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What governments and people don't realise is that sometimes the collective interest - the international interest - is also the national interest.


Kofi Annan

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We shouldn't be thinking about individuals or departments. We should be thinking about national ...
JAHANGIR KHAN We pay a price when special interests win out over the collective national interest.
CHRIS CHRISTIE I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ...
KELLY JONES Simple things don't interest me.
HIAM ABBASS The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interest them, and sometimes ...
HOWARD LUCK GOSSAGE I don't think of my books as being biographies. I never had any interest in doing a book just to...
ROBERT CARO It is the interest one takes in books that makes a library. And if a library have interest it is; if...
CAROLYN WELLS I don't have a strong interest in history.
LARRY NIVEN The public interest is not always the same as the national interest. Going to war with people who ar...
EDWARD SNOWDEN I'm curious about everything. Even subjects that don't interest me.
ALEX TREBEK The most glaringly obvious fact about the present case is the significant media and public interest ...
RODNEY MELVILLE The biggest mistake that you will make in life is believing that governments act in the public inter...
STEVEN MAGEE I have decided that I won't take up assignments that don't interest me.
LATA MANGESHKAR Tackling deprivation around the world is a moral imperative and firmly in Britain's national int...
ANDREW MITCHELL I really can't describe what my stand-up is like - people see it and they say it's like that...
DYLAN MORAN The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles. What...
HENRY KISSINGER Let me say this: I believe closing Guantanamo is in our Nation's national security interest. Gua...
DIANNE FEINSTEIN I don't know how anyone could vote Republican. It's so obvious that their only interest is k...
VIVIAN CAMPBELL The creation of this series will generate collective interest and excitement at a level that has not...
CAREY PINKOWSKI The policy is 100 per cent pragmatism, based on Russia's national interest.
YEVGENY SATANOVSKY our vital national interest.
NATWAR SINGH Interest only is also real popular.
JOE MAYS What is in the public interest? It is in the public interest to eliminate a threat to public health ...
BILL NELSON The most important, what I believe myself to do, is what is the interest of Lebanon, what is the int...
NAJIB MIKATI I certainly believe that improving our intelligence is of important national interest.
JEFF SESSIONS It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of t...
JEREMY BENTHAM It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of t...
JEREMY BENTHAM The prime minister believes this issue is of critical importance to Canadians and the national inter...
MARC ROY Whether we visit South Bend, or the game is played on the East Coast, it is of great interest to our...
CHET GLADCHUK We should have an inclusive growth model in India. Agro-interest is also as important as industrial ...
BABA KALYANI This is an area of extreme interest for a number of governments across Europe.
ANDREW WITTY I would dodge, not lie, in the national interest.
LARRY SPEAKES Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don...
T. S. ELIOT People's interest is in the product, not in its authorship.
JONATHAN IVE He who can take no interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great.
JOHN RUSKIN He who can take no interest in what is small, will take false interest in what is great.
UNKNOWN It's time to put the national interest before the interests of Wall Street.
MARTIN O'MALLEY Our national debt, after all, is an internal debt, owed not only by the nation but to the nation. If...
FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT I do interviews because it's a chance to be myself. I sometimes wonder what I could have to say ...
PARKER STEVENSON He who can take no great interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great.
JOHN RUSKIN He who can take no great interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great
JOHN RUSKIN European governments have little interest in revealing these (CIA) activities that are covert.
JOANNE MARINER Business is a very beautiful mechanism to solve problems, but we never use it for that purpose. We o...
MUHAMMAD YUNUS I believe that the present government will do what is in the best interest of the Bahamian people an...
LESLIE MILLER I don't deal with the whole 'bad boy who doesn't call you.' That doesn't interes...
MACKENZIE ROSMAN I really don't have a lot of interest in national politics, and it's because I'm a skept...
RON CONWAY Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an int...
PERICLES What is required from members of Congress and the public alike is a new spirit of devotion to the na...
EVAN BAYH Where was Kofi Annan when Saddam was slaughtering the Iraqis like sheep?
HAZEM SHA'ALAN I don't recall any interest in science in particular. It came later in college.
ELLEN OCHOA I know that he [Clinton] is determined and has the judgment and the ability to be a president that d...
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT The idea that the President also needs to go to the bathroom, I suppose, is of interest.
JANE WELLS It's not in baseball's interest or the players' interest to be taking this stance. It...
