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It's not that easy to quit. When you look back in the American system it is very rare that people quit on issues of principle.

Kofi Annan

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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
Back
Quitting
Look
Rare
Looks
Principle
People
Principles
Issues
System
American
Easy
Quit

More quotes by Kofi Annan

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These divisions in the international community - the Syrians bear quite a lot of the blame, but we have enabled it by the divisions between us.
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Let us work in partnerships between rich and poor to improve the opportunities of all human beings to build better lives.
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Asked whether donor nations may be becoming fatigued ... The fatigue may be there, but I don't think we can justify it in the face of such misery. We may need to wake up our conscience and our conscience must force us to act.
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I think the generational change is going to be so important for Africa that we really should encourage and push it as much as we can, because some of these younger men and women, who are men and women of their times, and are also connected to the rest of the world, wouldn't even know how to behave in the way some of the old leaders do.
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As I travel around the world, people think the only place where there is potential conflict [over] water is the Middle East, but they are completely wrong. We have the problem all over the world.
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Young people should be at the forefront of global change and innovation. Empowered, they can be key agents for development and peace.
Kofi Annan
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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
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If we get agriculture right in Africa, where most of the people now are working in that sector, not only would it help boost development but we will be secure in terms of food and nutrition and then be able to move on to other areas.
Kofi Annan
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For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.
Kofi Annan
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Professional accountants should use that influence to encourage the companies they serve to think long term and integrate sustainable development goals into their accounting, such as by including a natural capital account, which I have heard is gaining ground.
Kofi Annan
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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.
Kofi Annan
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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.
Kofi Annan
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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
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Children are our future and if we use them in battle, we are destroying the future. We must reclaim them, every one of them, one at a time.
Kofi Annan
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I was an ordinary boy at school, a young man. In fact, what did the headmaster once say? You're constantly challenging those in authority questioning and challenging those in authority. Which was not really the way I saw it. I felt there were questions that had to be answered, and things that weren't quite right.
Kofi Annan
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The gap between the rich and the poor cannot keep growing without nothing being done about it.
Kofi Annan
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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.
Kofi Annan
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Tolerance, inter-cultural dialogue and respect for diversity are more essential than ever in a world where peoples are becoming more and more closely interconnected.
Kofi Annan
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The international community... allows nearly 3 billion people - almost half of all humanity - to subsist on $2 or less a day in a world of unprecedented wealth.
Kofi Annan
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Once you are really challenged, you find something in yourself. Man doesn't know what he is capable of until he is asked.
Kofi Annan