Quotessence
Home / Topics / United Nations Quotes

United Nations Quotes

Browse 509 quotes about United Nations.

Related topics

WorldStatesPeopleIfsUnited StatesInternationalGovernmentCountryShouldHumansIraqOrganizationCharterSecurityThinkingNeedsWantWarMembersCouncilUnescoYearsBelieveForceHas BeensIsraelPrinciplesRightsLawOrderCommunityFirstsPolicySecurity CouncilDemocracyGivingHuman RightsKnowsMadeResolutionWayWellsAmericaDoneFightingGoalHusseinInterestPoliticalSaidWeaponsWorld OrderClearConflictCoursesDevelopmentEqualFiveImportantInstitutionsInternational LawIssuesMenMilitaryPlayPresidentProblemSaddamSupportActionDestructionHuman BeingsIndividualInvolvedLooksMassNew World OrderNuclearObjectivesPeacekeepingRolesSelfStrongThreatTodayTryingVoiceWould Be

United Nations Quotes

“George Bush made a mistake when he referred to the Saddam Hussein regime as 'evil.' Every liberal and leftist knows how to titter at such black-and-white moral absolutism. What the president should have done, in the unlikely event that he wanted the support of America's peace-mongers, was to describe a confrontation with Saddam as the 'lesser evil.' This is a term the Left can appreciate. Indeed, 'lesser evil' is part of the essential tactical rhetoric of today's Left, and has been deployed to excuse or overlook the sins of liberal Democrats, from President Clinton's bombing of Sudan to Madeleine Albright's veto of an international rescue for Rwanda when she was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Among those longing for nuance, moral relativism—the willingness to use the term evil, when combined with a willingness to make accommodations with it—is the smart thing: so much more sophisticated than 'cowboy' language.”

EvilUnited StatesMoralityIraqLiberalismAnti WarUnited NationsIraq WarRwandaLeftismSudanAbsolutismPeace MovementMoral RelativismBill ClintonGeorge W BushSaddam HusseinRwandan GenocideDemocratic Party United StatesMoral AbsolutismBa Ath PartyMadeleine AlbrightOpposition To The Iraq WarPresidency Of Bill ClintonAl Shifa Pharmaceutical FactoryPresidency Of George W Bush
Book:Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left
Create image

“Attempts to locate oneself within history are as natural, and as absurd, as attempts to locate oneself within astronomy. On the day that I was born, 13 April 1949, nineteen senior Nazi officials were convicted at Nuremberg, including Hitler's former envoy to the Vatican, Baron Ernst von Weizsacker, who was found guilty of planning aggression against Czechoslovakia and committing atrocities against the Jewish people. On the same day, the State of Israel celebrated its first Passover seder and the United Nations, still meeting in those days at Flushing Meadow in Queens, voted to consider the Jewish state's application for membership. In Damascus, eleven newspapers were closed by the regime of General Hosni Zayim. In America, the National Committee on Alcoholism announced an upcoming 'A-Day' under the non-uplifting slogan: 'You can drink—help the alcoholic who can't.' ('Can't'?) The International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled in favor of Britain in the Corfu Channel dispute with Albania. At the UN, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko denounced the newly formed NATO alliance as a tool for aggression against the USSR. The rising Chinese Communists, under a man then known to Western readership as Mao Tze-Tung, announced a limited willingness to bargain with the still-existing Chinese government in a city then known to the outside world as 'Peiping.' All this was unknown to me as I nuzzled my mother's breast for the first time, and would certainly have happened in just the same way if I had not been born at all, or even conceived. One of the newspaper astrologists for that day addressed those whose birthday it was: There are powerful rays from the planet Mars, the war god, in your horoscope for your coming year, and this always means a chance to battle if you want to take it up. Try to avoid such disturbances where women relatives or friends are concerned, because the outlook for victory upon your part in such circumstances is rather dark. If you must fight, pick a man! Sage counsel no doubt, which I wish I had imbibed with that same maternal lactation, but impartially offered also to the many people born on that day who were also destined to die on it.”