FAY VINCENT We think this is in the broader interest of the consumers and the higher interest of the consumers.
CHARLES DALFEN I have no interest in non-fiction. I don't read it and don't watch it and don't write it...
W. P. KINSELLA Today is about the now, the moment you live in, so do now what you want to do
SOTONYE ANGA People who get into animation tend to be kids. We don't have to grow up. But also, animators are...
JOHN LASSETER I wanted to put the national interest before my personal interests.
MICHAEL GOVE Corporate America doesn't really have an interest in Formula One because there is nothing Americ...
ALEXANDER ROSSI I do feel as if... Look, I think I'm a very kind of ordinary person, and it seems to me that thi...
KATE GRENVILLE Being a housewife and a mother is the biggest job in the world, but if it doesn't interest you, ...
KATHARINE HEPBURN No, I'm not interested in politics. I have zero interest. I have interest in hope and people.
JAY-Z [Reached by phone, National Interest co-publisher Dimitri Simes returned the insults.] Years ago, he...
DIMITRI SIMES The upward interest rate trend will continue because the real interest rate is still negative.
AMPON KITTIAMPON A man's interest in the world is only the overflow of his interest in himself
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW A society that is all self-interest and no comradeship is not a society at all. But a society that i...
MEIR SOLOVEICHIK We're doing things that are just not in our national interest.
LIZ VIERING Moana doesn't have a love interest because this movie is about a journey - a physical one across...
AULI'I CRAVALHO The last few years have seen increasing interest, among intellectuals especially. Now with the Cup n...
GERD GRAUS I'm a curious person. I pursue things based on what sparks my interest. I'm not thinking abo...
ROMAN COPPOLA I don't like conflicts of interest; they should be eliminated or disclosed. I believe in transpa...
ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN For the past 15 years or so, British governments have tried to persuade the rest of us that the best...
NEIL ASCHERSON In the process of ego, in the process of lobbying and in the process of just criticising for stake o...
VEERAPPA MOILY I don't have an interest in any car that isn't good for the environment, other than maybe an...
EMILE HIRSCH The majority of the benefit from the present treatment of mortgage-interest deduction goes to the ve...
CONNIE MACK I have an armchair interest in gardening, but I don't like to get my knees dirty. I don't ha...
NICK CAVE [U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked the Northern Alliance] to respect their obligations und...
LAKHDAR BRAHIMI A man's interest in the world is only an overflow from his interest in himself.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW The Taiwan issue concerns China's core interest and the national feelings of 1.3 billion Chinese.
JIA QINGLIN The main battle is to make people realise that doubt is important. Doubt is good. The 'don't...
ROBIN INCE The highest-income Americans don't need tax-free health insurance, mortgage interest deductions ...
STEVEN RATTNER We see the passion of the neighborhood and their interest in this but we also know that money is tig...
MARK ZACCARIA We've reached a very low-level equilibrium where it's not clear whose interest it is in to d...
DAMBISA MOYO The truth is that as we move forward, if one side says we can't raise any taxes on anybody or an...
DAVID AXELROD Congress has the responsibility to ensure that any international trade agreement entered into by the...
JEFF SESSIONS I think another thing is that we don't really want exclusivity. We accept that it is in the arti...
PETER GABRIEL I don't like to just talk about nothing, or less than nothing. If it's something interesting...
ZACK GREINKE If patriotism is, as Dr. Johnson used to remark, the last refuge of the scoundrel, wrapping outdated...
KENICHI OHMAE Sometimes I frown and I don't realise it.
MARY J. BLIGE I think clearly shows there is a lot of interest in Iraq and reflects the general interest of the pu...
JAMES LONGLEY The dream, alone, is of interest. What is life, without a dream?
EDMOND ROSTAND What is true of Mr. Mill's influence on the women's-suffrage question is true also of the ot...
MILLICENT FAWCETT She buys "mixed salad greens" for seven dollars a bag, triple-washed with who knows what. And to get...
RUDOLPH DELSON What we normally define as history doesn't interest me. It's a constraint.
DAVID CHRISTIAN People are complacent about interest rates now. There is a risk that the emerging strength of the da...
BILL EVANS Any effort which wittingly or unwittingly draws a wedge between the people and Armed Forces of Pakis...
ASHFAQ PARVEZ KAYANI Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you...
C. JOYBELL C. I've been perfectly happily married for 25 years, and have a nice life. Inane things don't i...
GEEZER BUTLER Everything is going well. I'm getting a lot of positive interest, and I'm pleased with the interest ...
GREG AMODIO I have an expression I use as I've gone around the world through my career: 'You never tell ...
JOE BIDEN

More Kofi Annan

There is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole - women and men alike - than ...
KOFI ANNAN The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the states in the world, is founded on the...
KOFI ANNAN We cannot wait for governments to do it all. Globalization operates on Internet time. Governments te...
KOFI ANNAN National markets are held together by shared values and confidence in certain minimum standards. But...
KOFI ANNAN If information and knowledge are central to democracy, they are conditions for development.
KOFI ANNAN If one is going to err, one should err on the side of liberty and freedom.
KOFI ANNAN If the United Nations does not attempt to chart a course for the world's people in the first dec...
KOFI ANNAN More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development.
KOFI ANNAN The Lord had the wonderful advantage of being able to work alone.
KOFI ANNAN We need to think of the future and the planet we are going to leave to our children and their childr...
KOFI ANNAN We have the means and the capacity to deal with our problems, if only we can find the political will...
KOFI ANNAN We need to keep hope alive and strive to do better.
KOFI ANNAN We must ensure that the global market is embedded in broadly shared values and practices that reflec...
KOFI ANNAN In their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda.
KOFI ANNAN To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where yo...
KOFI ANNAN In the 21st century, I believe the mission of the United Nations will be defined by a new, more prof...
KOFI ANNAN Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones ...
KOFI ANNAN In the rush for justice it is important not to lose sight of principles the country holds dear.
KOFI ANNAN We have to choose between a global market driven only by calculations of short-term profit, and one ...
KOFI ANNAN Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of red...
KOFI ANNAN The Palestinian Authority seems to believe that failing to act against terrorism, and inducing turmo...
KOFI ANNAN All is not well. Science tells us that if we do not take the right action now, climate change will b...
KOFI ANNAN The inquiry committee has ripped away the curtain, and shone a harsh light into the most unsightly c...
KOFI ANNAN Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from natio...
KOFI ANNAN Let us remember that every person who is infected, whatever the reason, is a fellow human being with...
KOFI ANNAN These robust, versatile machines will enable children to become more active in their own learning,
KOFI ANNAN Unless the differences within the transitional federal institutions are addressed, the current polit...
KOFI ANNAN More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development.
KOFI ANNAN Globalization is a fact of life. But I believe we have underestimated its fragility.
KOFI ANNAN We must ensure that the global market is embedded in broadly shared values and practices that reflec...
KOFI ANNAN The United Nations believes that acceptance of these principles will help the Palestinian people ach...
KOFI ANNAN Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every societ...
KOFI ANNAN Many African leaders refuse to send their troops on peace keeping missions abroad because they proba...
KOFI ANNAN There were governments that were not willing to make the concessions necessary, there were spoilers ...
KOFI ANNAN The tragedy of Srebrenica will forever haunt the history of the United Nations
KOFI ANNAN I don't share the view that the ICC is anti-African. The ICC is not putting Africa on trial. The...
KOFI ANNAN It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity.
KOFI ANNAN More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face ...
KOFI ANNAN Unfortunately, very few governments think about youth unemployment when they are drawing up their na...
KOFI ANNAN On climate change, we often don't fully appreciate that it is a problem. We think it is a proble...
KOFI ANNAN Business, labor and civil society organizations have skills and resources that are vital in helping ...
KOFI ANNAN If we can come up with innovations and train young people to take on new jobs, and if we can switch ...
KOFI ANNAN Ignorance and prejudice are the handmaidens of propaganda. Our mission, therefore, is to confront ig...
KOFI ANNAN When economic conditions are difficult, people tend to be less generous and protect themselves; the ...
KOFI ANNAN The problem is this. The spread of markets outpaces the ability of societies and their political sys...
KOFI ANNAN I have come here to see for myself what is happening and to discuss with the president and the prime...
KOFI ANNAN extremely concerned about the rapidly deteriorating situation.
KOFI ANNAN They often lack simple and fundamental information that is crucial to their safety. As we know, in t...
KOFI ANNAN This is inexcusable. Weapons of mass destruction pose a grave danger to us all, particularly in a wo...
