Kofi Annan

Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope... Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition.

In an age where community involvement and partnerships with civil society are increasingly being recognized as indispensable, there is clearly a growing potential for cooperative development and renewal worldwide.

Terrorism constitutes a direct attack on the values the UN stands for: the rule of law; the protection of civilians; peaceful resolution of conflicts; and mutual respect between people of different faiths and cultures.

Above all else, we need a reaffirmation of political commitment at the highest levels to reducing the dangers that arise both from existing nuclear weapons and from further proliferation.

Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.

Sometimes leaders slide from the role of freedom fighter into the presidency, which they may be unsuited for, but everyone accepts it until they hit the bump in the road.

The Arab Spring reminds me a bit of the decolonisation process where one country gets independence, and everybody else wants it.

I don't share the view that the ICC is anti-African. The ICC is not putting Africa on trial. The ICC is fighting impunity and individuals who are accused of crimes.

If citizens do not believe they can change their leaders through the ballot box, they will find other ways, even at the risk of destabilizing their countries.

Could you imagine if the U.N. had endorsed the war in Iraq, what our reputation would be like?

I think that my darkest moment was the Iraq war and the fact that we could not stop it.

Shifting towards low-carbon energy systems can avert climate catastrophe while creating new opportunities for investment, growth, and employment.

I am a stubborn optimist: I was born an optimist and will remain an optimist.

We cannot allow situations where leaders threaten war on television or on Twitter.

If we can come up with innovations and train young people to take on new jobs, and if we can switch to clean energy, I think we have the capacity to build this world not dependent on fossil-fuel. I think it will happen, and it won't destroy economy.

We need to think of the future and the planet we are going to leave to our children and their children.

The skills you need to fight the colonial power and the skills you need to gain independence are not necessarily the same you need to run a country.

On climate change, we often don't fully appreciate that it is a problem. We think it is a problem waiting to happen.

As long as inequality and other social problems plague us, populists will try to exploit them.

When people say the U.N. is useless, I ask the question, which U.N. are we talking about? We have the U.N. that is a secretariat led by the secretary general, and we have a U.N. made up of member states who give us our mandate.

I have always believed that on important issues, the leaders must lead. Where the leaders fail to lead, and people are really concerned about it, the people will take the lead and make the leaders follow.