WarHistoryUnited StatesBirthIsraelChinaAlcoholAstronomyNewspapersCommunismBritainCensorshipMarsGodsUnited NationsDiplomacyAstrologyAlcoholismProhibitionNatoHitlerJewsMaoNazisBreastfeedingUssrBeijingAntisemitismBirthdaysCzechoslovakiaHoroscopesNurembergAlbaniaVaticanThe HagueCorfuDamascusPassover SederInternational Court Of JusticeCommunist Party Of ChinaAndrei GromykoCorfu Channel IncidentErnst Von WeizsackerFlushing MeadowsFlushing QueensHosni Zayim
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
Create image

“Arabs and other Muslims generally agreed that Saddam Hussein might be a bloody tyrant, but, paralleling FDR's thinking, "he is our bloody tyrant." In their view, the invasion was a family affair to be settled within the family and those who intervened in the name of some grand theory of international justice were doing so to protect their own selfish interests and to maintain Arab subordination to the west.”

WarIslamIraqTyrannyImperialismUnited NationsGulf WarAmerican Foreign PolicyMilitary InterventionSaddam HusseinWestern Hypocrisy
Book:The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
Create image

“Remaining for a moment with the question of legality and illegality: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1368, unanimously passed, explicitly recognized the right of the United States to self-defense and further called upon all member states 'to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of the terrorist attacks. It added that 'those responsible for aiding, supporting or harboring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of those acts will be held accountable.' In a speech the following month, the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan publicly acknowledged the right of self-defense as a legitimate basis for military action. The SEAL unit dispatched by President Obama to Abbottabad was large enough to allow for the contingency of bin-Laden's capture and detention. The naïve statement that he was 'unarmed' when shot is only loosely compatible with the fact that he was housed in a military garrison town, had a loaded automatic weapon in the room with him, could well have been wearing a suicide vest, had stated repeatedly that he would never be taken alive, was the commander of one of the most violent organizations in history, and had declared himself at war with the United States. It perhaps says something that not even the most casuistic apologist for al-Qaeda has ever even attempted to justify any of its 'operations' in terms that could be covered by any known law, with the possible exception of some sanguinary verses of the Koran.”

WarLawJusticeUnited StatesPakistanUnited NationsSelf DefenseAl QaedaQuranAssassinationOsama Bin LadenInternational LawBarack ObamaIslamismSeptember 11 AttacksUnited Nations Security CouncilKofi AnnanRight To Self DefenseDeath Of Osama Bin LadenAbbottabadUnited States Navy Seals
Book:The Enemy
Create image

“Neighbor Before Nation (Sonnet 2201) Death of soldiers is PR goldmine for nationalist nutters, no matter the side, because it gives them the appetizing ammunition to sell some more fear, some more prejudice, some more fanatic tribalism, neighbor fighting neighbor, all wrapped in cute pills of patriotism - which ultimately manufactures some more orphans, some more widows, some more elderly who lose their hope. Trenches don't have a right side and wrong side, they only have one side, the side of dogma and lies. Asses to asses, cheek to cheek, apes laud the apes, declaring true apehood through their half-open flies.”

WarMilitaryNationalismPersecutionUnited NationsFanaticismPeace ActivistGlobal HarmonyDemilitarizationNationalist
Book:Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper
Create image

“It seems likely the Russians never understood this inherent dichotomy in the American soul. They were genuinely irritated when the United States agreed to a world in which power ruled in 1944, then reneged and wanted some kind of parliamentary world democracy in 1945. This did seem double dealing, but it was hard for Russians to grasp the difficulties of the State Department, which, unlike the Soviet Foreign Office, could not wheel and deal with no regard to public consumption.”