KOFI ANNAN It is vital that we turn this situation around and ensure that developing countries receive the fina...
KOFI ANNAN We are taking very active measures to ensure that we do not have any more bad apples in that departm...
KOFI ANNAN to see if broader investigations can take place.
KOFI ANNAN There are now 11 women heads of state or government, in countries on every continent. And three coun...
KOFI ANNAN The balance must be redressed.
KOFI ANNAN We are going to work with the Congolese people and the government to make sure we make progress and ...
KOFI ANNAN We can wait until everything is perfect but how much time will that take? One year, two years, three...
KOFI ANNAN I personally believe, as I think a lot of security Council members believe with 100% certainty, that...
KOFI ANNAN The question is the morning after. What sort of Iraq do we wake up to after the bombing? What happen...
KOFI ANNAN The people of Serbia want to have a say in the decisions affecting them. And I hope that this choice...
KOFI ANNAN Let us, above all, be clear that, without a convincing program of debt relief to start the new mille...
KOFI ANNAN Jewish people have been victims of anti-Semitism in many parts of the world, and in Europe they were...
KOFI ANNAN Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out...
KOFI ANNAN Whether our challenge is peacemaking, nation-building, democratization or responding to natural or m...
KOFI ANNAN If information and knowledge are central to democracy, they are the conditions for development.
KOFI ANNAN I have always believed that on important issues, the leaders must lead. Where the leaders fail to le...
KOFI ANNAN I urge the Iraqi leadership for sake of its own people... to seize this opportunity and thereby begi...
KOFI ANNAN We submit to you our request for your involvement and your good office in the present circumstances ...
KOFI ANNAN a new era of human rights in Iraq will now begin.
KOFI ANNAN creative way of approaching the issue and you may wish to share it widely.
KOFI ANNAN Those who are responsible for the atrocities in East Timor must be held accountable, ... So, basical...
KOFI ANNAN given what happened last week, and the tense situation we find ourselves in.
KOFI ANNAN This initiative, which must lead to a full Israeli withdrawal and complete end of occupation in Gaza...
KOFI ANNAN It was normal for us to lend our support to candidates from (African) countries with links to France...
KOFI ANNAN We not only have no convincing evidence of these allegations; we have no evidence of any kind. We ha...
KOFI ANNAN There seem to be efforts coming from Lebanese territory to deliberately create instability along the...
KOFI ANNAN a serious lack of cohesion within the mission as well as a number of other shortcomings.
KOFI ANNAN There are no excuses, ... If we are to show ourselves worthy of calling ourselves members of humanki...
KOFI ANNAN Once human-to-human transmission has been established, we would have only a matter of weeks to lock ...
KOFI ANNAN I am in touch with several heads of state, ... We need money, police and troops. I hope not only Fra...
KOFI ANNAN I know that I speak for the whole world in offering them my heartfelt sympathy and any assistance th...
KOFI ANNAN The states are too high to continue down a dangerous path of diplomatic brinkmanship,
KOFI ANNAN this last chance, and continues its defiance, the council will have to make another grim choice, bas...
KOFI ANNAN They either consider the flood gates are open and they can come with their own amendments or they sh...
KOFI ANNAN From this vision of the role of the United Nations in the next century flow three key priorities for...
KOFI ANNAN Above all else, we need a reaffirmation of political commitment at the highest levels to reducing th...
KOFI ANNAN and vulnerable to psychological as well as physical insecurities.
KOFI ANNAN Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bul...
KOFI ANNAN Iraq has a new opportunity to comply with all these relevant resolutions of the Security Council.
KOFI ANNAN It was so brutal, so quick, and so extensive that we are still struggling to fully comprehend it.
KOFI ANNAN exercised through patient diplomatic persuasion and coalition-building.
KOFI ANNAN I had hoped that some of those with the capacity would go to the assistance of those who are in ther...
KOFI ANNAN I am braced and we are all ready.
KOFI ANNAN unhappily, both were found and have been documented in great detail.
KOFI ANNAN The electoral process has not countered the sense of disadvantage felt by opposition political parti...
KOFI ANNAN It's been difficult, ... He's had to make compromises to move the process ahead. It was never going ...
KOFI ANNAN So far, donors have made firm commitments for only 12 percent, 37 million dollars, of the UN require...
