Boutros Boutros-Ghali Quotes (14 quotes)

Boutros Boutros-Ghali: 14 quotes1 like

Famous Boutros Boutros-Ghali Quotes

“Only stupid people don't change their minds.”

On why he sought a second 5 year term as Secretary General of the UN, having initially planned on serving only one, "The Change in the Administration's Position is a Mystery" http://www.globalpolicy.org/secgen/boutros/1996/deborch1.htm Interview with The Washington Times (11 November 1996) 1990s

“There are signs that the system of collective security established in San Francisco nearly 50 years ago [at the founding of the UN] is finally beginning to work as conceived. . . We are on the way to achieving a workable international system.”

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Cited in the Awake! magazine 1996, 4/22; article: Is a World Without War Possible?
1990s

“I am Boutros Boutros-Ghali; put down your guns and listen to Bob Marley.”

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

As quoted in "War" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5P9J1wCgNM (28 February 2003), Da Ali G Show http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0508528/?ref_=ttep_ep2 2000s

“The concept of peace is easy to grasp; that of international security is more complex, for a pattern of contradictions has arisen here as well. As major nuclear Powers have begun to negotiate arms reduction agreements, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction threatens to increase and conventional arms continue to be amassed in many parts of the world. As racism becomes recognized for the destructive force it is and as apartheid is being dismantled, new racial tensions are rising and finding expression in violence. Technological advances are altering the nature and the expectation of life all over the globe. The revolution in communications has united the world in awareness, in aspiration and in greater solidarity against injustice. But progress also brings new risks for stability: ecological damage, disruption of family and community life, greater intrusion into the lives and rights of individuals.”

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

An Agenda for Peace : Preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-keeping (1992)
1990s

“I believe it will take time to find a solution to the problem. Thus we must have patience.”

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

On the Bosnian War, as quoted in Welcome to Sarajevo (1997)
1990s

“I will continue to work for the advancement of freedoms in Egypt and the Arab world until I drop dead. … Education itself — which can and should play an important role in the apprenticeship of tolerance and respect for other people — sometimes encourages identitarian closure, or even extremist behaviour … It is therefore vital to ensure that education does not encourage rejection of other people or identitarian closure, but that on the contrary it encourages knowledge and respect for other cultures, other religions and other ways of being and living.”

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Quoted in "Boutros Boutros-Ghali: The world is his oyster" by Gamal Nkrumah in Al-Ahram weekly No. 777 (10 - 18 January 2006)
2000s

Boutros Boutros-Ghali Quotes about the trip

“The days of dictatorship are over. … We have come a long way. Millions of Egyptians and Iraqis have cast their votes at the ballot box. The Palestinians will follow suit.”

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Quoted in "Boutros Boutros-Ghali: The world is his oyster" by Gamal Nkrumah in Al-Ahram weekly No. 777 (10 - 18 January 2006) http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/777/profile.htm 2000s

“We have entered a time of global transition marked by uniquely contradictory trends. Regional and continental associations of States are evolving ways to deepen cooperation and ease some of the contentious characteristics of sovereign and nationalistic rivalries. National boundaries are blurred by advanced communications and global commerce, and by the decisions of States to yield some sovereign prerogatives to larger, common political associations. At the same time, however, fierce new assertions of nationalism and sovereignty spring up, and the cohesion of States is threatened by brutal ethnic, religious, social, cultural or linguistic strife. Social peace is challenged on the one hand by new assertions of discrimination and exclusion and, on the other, by acts of terrorism seeking to undermine evolution and change through democratic means.”

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

An Agenda for Peace : Preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-keeping (1992) - online text https://archive.is/20120530041405/www.un.org/Docs/SG/agpeace.html. 1990s

“While the broad principles of democracy are universal, the fact remains that their application varies considerably … We are at the beginning of the road, at the very beginning. We still have a long way to go.”

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Quoted in "Boutros Boutros-Ghali: The world is his oyster" by Gamal Nkrumah in Al-Ahram weekly No. 777 (10 - 18 January 2006)
2000s

“The lesson I learned in Cairo still applies. The only way to deal with bureaucrats is with stealth and sudden violence.”

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Statement of 1993, as quoted in The Coming Plague : Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance (1995) by Laurie Garrett, p. 592, and in Preventive Diplomacy : Stopping Wars before they Start (1996) by Kevin M. Cahill, p. 254
1990s