Great Throughts Treasury

"Yet we spend more money on weapons than on ensuring treatment and support for the millions infected by HIV. It is a world of great promise and hope. It is also a world of despair, disease and hunger."

"You know you are famous when you discover you have become a comic book character."

"You may arrive at a certain moment to believe that the source of injustice is no longer in the outside, but inside it is the same."

"You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the World. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone."

"You may succeed in delaying, but never in preventing the transition of South Africa to a democracy."

"You have your life in literature necessary because without it you are going backwards."

"You sharpen your ideas by reducing yourself to the level of the people you are with and a sense of humor and a complete relaxation, even when you?re discussing serious things, does help to mobilize friends around you. And I love that."

"You know, you can only lead them from behind."

"You will notice that France, Germany Russia, China are against this decision. It is clearly a decision that is motivated by George W. Bush's desire to please the arms and oil industries in the United States of America. If you look at those factors, you'll see that an individual like myself, a man who has lost power and influence, can never be a suitable mediator."

"Your election to this high office has inspired people as few other events in recent times have done. Amidst all of the human progress made over the last century, the world in which we live remains one of great divisions, conflict, inequality, poverty and injustice. Amongst many around the world a sense of hopelessness had set in as so many problems remain unresolved and seemingly incapable of being resolved. You, Mr. President, have brought a new voice of hope that these problems can be addressed and that we can in fact change the world and make of it a better place."

"Your Majesties, Your Highnesses, Distinguished Guests, Comrades and Friends. Today, all of us do, by our presence here, and by our celebrations in other parts of our country and the world, confer glory and hope to newborn liberty. Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud."

"Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place."