Ban Ki-moon Quotes

The Arab Spring I think we will look back whether it's two years, five years, ten or fifteen. And say it's a good thing.

None of us is certain about the outcome of the Arab Spring.

The so called “Arab Spring” … is really a situation which is creating more threats so far than positive incentives.

The Arab Spring is over. The days of the protesters with laptops and BlackBerrys in Tahrir Square are long gone.

The Arab world is erupting, which is extraordinary, and to see it happen is like watching rings spreading on a pool - it goes out; it varies so much. The spontaneity is wonderful, but very often, if it's not well organized, it breaks up, and it peters out.

The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it.

Revolution, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.

As you know with the Arab Spring, there were no dividends.

America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.

In politics experiments mean revolutions.

This government must go. It is our duty to make sure that it does go.

Had you asked an expert on the Middle East what changes would be likely to tke place in 2011, almost none would have predicted the Arab Spring and none would have chosen Tunisia as the flashpoint.

Rebellions broke out, from the full-scale political revolution of Dorr’s rebellion in Rhode Island to urban violence and protest, often by out of work whites taking out their anger on African Americans or Irish Americans. In response, leaders had to come to terms with the role of force in a democracy.

Changing a political system is not a question of contesting and polemicizing, but of blowing everything up.

It is hard to know exactly when the Arab Spring, a phrase used to describe the beginning of the Arab peoples' demand for democracy and human-rights reform, started.

I'll fight with all my strength for change in this country.

You can't change the world through the parliamentary system.

Revolution means turning the wheel.

The wind of revolutions is not tractable.

We see people in the Middle East begin to have dreams of new Ottoman Empire where everyone will be subjected to some of what we've seen happen in those countries where we helped bring about an Arab Spring that's turned into a Winter Nightmare.

I think this is really a defining moment for the Arab world. The problem is, it is all going to be about blood, sweat and tears. In certain countries it may be just sweat, and in some countries sweat and tears, and in some countries, as you can see, a lot of blood. I think initial instability is something that we are all extremely nervous of.

You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.

There exists an unmistakable demand in the Middle East and in the wider Muslim world for democratization.

The aim of my life is the overthrow of monarchy.

In crises, the old is dying and the new has not been born. Hence, the revolts we are witnessing in Egypt and Tunisia, which may yet extend to other countries in the region, are full of uncertainties.