Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try. For one thing we know beyond all doubt: nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says: it can't be done.

We stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind. This declaration may well become the international Magna Carta for all men everywhere. We hope its proclamation by the General Assembly will be an event comparable to the proclamation in 1789 [of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man], the adoption of the Bill of Rights by the people of the U.S., and the adoption of comparable declarations at different times in other countries.

When it's better for everyone, it's better for everyone.

We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

We cannot exist as a little island of well-being in a world where two-thirds of the people go to bed hungry every night.

For our own success to be real, it must contribute to the success of others.