Quote of the Day: Kofi Annan on Education

We often believe progress belongs to the powerful, the well-connected, the wealthy, the people who already have a head start. But real leverage usually starts quieter, in the mind, long before it shows up in a résumé or a bank account. “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”

Notice the sequence. Knowledge is what you internalize, patterns, principles, and skills you can carry into any room. That kind of power isn’t about domination; it’s about agency: the ability to choose wisely, solve problems, and create options where none seemed to exist. When you commit to learning, you stop outsourcing your life to other people’s opinions and start building your own compass.

Information is the delivery system, timely, accurate signals that break the fog. It helps you see what’s really happening: in your finances, your health, your community, your relationships. Good information turns vague anxiety into specific action. And education is the engine that integrates both: not just collecting facts, but training judgment, how to question, test, and decide. That is the daily practice of freedom and the quiet foundation of leadership.

Kofi Annan earned the right to make this claim on the world stage: as UN Secretary-General, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and a reformer who pushed diplomacy, peacekeeping, and human development forward with steady moral clarity.

Today, pick one area where you feel stuck and do a 20-minute “education deposit”: read one credible explainer, write three notes in your own words, and take one small step that proves you understood, send the email, make the plan, ask the better question. May what you learn today become the progress you live tomorrow.