WarPowerUnited StatesUnited NationsRussians
Book:This kind of peace
Create image

“Welcome to Earth (World Tourism Sonnet) When you are down with doubts sit down, For lessons of revolution from the Americas. When you are beginning to have cold feet, Siphon some much needed resilience from Africa. When your heart is beginning to turn cold, Have a rejuvenating swim in the warmth of Asia. When clouds of gloom start to grab hold, Breathe in some fresh air from Australia. Whenever the bickering goes overboard, Draw some lessons of unity from Europe. Whatever it is you seek my friend, We just might be able to satisfy your hope. Come visit us sometime, on our little blue dot. We are the beings of love, light and colors, as such we often go overboard.”

World PeaceUnited NationsInternational RelationsDiversity And InclusionGlobal HarmonyGeopoliticsEarth DayThe Human RaceTravel PoetryWorld Tourism Day
Book:Find A Cause Outside Yourself: Sermon of Sustainability
Create image

“Soon, the arguing ceased. Everyone’s eyes were largely focused on me. While waiting for my speech, they whispered only to each other about how capable I was. I honestly could not blame them. Behind my smile, I tried to see how this impossible mission became reality and shook my head with a smile. None of them believed in me to begin with. As I began my speech, my mind wandered to the past. My home of Cennix was a faraway concept. Hiding with the United Front was another. My initial days in Cherls even seemed like another lifetime ago. When I closed my eyes and told a joke to the delegates, I saw Poppa’s weary head bouncing into a basket… I opened my eyes to the new developing world order and started again.”

HopePeaceLeadershipImmigrationUnited NationsNew World OrderWorld WarFather Daughter Relationship
Book:From Across the Sea
Create image

“Ukanda wa Gaza ni jimbo lenye miji minne na kambi mbalimbali za wakimbizi za Umoja wa Mataifa – lenye urefu wa kati ya kilometa 41 au maili 25 na lenye upana wa kati ya kilometa 6 mpaka 12 au maili 3.7 mpaka 7.5, pamoja na eneo la jumla la kilometa za mraba 365 au maili za mraba 141. Jimbo hili liliwahi kutawaliwa na Wamisri, Wakaanani, Waisraeli, Wasiria, Wababelonia, Wagiriki, Warumi, Waturuki, Waingereza, na Wapalestina, na limekuwa uwanja wa vita kwa karne nyingi kwa sababu za kidini na kihistoria. Ukanda wa Gaza uko chini ya Palestina. Uko chini ya serikali ya Hamas.”

GovernmentReligionHistoryTownsBritishUnited NationsHistoriaRefugeesHamasBattlefieldPalestiniansEgyptiansOttomansGaza StripGreeksSerikaliAssyriansIsraelitesDiniProvinceUkanda Wa GazaBabyloniansCanaanitesUmoja Wa MataifaWaisraeliWamisri12 Kilometers141 Square Miles25 Miles3 7 Miles365 Square Kilometers41 Kilometers6 Kilometers7 5 MilesJimboKilometa 12Kilometa 41Kilometa 6Kilometa Za Mraba 365Maili 25Maili 3 7Maili 7 5Maili Za Mraba 141MijiUwanja Wa VitaWababeloniaWagirikiWaingerezaWakaananiWakimbiziWapalestinaWasiriaWaturuki
Author:Enock Maregesi
Create image

“So, whenever the subject of Iraq came up, as it did keep on doing through the Clinton years, I had no excuse for not knowing the following things: I knew that its one-party, one-leader state machine was modeled on the precedents of both National Socialism and Stalinism, to say nothing of Al Capone. I knew that its police force was searching for psychopathic killers and sadistic serial murderers, not in order to arrest them but to employ them. I knew that its vast patrimony of oil wealth, far from being 'nationalized,' had been privatized for the use of one family, and was being squandered on hideous ostentation at home and militarism abroad. (Post-Kuwait inspections by the United Nations had uncovered a huge nuclear-reactor site that had not even been known about by the international community.) I had seen with my own eyes the evidence of a serious breach of the Genocide Convention on Iraqi soil, and I had also seen with my own eyes the evidence that it had been carried out in part with the use of weapons of mass destruction. I was, if you like, the prisoner of this knowledge. I certainly did not have the option of un-knowing it.”

