Mohamed ElBaradei Quotes

The modernizing elite in the technologically and economically poor nations responded to colonialism by seizing the power of the state and using it to change their societies, hoping to achieve justice at home and economic and cultural parity abroad. The politics of changing traditional social structures and processes by using state power did not always result in social progress and economic development, but it did lead to state supremacy and autocracy. In the more extreme cases autocratic regimes were transformed to either forward-looking or reactionary totalitarianism-of socialist-Marxist, fascist, or religious-fundamentalist types. These systems clearly failed or are failing. But at the time they were adopted, to many they represented hope and a promise of economic change, distributive justice, and a better future.

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

Constitutional democracy has created astonishing and apparently irreversible social progress. All we're interested in is talking about when government doesn't work.

Haiti has changed a lot.

Just as China achieved much more than India in the realm of public health and education under an austere Communist regime, so its economic growth under a capitalist-friendly government strikes a visitor from India as nothing less than spectacular.

The return of democracy in our land has indeed thrown the problems of development into bolder relief.

The ultimate test of the value of a political system is whether it helps that society to establish conditions which improve the standard of living for the majority of its people.

What does Burma have to give the United States? We can give you the opportunity to engage with people who are ready and willing to change a society.

Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.

We're not a democracy.

An overall trend of political moderation in Latin America makes for far less interesting headlines, but it also makes for far better lives for our people.

Democracy is a destiny of humanity which cannot be averted. It can be delayed but not defeated.

Without economic development, any potential for political openness and freedom will be questionable.

Socialism is nothing more nor less than the social, political and ideological system which breaks the fetters upon economic growth created under capitalism and opens the way to a new period of economic and social expansion on a much larger scale.

In my fifty years of experience and memory, I have seen the most amazing increase in the standard of living of a people ever achieved anywhere in the world. This is why I am so sure that our system of free competition and industrial development is sound and must be preserved.

The civilized world is far ahead of us. We have no choice but to catch up.

Israel was established in 1948. Then, the average income in Palestine was lower than in Egypt, for example. Today, 55 years after the establishment of Israel, the average income in Israel is 15 times higher than in Egypt. Israel fought all same wars as the Arabs and Egyptians. How come it continued to progress to the point it has become a technological force to be reckoned with? The reason is that it's a democracy.

The locomotive is coming into contact with the framework of our institutions. In this country of simple government, the most powerful civilizing force which civilization has yet produced must … assume its relation to that political machinery which is to control and regulate it.

Economic developments made modern democracy possible.

The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draw all, even the most barbarian of nations into civilization.

To build socialism means not only building gigantic factories and flour mills. This is essential but not enough for building socialism. People must grow in mind and heart.

America…could within twenty years bring us to a degree of development which Turks, left to themselves, would not be able to achieve in a century. It would make Turkey prosperous, rich and happy and turn Turks into a strong and civilized nation.

The social goals are the most difficult to achieve in the development of any country.

Education is the foundation of social progress and economic development.

Zaire's one-party system is the most elaborate form of democracy