Secretary General Quotes

I am only the Security Council's servant, though not always its humble one.

From the beginning of my time as Secretary-General, I have sought to advance a practical, action-oriented vision of the U.N. as the voice of the voiceless and the defender of the defenceless.

Since I became Secretary-General, five years ago, I have seen youth participate at the United Nations as never before.

The Argentine government is convinced of Mrs. Malcorra's conditions and capacities that will allow her to amply carry out the functions of the role of Secretary General of the United Nations.

Gender equality and women's empowerment have been a top priority for me from day one as Secretary-General. And I am committed to making sure that the U.N. leads by example.

The UN was very media-shy, and its relationship with the press was very controlled; although periodically I spoke to the press, the rule was, only the secretary-general speaks to the press; only the secretary-general makes... So you would see many situations where under-secretaries-general would come in and speak. I opened that, and I encouraged all of them to speak in their areas, whether it was peacekeeping or humanitarian efforts.

There is firm support in the Swedish society for the United Nations and, of course, for the Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Indeed, it is a common goal to create a stronger United Nations able to meet the multitude of expectations placed upon it. To that end, I will facilitate a constructive, informed, and open interaction among Member States and with the Secretary-General.

We can no longer stand for the Security Council passing resolutions and then in effect heaving alongside and taking a vacation. We cannot leave it to the secretary general to go cap in hand.

The Secretary General of the United Nations is more of a secretary than a general.

I fully support U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his Global Education First Initiative and the work of U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown and the respectful president of the U.N. General Assembly Vuk Jeremic. I thank them for the leadership they continue to give.

António Guterres role as Secretary-General in bringing all powers together is very essential' and we hope he can succeed, it's not easy of course.

The G7 doesn't have a permanent secretariat. The OECD can help the G8 and set the agenda for them. The secretary general of the OECD should be going to them proactively and discussing issues and priorities.

When they called me with the Nobel call from Secretary General of the Swedish Academy it was twenty minutes to six and he said well that was well hope I'm not disturbing you but I am the Secretary General of the Swedish Academy. Of course you can imagine I was frozen in time when he said that but then he made a very famous statement, something to the effect that this is the last 20 minutes of peace of your life.

I have no power, no independence.

Boutros-Ghali wasn't elected to anything in this country when last I checked.

Government will not nominate the former Labor prime minister [Kevin Rudd] to be the UN's next secretary-general.

When people say the U.N. is useless, I ask the question, which U.N. are we talking about? We have the U.N. that is a secretariat led by the secretary general, and we have a U.N. made up of member states who give us our mandate.

Both Bush as well, as Tony Blair, are undermining an idea which was sponsored by their predecessors. They do not care. Is it because the secretary-general of the United Nations [Ghanaian Kofi Annan] is now a black man? They never did that when secretary-generals were white.

It's always a difficult time to be secretary general.

According to the U. N. Charter, the Secretary General is the chief administrative officer, not its chief moralizer.

To understand my feelings — and my conception of the role of Secretary General — the nature of my religious and cultural background must first be understood. I should therefore like to outline not only my beliefs but also my conception of human institutions and of the human situation itself.

While most become star struck by A-list actors, you'll only see me in awe of leaders effecting change. Politician and diplomat Madeleine Albright, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. These are my heroes. These are my celebrities.

I take very seriously my responsibility as Secretary-General to make sure that the United Nations is doing everything it can to uphold the universal prohibition on the use of chemical weapons.

The letters SG do not stand for Secretary General but for Scape Goat.