Quote

In a world of plenty, continued suffering is a terrible stain on our conscience. It is inexcusable that we not strive, with every resource at our disposal, to eliminate suffering.

Kofi Annan

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Kofi Annan
Age: 80 †
Born: 1938
Born: April 8
Died: 2018
Died: August 18
Diplomat
Economist
Politician
Coomassie
Kofi Atta Annan
Annan
Kofi A. Annan
Suffering
Resource
Change
Eliminate
Every
Continued
World
Plenty
Strive
Inexcusable
Conscience
Stain
Resources
Disposal
Terrible
Stains

More quotes by Kofi Annan

Image
From this vision of the role of the United Nations in the next century flow three key priorities for the future: eradicating poverty, preventing conflict and promoting democracy.
Kofi Annan
Image
The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the States in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being.
Kofi Annan
Image
If globalization is to succeed, it must succeed for poor and rich alike. It must deliver rights no less than riches. It must provide social justice and equity no less than economic prosperity and enhanced communication.
Kofi Annan
Image
Does anyone seriously contend that any nation can fend for itself?
Kofi Annan
Image
Invite politicians to dinner and let them tell the world how delicious it is. . . . They will proudly go around and say, 'I ate crickets, I ate locusts, and they were delicious.'
Kofi Annan
Image
A hungry mind is not free, and I felt if we were really going to make a difference and fight poverty we should at least start with the ability to feed ourselves, and the millions of Africans who don't have it.
Kofi Annan
Image
Democracy is, in essence, a form of non-violent conflict management. If war is the worst enemy of development, healthy and balanced development is the best form of conflict prevention.
Kofi Annan
Image
The global HIV/AIDS epidemic is an unprecedented crisis that requires an unprecedented response. In particular it requires solidarity - between the healthy and the sick, between rich and poor, and above all, between richer and poorer nations. We have 30 million orphans already. How many more do we have to get, to wake up?
Kofi Annan
Image
The problem is this. The spread of markets outpaces the ability of societies and their political systems to adjust to them, let alone to guide the course they take
Kofi Annan
Image
If you have a problem and you can't find a solution, you meet again tomorrow and you keep talking until you find a solution. You can disagree with behavior or a particular position, but you do not resort to calling an opponent worthless.
Kofi Annan
Image
We have to choose between a global market driven only by calculations of short-term profit, and one which has a human face.
Kofi Annan
Image
For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.
Kofi Annan
Image
Iraq has a new opportunity to comply with all these relevant resolutions of the Security Council.
Kofi Annan
Image
Some have suggested that ideally there must be some international body that would treat areas like the Arctic as a global commerce, a bit like the way we treat the sea. It doesn't belong to any particular country, but to all of us, but I'm not sure some of the powerful are ready for that sort of solution.
Kofi Annan
Image
Globalization is a fact of life. But I believe we have underestimated its fragility.
Kofi Annan
Image
You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done.
Kofi Annan
Image
It is not in the United Nations that the Millennium Development Goals will be achieved. They have to be achieved in each of its Member States, by the joint efforts of their governments and people.
Kofi Annan
Image
I think that peacekeeping can do quite a lot, if they are given the right mandate with the commensurate resources to get the job done.
Kofi Annan
Image
I spent my youth and my most formative years in Africa. I left Africa when I was about 20, 21, and when Mo says a great African, I was really moulded by my African experience, although I had the good fortune that by the time I was 24 I had studied and worked on three continents - Africa, the US, and Europe.
Kofi Annan
Image
Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.
Kofi Annan