The United Nations cannot do anything, and never could; it is not an animate entity or agent. It is a place, a stage, a forum and a shrine... a place to which powerful people can repair when they are fearful about the course on which their own rhetoric seems to be propelling them.
Conor Cruise O'BrienThe main thing that endears the United Nations to member governments, and so enables it to survive, is its proven capacity to fail... You can safely appeal to the UN in the comfortable certainty that it will let you down.
Conor Cruise O'BrienA good man giving bad advice is more dangerous than a nasty man giving bad advice.
Conor Cruise O'BrienNothing does more to activate Christian divisions than talk about Christian unity.
Conor Cruise O'Brien