I was an ordinary boy at school, a young man. In fact, what did the headmaster once say? "You're constantly challenging those in authority; questioning and challenging those in authority." Which was not really the way I saw it. I felt there were questions that had to be answered, and things that weren't quite right.

Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.

The happiness of any society begins with the well being of the families that live in it.

Beneath the surface of states and nations, ideas and language, lies the fate of individual human beings in need. Answering their needs will be the mission of the United Nations in the century to come.

I have often said that we have two UNs; the UN that is a Secretariat, that implements the mandates handed over to it by the General Assembly and the Security Council, and the UN that is the member states who sit in the Council, take the decisions, hand over the mandates, or take decisions in the General Assembly.

We must restore the sacredness of the family as a bedrock of humane values everywhere, in peace as well as in war.

If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever.