for its security, to depend on anybody else.

Only by carrying forward such a program with common determination and united national support, can we expect, in the long range of the future, to avoid becoming victims of destructive forces of international anarchy which in the absence of organized international relations will rule the world. By the procedure of cooperation with other nations likewise intent upon security, we can and will remain masters of our own fate.

… my unity with all people cannot be destroyed by national boundaries and government orders

The whole basis of the United Nations is the right of all nations - great or small - to have weight, to have a vote, to be attended to be a part of the twentieth century.

Thus may be envisioned a United States of the World. Ultimately, it will surely come.

U.S. national security interests are best served when the United Nations effectively fulfills this core purpose.

Afghanistan cannot be a burden on the international community and it has to become an asset.

If America isn't asking for Europe's help with New Jersey, why should Europe feel uninhibited about asking for America's help with Greece?

The attitude of 'every nation unto itself' is a destructive one for the future of Israel.

In both world wars, Britain understood that our national sovereignty could only endure if we cooperated with other nations. That our fate is inexorably bound with that of our neighbours.