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

If one is going to err, one should err on the side of liberty and freedom.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

If information and knowledge are central to democracy, they are conditions for development.

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.

When economic conditions are difficult, people tend to be less generous and protect themselves; the question of solidarity doesn't mean much to them at that time.

Time and again, when member states and the governments are faced with an insoluble problem, and they're under pressure to do something, that something usually ends up being referred to the U.N.

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.

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

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

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