40 Quotes by Ghanaian authors

Ghanaian sayings speak in voices that are at once playful and unsparing, trading in images of palm wine and pounding fufu, the stubborn yam and the patient river. They prize interdependence, tact, and courage, nudging leaders and kin with sly humor and moral clarity. From tro-tro slogans to fireside proverbs, the rhythm of drum and market inflects counsel on destiny, work, hospitality, and restraint. Here, truth is served with a wink, ancestry keeps time, and everyday life, harvests, rains, quarrels, becomes a compact lesson for the road ahead.

See the complete list of authors from Ghana

"Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"We need to think of the future and the planet we are going to leave to our children and their children"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"We have to choose between a global market driven only by calculations of short-term profit, and one which has a human face"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"We need to keep hope alive and strive to do better"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"Education, particularly higher education, will take Africa into the mainstream of globalization"

John Agyekum Kufuor, Statesman

"Diplomacy means the art of nearly deceiving all your friends, but not quite deceiving all your enemies"

Kofi Busia, Statesman

"The question is the morning after. What sort of Iraq do we wake up to after the bombing? What happens in the region? What impact could it have? These are questions leaders I have spoken to have posed"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"The Lord had the wonderful advantage of being able to work alone"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"Iraq has a new opportunity to comply with all these relevant resolutions of the Security Council"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"In the rush for justice it is important not to lose sight of principles the country holds dear"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"If information and knowledge are central to democracy, they are the conditions for development"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"Above all else, we need a reaffirmation of political commitment at the highest levels to reducing the dangers that arise both from existing nuclear weapons and from further proliferation"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"We cannot wait for governments to do it all. Globalization operates on Internet time. Governments tend to be slow moving by nature, because they have to build political support for every step"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the states in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"We have the means and the capacity to deal with our problems, if only we can find the political will"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"National markets are held together by shared values and confidence in certain minimum standards. But in the new global market, people do not yet have that confidence"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"There is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole - women and men alike - than the one which involves women as central players"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"If the United Nations does not attempt to chart a course for the world's people in the first decades of the new millennium, who will?"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together. And that, my friends, is why we have the United Nations"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"Business, labor and civil society organizations have skills and resources that are vital in helping to build a more robust global community"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"We must ensure that the global market is embedded in broadly shared values and practices that reflect global social needs, and that all the world's people share the benefits of globalization"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"If one is going to err, one should err on the side of liberty and freedom"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"I urge the Iraqi leadership for sake of its own people... to seize this opportunity and thereby begin to end the isolation and suffering of the Iraqi people"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"Many African leaders refuse to send their troops on peace keeping missions abroad because they probably need their armies to intimidate their own populations"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"In their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"In the 21st century, I believe the mission of the United Nations will be defined by a new, more profound awareness of the sanctity and dignity of every human life, regardless of race or religion"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development"

Kofi Annan, Statesman

"With God's help and guidance, we shall soon see the end of this most unpleasant chapter in our history"

John Agyekum Kufuor, Statesman

"Never again should Ghanaians have to resort to dubious means to get to, or live in, foreign lands, simply to make a living"

John Agyekum Kufuor, Statesman

"There has been enough suffering in our country, there has been enough of children whose dreams die before they have a chance to grow and there has been enough of our elders who, having served their nation, are forced into indignity in their old age"

John Agyekum Kufuor, Statesman

"Ours is not a poor country and even though we are now a poor people, there should be no room for the despondency that has settled on large sections of the population"

John Agyekum Kufuor, Statesman

"It's a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children"

Ama Ata Aidoo, Author

"For us Africans, literature must serve a purpose: to expose, embarrass, and fight corruption and authoritarianism. It is understandable why the African artist is utilitarian"

Ama Ata Aidoo, Author

"They had always told me that I wrote like a man"

Ama Ata Aidoo, Author

"People are worms, and even the God who created them is immensely bored with their antics"

Ama Ata Aidoo, Author