Kofi Annan Quotes

What we need in Africa is balanced development. Economic success cannot be a replacement for human rights or participation or democracy... it doesn't work.

In this context, the church supports and favors every effort today to seek the full development of the personality of all human beings, and to promote their fundamental rights, their dignity and liberty.

While the overall goal of any society must be to educate all its members, at this stage in human history the greatest need is to educate women and girls. For over twenty years, studies have consistently documented that, of all possible investments, educating women and girls pays the highest overall dividends in terms of social development, the eradication of poverty and the advancement of community.

Th direct elimination of elimination of poverty should be the objective of all development aid. Development should be viewed as a human rights issue, not as a question of simply increasing the gross national product (GNP).

We need a race to the top so that we have policies and regulations that protect human rights, the environment and that reduce poverty.

Economic growth without investment in human development is unsustainable - and unethical.

Our Dream Is A World Free Of Poverty.

It's not enough to keep people in a static condition. We've got to give them lift.

My fear is that in general terms the evolution of the political process proceeds at the same pace as the evolution of the species and I do not myself believe that that is quite fast enough

China is a developing country and we regard subsistence as the fundamental human right.

We must be cognizant of the fact that the absence of economic rationality and perpetual political instability in our societies prevent us from fully benefiting from our resources as well as capabilities. In the extreme case, we find ourselves in devastating wars. Our conflict-ridden geography has substantially undercut our ability to develop economically. Natural wealth, including oil revenues has been wasted and the focus of attention has been other than human development

Without creative personalities able to think and judge independently, the upward development of society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community.

it must be right to suggest that all countries should use their resources so as to advance the right to development for their people in an equitable manner and that all countries should cooperate for the mutual achievement of the right to development. The alternative to such a policy framework is a Darwinian world of market-oriented capitalism with no social or human rights safety nets. How can developing countries survive in such a world?

Governance is a universal phenomenon in any society, but it may not lead a society to human development.

Today, the grandeur of a country is measured by the extent to which it defends and extends its citizens' rights through its impulse towards total equality, by its capacity to create energy that contributes towards cultural, social and economic growth. That is how a country becomes strong, by making its citizens more powerful.

Growth and prosperity. These are the blocks with which we must build our welfare society.

This age of globalization is marked by the adoption of universal principles governing such matters as democracy, human rights, trade and development.

It is past time to acknowledge that economic growth … is good, and that what the world needs is more of it.

What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures.

It is still in the lap of the gods whether a society can succeed which is based on "civil liberties and human rights" conceived as I have tried to describe them; but of one thing at least we may be sure: the alternatives that have so far appeared have been immeasurably worse

Empowering the individual means empowering the nation. And empowerment is best served through rapid economic growth with rapid social change.

The objective of politics is always to build scenarios in which persons' horizons can be expanded evermore. Any political action that is aimed at restricting individuals' horizons is, as I see it, a regressive action in relation to the political values that I embrace.

Every single day matters when it comes to building a world where every person can live their life to the fullest.

It will be great to live in a world where we don't discuss sex anymore because we have managed to go beyond it. And then we can focus on more important things.

Society is changing constantly, and changing faster than we think.