IraqOilGenocideFascismUnited NationsIraq WarMilitarismWmdStalinismPsychopathsSerial KillersKuwaitNational SocialismBill ClintonPrivatisationBa Ath PartyCrime FamilyBa Athist IraqInvasion Of KuwaitAl CaponeNationalisationGenocide ConventionNuclear Reactor Technology
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
Create image

“The problems of the world in the last three hundred years were caused by a collaboration between the Jesuits, the Freemasons (infiltrated at the top level by the Illuminati), and the Zionists, whose origins are all linked historically to the Khazarians (who worshipped Lucifer and practised child sacrifice).”

United NationsNew World OrderOne World GovernmentIlluminatiJesuitsFreemasonsZionistsWorld Economic ForumFabian SocietyKhazarians
Author:Jack Freestone
Create image

“And there’s one other matter I must raise. The epidemic of domestic sexual violence that lacerates the soul of South Africa is mirrored in the pattern of grotesque raping in areas of outright conflict from Darfur to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in areas of contested electoral turbulence from Kenya to Zimbabwe. Inevitably, a certain percentage of the rapes transmits the AIDS virus. We don’t know how high that percentage is. We know only that women are subjected to the most dreadful double jeopardy. The point must also be made that there’s no such thing as the enjoyment of good health for women who live in constant fear of rape. Countless strong women survive the sexual assaults that occur in the millions every year, but every rape leaves a scar; no one ever fully heals. This business of discrimination against and oppression of women is the world’s most poisonous curse. Nowhere is it felt with greater catastrophic force than in the AIDS pandemic. This audience knows the statistics full well: you’ve chronicled them, you’ve measured them, the epidemiologists amongst you have disaggregated them. What has to happen, with one unified voice, is that the scientific community tells the political community that it must understand one incontrovertible fact of health: bringing an end to sexual violence is a vital component in bringing an end to AIDS. The brave groups of women who dare to speak up on the ground, in country after country, should not have to wage this fight in despairing and lonely isolation. They should hear the voices of scientific thunder. You understand the connections between violence against women and vulnerability to the virus. No one can challenge your understanding. Use it, I beg you, use it.”

ViolenceHealthAidsDiscriminationOppressionIsolationSexismSouth AfricaMisogynyAfricaUnited NationsDomestic ViolenceSexual AbuseRapeHivViolence Against WomenKenyaSexual AssaultRape CultureZimbabweSudanDarfurMarital RapeDemocratic Republic Of The Congo
Author:Stephen Lewis
Create image

“Belgian Congo forms with the motherland a single state with a single nationality. The Congolese people live within the national borders of the Belgian state. No other country has the right to intervene in the way a sovereign state governs itself. To reinforce its argument, Belgium decided to stop transmitting information about its colony and stop participating in the meetings of the Special Committee - and for that we do not need the approval of the General Assembly.”

United NationsCongoBelgiumBelgian CongoUn
Author:Pierre Ryckmans
Create image

“We want to stay in Ruanda-Urundi because in the lives of peoples and people there are interests other than purely economic interests. We want to stay there just because there is still much to do, because we have begun a great human work in that country that we want to bring to a successful conclusion; because we have accepted a mission of guardianship that we want to fulfil to the end. And when the objectives laid down in the [UN] Charter are achieved, thanks to us, thanks to our help, that people will be able to decide its future in full awareness and in full freedom.”

United NationsCongoRwandaUnBurundiRuanda Urundi
Author:Pierre Ryckmans
Create image

“At the time, 43 countries out of 60 represented were always ready to vote any anti-colonialist resolution. Belgium did not accept this interference in its internal cuisine and bit off: Belgian Congo forms one and the same state with the motherland, which has one and the same nationality. The Congolese people live within the national borders of the Belgian state (Ryckmans in April 1953). No other country has the right to intervene in the way a sovereign state governs itself. To strengthen its argument, Belgium decided to stop transmitting information about its colony and to stop participating in the meetings of the Special Committee - and for that we do not need the approval of the General Assembly "!”

