Kofi Annan

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

"The Lord had the wonderful advantage of being able to work alone."

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

"Many African leaders refuse to send their troops on peace keeping missions abroad because they probably need their armies to intimidate their own populations."

"I urge the Iraqi leadership for sake of its own people... to seize this opportunity and thereby begin to end the isolation and suffering of the Iraqi people."

"Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world."

"More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together. And that, my friends, is why we have the United Nations."

"There is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole - women and men alike - than the one which involves women as central players."

"In the 21st century, I believe the mission of the United Nations will be defined by a new, more profound awareness of the sanctity and dignity of every human life, regardless of race or religion."

"Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family."

"The question is the morning after. What sort of Iraq do we wake up to after the bombing? What happens in the region? What impact could it have? These are questions leaders I have spoken to have posed."

"More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development."

"Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance."

"We cannot wait for governments to do it all. Globalization operates on Internet time. Governments tend to be slow moving by nature, because they have to build political support for every step."

"We need to keep hope alive and strive to do better."

"Business, labor and civil society organizations have skills and resources that are vital in helping to build a more robust global community."

"Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential."

"You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done."

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

"Ignorance and prejudice are the handmaidens of propaganda. Our mission, therefore, is to confront ignorance with knowledge, bigotry with tolerance, and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. Racism can, will, and must be defeated."