Words matter. These are the best Óscar Arias Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
The Central American isthmus is a region of great contrasts, but also of heartening unison. Millions of men and women share dreams of freedom and progress.
In a democracy, a leader must be the head teacher, someone eager to respond to doubts and questions and explain the need for and the benefits of a new course.
To demilitarize the country means to make a profound decision. It is not enough to change the name of the armed forces. It is necessary to change the minds of those people who only yesterday wore a military uniform.
Our experience shows that security does not lie in weapons or fences or armies.
I think it’s in the hands of each head of state: the future of peace in his own country.
The 20th century has been marked by cynicism, selfishness, greed, and the desire to please, all without changing the status quo. In the 21st century, we must resurrect solidarity and compassion.
It often seems… the human race has twittered away its existence singing an endless song – a song of waste and hatred, where there should be progress and love.
There is a difference between the typical politician and the statesman. A typical politician is that person who tells people what people want to hear, while the statesman tells people what people need to know.
If there is no peace in Central America, it will not be because Costa Rica, and myself as president, have not done what is necessary to obtain peace.
At one time in the history of the Americas, weapons and armies were associated with liberty and independence, and with new opportunities for our peoples. At one time in the history of the Americas, there were liberating armies.
Mine is an unarmed people, whose children have never seen a fighter or a tank or a warship.
Costa Rica believes in building bridges, in looking for solutions to problems, and not clinging to positions.
Nuclear arms kill many people all at once, but other weapons kill many people, little by little, every day, everywhere in the world.
Peace is a never ending process… It cannot ignore our differences or overlook our common interests. It requires us to work and live together.
In the United States, resources exist to retrain displaced workers and promote the development of technologies that create new job opportunities for American workers.
I shall never accept that the law can be used to justify tragedy, to keep things as they are, to make us abandon our ideas of a different world. Law is the path of liberty, and must as such open the way to progress for everyone.
I do not believe that the hungry man should be treated as subversive for expressing his suffering.
Latin Americans hold on tight even to pain and suffering, preferring a certain present to an uncertain future. Some of this is only natural, entirely human. But for us, the fear is paralyzing; it generates not only anxiety but also paralysis.
More combat planes, missiles and soldiers won’t provide additional bread for our families, desks for our schools, or medicine for our clinics.
Poverty and lack of education are ruining our planet.
An overall trend of political moderation in Latin America makes for far less interesting headlines, but it also makes for far better lives for our people.
During my administration, our desire has been to strengthen the civilian spirit of our people. Thus, we have eliminated military ranks and salutes from our civil guard.
The absence of significant development aid has only increased the importance of trade for Central America’s future.
I like to build bridges… not walls.
We need a force that recognizes that only through development and liberty, through education and health care, through better priorities and wiser investments, can we achieve the stability we seek.
I saw no reason why other nations should tell Central Americans how to solve their problems.
Many developing countries continue to be burdened by high percentages of their population living in poverty. Yet, instead of addressing this root cause of conflict, many states, ironically, increase their military might in order to control increasingly desperate populations.
Free trade will go a long way toward alleviating poverty in Central America. Yet trade alone is not enough.
Peace is not a matter of prizes or trophies. It is not the product of a victory or command. It has no finishing line, no final deadline, no fixed definition of achievement.
Latin America has not achieved the development that it deserves… I’m not optimistic for all of Latin America, not only for Central America.
A nation that mistreats its own citizens is more likely to mistreat its neighbours.
It’s not fair for the U.S. to spend, on arms and weapons, so much money and then not spend on health care the money that is needed.
The best way to perpetuate poverty is by spending on arms and military, and the best way to fight terrorism is by fighting the basic needs of humanity, because hunger and poverty perpetuate crime.