United NationsCongoBelgian CongoPierre Ryckmans
Book:Congo belge: La colonie assassinée
Create image

“Kama George Bush angekuwa na amani ndani ya moyo wake na Saddam Hussein angekuwa na amani ndani ya moyo wake Vita ya Ghuba isingetokea. Vilevile, katika kitabu cha ‘Kolonia Santita’, kama Rais wa Tume ya Dunia angekuwa na amani ndani ya moyo wake na kiongozi wa Kolonia Santita angekuwa na amani ndani ya moyo wake Kolonia Santita isingepigana na Umoja wa Mataifa. Taifa lisingepigana na taifa, na mataifa yasingepigana na magaidi.”

HeartBookNationsPeaceUnited NationsNationGulf WarTerroristsAmaniKolonia SantitaMoyoSaddam HusseinTaifaMagaidiKitabuRais Wa Tume Ya DuniaGeorge BushMataifaColonia SantitaKiongozi Wa Kolonia SantitaKolonia Santita LeaderUmoja Wa MataifaVita Ya GhubaWorld Commission President
Author:Enock Maregesi
Create image

“Marcia Wilson was a good example of Omega’s core strategy for creating a New World Order. It involved placing their people, or moles, in positions of power within the CIA, the NSA, the Pentagon, the White House and global organizations like the UN, the IMF and the World Bank. This enabled Omega to pull some of the strings of these organizations and to direct American, and world politics, to an extent.”

United NationsCiaNew World OrderNsaNwoImfWorld BankUn
Book:The Ninth Orphan
Create image

“Historically, on average international wars have lasted only six months. In contrast, the average civil war has been much longer, with estimates ranging from seven to fifteen years. If a family are going to be refugees for over a decade, their priority is not emergency food and shelter. It is to re-establish the threads of normal famiy life, anchored materially by a capacity of whoever is the breadwinner to earn a living. The camps run by UNHCR met the basic material needs of refugees, but they provided few opportunities to earn a living. Consequently, they left families bereft of autonomy.”

WarCivil WarRefugeeUnited NationsRefugeesRefugee CrisisUnhcrInternational Warfare
Book:Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System
Create image

“Question: Which Mediterranean government shares all of Ronald Reagan's views on international terrorism, the present danger of Soviet advance, the hypocrisy of the United Nations, the unreliability of Europe, the perfidy of the Third World and the need for nuclear defense policy? Question: Which Mediterranean government is Ronald Reagan trying, with the help of George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger, to replace with a government led by a party which professes socialism and which contains extreme leftists? If you answered 'the government of Israel' to both of the above, you know more about political and international irony than the President does.”

United StatesEuropeIsraelTerrorismSocialismCold WarSoviet UnionUnited NationsThird WorldLeftism1980sRonald ReaganMediterranean SeaCaspar WeinbergerGeorge P ShultzIsrael United States RelationsNational Missile DefensePresidency Of Ronald Reagan
Author:Christopher Hitchens
Create image

“For decades, the United Nations has passed resolutions calling for the right to self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. In 1947, the UN passed a resolution calling for a plebiscite in the region to determine its future status. However, despite repeated calls and resolutions, the UN has failed to implement this decision.....???????????????”

United NationsUnscIndian OccupationKashmir ConflictDisputed TerritoryFreedom KashmirUnhrc
Author:Kashmir at UNO
Create image

“The world powers made it clear in 1994 that they did not care to fight genocide in central Africa, but they had yet to come up with a convincing explanation of why they were content to feed it. The false promise of protection represented by the camps placed Hutu civilians, as well as Tutsis and everyone else in the region, in mortal peril, and it was no comfort that this state of affairs was not brought about by a malevolent international policy in central Africa but by the lack of any coherent policy.”

