Leadership Quote by Vigdís Finnbogadóttir

A small sentence that refuses the seduction of rescue. "First and foremost" does the heavy lifting: it’s not just a call to action, it’s a boundary against the comforting fiction that someone else will fix what you won’t. Finnbogadottir’s phrasing is plain on purpose, almost domestic in its directness, and that’s part of its power. It turns responsibility into something unglamorous and non-negotiable, like paying a bill.

The subtext is political realism dressed as moral clarity. Nations love to narrate themselves as deserving cases - the brave little country, the righteous cause - and then treat international sympathy as a resource to be extracted. Finnbogadottir flips that script. By saying "we can’t ask the people of the world to help us", she’s not rejecting solidarity; she’s warning against dependency, embarrassment, and the slow erosion of agency that comes when you outsource your future to others’ attention spans.

Coming from a head of state, the line carries the quiet weight of someone who understands both the limits and costs of external support: allies have conditions, global goodwill is fickle, and assistance can quickly become leverage. For a small nation especially, self-reliance isn’t macho posturing; it’s strategy.

What makes it work rhetorically is the inclusive "our". She’s drafting citizens into authorship. No scapegoats, no saviors, no grandstanding. Just a sober ethic: do your part first, then you can ask the world for partnership rather than permission.