Kofi Annan: Suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere

Kofi Annan, former UN secretary-general and Nobel Peace laureate who died on August 18, 2018 after a brief illness, strove tirelessly for a fairer and peaceful world. A global statesman and a true internationalist, Annan believed that “suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere.” His belief in a better world and his instinctive empathy for the deprived and marginalised continue to shine forth in his speeches and well-chosen words.

Kofi Annan’s Top Quotes

Suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere.

To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.

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.

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. Kofi Annan

What governments and people don’t realise is that sometimes the collective interest – the international interest – is also the national interest. Kofi Annan

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

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.

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