GenocideUnited NationsRwandaRefugee CampsNgos
Book:We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
Create image

“The United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights follows the same intrinsic logic, namely, the power behind any constitution or charter is derived from the legitimate authority of a state; the legitimate authority of a state, in turn, rests upon a mandate to promote and protect freedom, justice, and peace; this mandate requires that every state recognize the natural rights and the intrinsic dignity of every human being (because freedom, justice, and peace cannot be achieved without the protection of natural rights). If any state fails to protect the natural rights of human beings, that state loses its legitimacy and its right to govern and can be legitimately rebelled against in the interest of justice, peace, and freedom.”

GovernmentPoliticsHuman RightsPhilosophy QuotesUnited NationsRight To LifeNatural RightsIntrinsic RightsRight To HappinessRight To Liberty
Book:Ten Universal Principles: A Brief Philosophy of the Life Issues
Create image

“Rolf Ekeus came round to my apartment one day and showed me the name of the Iraqi diplomat who had visited the little West African country of Niger: a statelet famous only for its production of yellowcake uranium. The name was Wissam Zahawi. He was the brother of my louche gay part-Kurdish friend, the by-now late Mazen. He was also, or had been at the time of his trip to Niger, Saddam Hussein's ambassador to the Vatican. I expressed incomprehension. What was an envoy to the Holy See doing in Niger? Obviously he was not taking a vacation. Rolf then explained two things to me. The first was that Wissam Zahawi had, when Rolf was at the United Nations, been one of Saddam Hussein's chief envoys for discussions on nuclear matters (this at a time when the Iraqis had functioning reactors). The second was that, during the period of sanctions that followed the Kuwait war, no Western European country had full diplomatic relations with Baghdad. TheVatican was the sole exception, so it was sent a very senior Iraqi envoy to act as a listening post. And this man, a specialist in nuclear matters, had made a discreet side trip to Niger. This was to suggest exactly what most right-thinking people were convinced was not the case: namely that British intelligence was on to something when it said that Saddam had not ceased seeking nuclear materials in Africa. I published a few columns on this, drawing at one point an angry email from Ambassador Zahawi that very satisfyingly blustered and bluffed on what he'd really been up to. I also received—this is what sometimes makes journalism worthwhile—a letter from a BBC correspondent named Gordon Correa who had been writing a book about A.Q. Khan. This was the Pakistani proprietor of the nuclear black market that had supplied fissile material to Libya, North Korea, very probably to Syria, and was open for business with any member of the 'rogue states' club. (Saddam's people, we already knew for sure, had been meeting North Korean missile salesmen in Damascus until just before the invasion, when Kim Jong Il's mercenary bargainers took fright and went home.) It turned out, said the highly interested Mr. Correa, that his man Khan had also been in Niger, and at about the same time that Zahawi had. The likelihood of the senior Iraqi diplomat in Europe and the senior Pakistani nuclear black-marketeer both choosing an off-season holiday in chic little uranium-rich Niger… well, you have to admit that it makes an affecting picture. But you must be ready to credit something as ridiculous as that if your touching belief is that Saddam Hussein was already 'contained,' and that Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair were acting on panic reports, fabricated in turn by self-interested provocateurs.”

IraqCorruptionTerrorismJournalismNuclear WeaponsSyriaPakistanUnited NationsDiplomacyNorth KoreaSanctionsBaghdadLibyaUraniumKuwaitWestern EuropeWest AfricaNuclear ProliferationMilitary IntelligenceGeorge W BushVaticanSaddam HusseinNigerTony BlairKim Jong IlBbcDamascusInvasion Of KuwaitBaath PartyAq KhanBaathismBaathist IraqGordon CorreaRogue StatesRolf EkeusWissam Zahawi
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
Create image

“When the day comes that Tehran can announce its nuclear capability, every shred of international law will have been discarded. The mullahs have publicly sworn—to the United Nations and the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency—that they are not cheating. As they unmask their batteries, they will be jeering at the very idea of an 'international community.' How strange it is that those who usually fetishize the United Nations and its inspectors do not feel this shame more keenly.”

IranNuclear WeaponsUnited NationsEuropean UnionInternational LawTehranMullahsNuclear Program Of IranIran And Wmds
Author:Christopher Hitchens
Create image