Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence. -- Abigail Adams

"Everyone deserves the best start in life, which is what UNICEF is working to provide the world's most vulnerable children. Education is essential to a child's development. I hope that as an Ambassador I can encourage people to join UNICEF's mission to make education a reality for children throughout the world." -- Clay Aiken

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. -- Maya Angelou

Literacy unlocks the door to learning throughout life, is essential to development and health, and opens the way for democratic participation and active citizenship." ~ Kofi Annan

Acquiring literacy is an empowering process, enabling millions to enjoy access to knowledge and information which broadens horizons, increases opportunities and creates alternatives for building a better life.
~ Kofi Annan

'literacy is at the heart of sustainable development'
~ Kofi Annan

On this International Literacy Day, let us recall that literacy for all is an integral part of education for all, and that both are critical for achieving truly sustainable development for all.
~ Kofi Annan

"Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential."
~ Kofi Annan

"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

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

 

"These children and their parents know that getting an education is not only their right, but a passport to a better future - for the children and for the country." -- Harry Belafonte

"Creating a world that is truly fit for children does not imply simply the absence of war. It means having the confidence that our children would not die of measles or malaria. It means having access to clean water and proper sanitation. It means having primary schools nearby that educate children, free of charge. It means changing the world with children, ensuring their right to participate, and that their views are heard and considered. It means building a world fit for children, where every child can grow to adulthood in health, peace and dignity." -- Carol Bellamy

Think about it: Every educated person is not rich, but almost every education person has a job and a way out of poverty. So education is a fundamental solution to poverty.
-- Governor Kathleen Blanco

"Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern but impossible to enslave."
-- Baron Henry Peter Brougham

 

Peace is no mere matter of men fighting or not fighting. Peace, to have meaning for many who have known only suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health, and education, as well as freedom and human dignity - a steadily better life. If peace is to be secure, long-suffering and long-starved, forgotten peoples of the world, the underprivileged and the undernourished, must begin to realize without delay the promise of a new day and a new life. -- Ralph J. Bunche

“The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values.”
-- William S. Boroughs

It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.
-- Alec Bourne

"Literacy is not a luxury, it is a right and a responsibility. If our world is to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century we must harness the energy and creativity of all our citizens." - President Bill Clinton on International Literacy Day, September 8th 1994

Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change.
Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.
-- Henry Steele Commager

* we cannot afford to settle for being just average; we must learn as much as we can to be the best that we can. The key word is education -- education with maximum effort. Without it, we cannot be in charge of ourselves or anyone else. -- Bill Cosby

"The new education must be less concerned with sophistication than compassion. It must recognize the hazards of tribalism. It must teach man the most difficult lesson of all—to look at someone anywhere in the world and be able to see the image of himself. The old emphasis upon superficial differences that separate peoples must give way to education for citizenship in the human community. With such an education and with such self-understanding, it is possible that some nation or people may come forward with the vital inspiration that men need no less than food. Leadership on this higher level does not require mountains of gold or thundering propaganda. It is concerned with human destiny. Human destiny is the issue. People will respond." -- Norman Cousins

"Peace does not fare well where poverty and deprivation reign. It does not flourish where there is ignorance and a lack of education and information. Repression, injustice and exploitation are inimical with peace. Peace is gravely threatened by inter-group fear and envy and by the unleashing of unrealistic expectations. Racial, class and religious intolerance and prejudice are its mortal enemies." -- Frederik W. de Klerk

* We live in a complex world and the motivation to use violence to solve problems needs to be seriously questioned. It is essential that we help our children perceive peaceful alternatives. We need to use these troubled times as an opportunity to create a new vision for the future. -- Naomi Drew

“Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men.” -- W. E. B. DuBois

* We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn. -- Peter F. Drucker