Jean Monnet Quotes

Societies are not sustainable without institutions.

Institutions are more powerful than men.

I want to talk to these people because they stay in power and you change all the time.

Some of those men in power, we just have to change their faces because we're not going to change their minds.

My friends, history, history calls us to this time and to this place. A solemn choice rests with us - where do we go from here? Do we move slowly and incrementally? Or do we seize the challenge of our time and tackle the great issues of our day.

Governments never learn. Only people learn.

Things don’t always get better. Sometimes they get worse. The only way things will get better if people make them better.

The people are difficult to govern: It is because those in authority are too fond of action [change].

Structure is not about moving boxes around on a chart. Structure is about power.

Institutions are more important than the individual leaders.

If the [Ugandan President] Yoweri Museveni of 1986 were to meet the Museveni of today they would fight on sight - they would shoot each other.

In my reporting, I've found that real change escapes many change-makers because powerful illusions guide their projects.

Women are focused on getting things done and bring fresh perspectives and innovative approaches to a political system that's crying out for change.

Only individual creativity can bring about real social development.

Technology can be part of a solution, but it takes far more than software to usher in reform.

You would be naive to suggest that politics isn't complicated or isn't a game, but you don't create change through cynicism.

My long-term ambition is to be an agent of change.

At the end of the day, there's so much work that has to be done to impact positive change in any direction you look.

The enemy is the system. And the system is made up of people, and we have a choice in that.

I think water seeks its own level, that we go through challenges to become better. And now more than ever, it's good to look at who you're following in any type of hierarchy or institution - be it a church or the government. We can see how easy it is for people to lose their footing when they have great power.

Especially in the sphere of social activism, I think we tend to unwittingly conceptualize progress or revolution as black and white and having a clear beginning and end.

It's only when we stop looking exclusively to the podium for our heroes and start looking all around us that we'll make the greatest progress toward a better tomorrow.

Obama stands as a signal that this nation will continue to redefine what it means to push beyond the borders of what's possible.

Policy is the way you can change the world.

It's weird because there is progress somehow. But there's so much that just feels the same. How important is that rank? How important is it that I am allowed to make these decisions? What does that really mean? What is progress? Is it progress that a black guy gets to push a button for the nuclear bomb? Is that progress? Maybe, I don't know.