Ban Ki-moon Quotes

If the U.N. didn't exist, we'd be inventing it right now.

The U.N. can be very frustrating and at times impotent, but it can also be a valuable forum for discussion and resolution of world problems. We should not walk away from it just because it's failed to live up to its promise.

What we need now is a Treaty of the World not a Treaty of Rome.

The U.N. might not be the most luxurious place to work, but it certainly is one of the most important places in the world.

We believe in multilateral organization. It's very important for countries like Canada to be great promoters of multilateral organizations. We have only one superpower, it happens to be a friend of ours, but to maintain the equilibrium in the world it is very important that we have these multilateral organizations like the UN or others.

The day is coming when no single nation, however powerful, can undertake by itself to keep the peace outside its borders.

It [the UN] has given uniquely valuable services in many places where violence threatened. It is the only real world forum where we have the opportunity for international presentation and rebuttal…. The United Nation deserves our continued firm support.

I wouldn't give up on the U.N. yet.

The U.N. was created for people.

There was an implicit conviction that the UN would be stronger than the sum of its constituent member-states.

You may count on Mexico's support, since your commitment to the noblest causes of mankind and your vast experience are and will be invaluable in enabling us, together, to achieve a better world.

I have concluded that the U.N. can do a few things well.

In the past, a blow to the international system's strongest power would have been welcomed by its rivals. In the wake of September 11, however, every significant government in the world declared its support for the United States.

Now, the United Nations is an organization that I believe was founded with good intentions. As a matter of fact, a prominent Tennessean named Cordell Hull was very involved with it.

I don't know that there is much the United States can do except work with the international community.

The nations must be organized internationally and induced to enter into partnership, subordinating in some measure national sovereignty to worldwide institutions and obligations.

It is a commonplace that the League of Nations is not yet-what its most enthusiastic protagonists intended it to be.

International cooperation, multilateralism is indispensable.

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.

I think U.N. organizations are important organizations. They exist for good reasons. And we also admit that there is room for us to improve the way we do business. The WHO will be a very positive and proactive partner in the overall U.N. reform, which is also important.

We learned in World War II that no single nation holds a monopoly on wisdom, morality or right to power, but that we must fight for the weak and promote democracy.

We have actively sought and are actively seeking to make the United Nations an effective instrument of international cooperation.

If the United Nations is to survive, those who represent it must bolster it; those who advocate it must submit to it; and those who believe in it must fight for it.

I really do hope that the Millennium Summit gives new impetus to the work of the United Nations.

Peace and security of our planet must be based on the collective action of all nations, not a few, however powerful they may be.