KOFI ANNAN Notwithstanding the embargo, Cuba's achievements in social development are impressive given the size...
KOFI ANNAN This summit must be a summit of solutions,
KOFI ANNAN so that we can get away from the idea that some, such as terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, ...
KOFI ANNAN If they are not compensated, they are not going to tell you whether their birds are sick, ... If oth...
KOFI ANNAN well beyond the scope of the powers vested in the Great Council.
KOFI ANNAN The big item missing is non-proliferation and disarmament. This a real disgrace.
KOFI ANNAN Remembering is a necessary rebuke to those who say the Holocaust never happened or has been exaggera...
KOFI ANNAN guilty of no wrongdoing.
KOFI ANNAN In terms of logistics, the difficult terrain makes this one of most challenging relief operations ev...
KOFI ANNAN to ensure an end to impunity.
KOFI ANNAN New threats make no distinction between races, nations or regions. A new insecurity has entered ever...
KOFI ANNAN You have made people listen. You have made people care, and you have taught us that whether we are p...
KOFI ANNAN No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that contin...
KOFI ANNAN The negotiators, I think, have left things perilously late in light of the date of the summit, which...
KOFI ANNAN [French President Jacques Chirac said the bombings left him] stunned and saddened, ... perpetrators ...
KOFI ANNAN I wish to do all I can to encourage the leaders to muster the spirit of compromise, courage and lead...
KOFI ANNAN Tension and mistrust among the parties to the conflict continue, ... In addition, unruly members of ...
KOFI ANNAN Clearly there is a need to unlearn our collective prejudices, to promote a continuing dialogue among...
KOFI ANNAN We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to o...
KOFI ANNAN Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.
KOFI ANNAN I am very grateful that the prime minister and the Cabinet decided not to stick to the deadline,
KOFI ANNAN I think we can rein in the situation,
KOFI ANNAN shocked to know that so many rich governments have given so little.
KOFI ANNAN There's been quite a lot of debate about the application of the Geneva Convention. ... Whether they ...
KOFI ANNAN There must be no more sticking heads in the sand. No more embarrassment and no more hiding behind a ...
KOFI ANNAN when it comes to operations on that continent, we tend to do it on the cheap.
KOFI ANNAN No cause can justify such acts of terror,
KOFI ANNAN I don't think any institution can go through the scrutiny, the scrubbing we've gone through and come...
KOFI ANNAN I came to listen and explore ways and means of intensifying the diplomatic efforts and try to achiev...
KOFI ANNAN The president has been asking me for the last three years to come, I am happy to be among you.
KOFI ANNAN If the United Nations does not attempt to chart a course for the world's people in the first decades...
KOFI ANNAN I don't like hypocrisy-even in international relations.
KOFI BUSIA Diplomacy means the art of nearly deceiving all your friends, but not quite deceiving all your enemi...
KOFI BUSIA What will the U.S. senators have to say if there is, as many over here and in the rest of the world ...
KOJO ANNAN I admire my father greatly.
KOJO ANNAN I would never play any role in anything that involves the United Nations for obvious reasons.
KOJO ANNAN I feel the whole issue has been a witchhunt from day one as part of a broader Republican political a...
KOJO ANNAN My father is a man of impeccable character who has worked tirelessly for the United Nations for many...
KOJO ANNAN I was young and I just didn't think it through. It was an indiscretion but one for which I hope I ca...
KOJO ANNAN At no time was I involved with any negotiations or lobbying of the United Nations with regard to the...
KOJO ANNAN I have never participated directly or indirectly in any business related to the United Nations.
KOJO ANNAN In fact, I did not attend a single meeting at the United Nations.
KOJO ANNAN neither the time, the inclination, nor the financial ability to fight each and every article that ha...
KOJO ANNAN No purist talk here of letting the flavors speak for themselves, the English let them sing in concer...
JULIET ANNAN He was comforted by one of the simpler emotions which some human beings are lucky enough to experien...
NOEL ANNAN Use your passion and expertise to provide long term value and innovative solutions for your clients
BENJAMIN KOFI QUANSAH The resources of Africa are greater than the amount of aid it can ever get. Hence, Africa needs to m...
BENJAMIN KOFI QUANSAH A Strategy, no matter how beautifully crafted, has to be executed by and with the people. Therefore,...
BENJAMIN KOFI QUANSAH, CGMS