Top 20 Paul Kagame Quotes

You can be up there, talked about, appreciated all over the world, with people singing a lot of songs about you. But if you don’t measure up and you are not really connected with your people… it will explode in your face, no question about it.

There are some who are scared by unity and by building a country on the basis of ideas.

Africa should not just wait to be exploited or influenced. No. We should be part of the conversation. We should raise ourselves to a level where there are certain terms we dictate in the conversation because we have a lot to offer.

I would be very happy for a woman to succeed me.

Nothing would catch me off guard, because I understand the world I live in. I understand it very well. And the world I live in is not necessarily a fair or just world. I have dealt with these injustices for the bigger part of my life.

To be effective at delivering a decent life for all, the U.N. must treat all the people it serves with impartiality and respect.

I don’t think anybody out there in the media, U.N., human rights organisations, has any moral right whatsoever to level any accusations against me or against Rwanda. Because, when it came to the problems facing Rwanda, and the Congo, they were all useless.

We must create economic opportunity, build a culture of entrepreneurship, get people to take responsibility for improving their lives, rather than putting them in a position where they sit back in their poverty and blame others for it.

I grew up in a refugee camp. Thirty years. This so-called human-rights world didn’t ask me what was happening for me to be there 30 years.

The political, the economic, the social are tied together like the strands of a rope. The social and economic, if they are firm, tend to strengthen the other.

There is a need to take advantage of the change that has taken place in the Congo, however tragic that has been in its coming.

In Africa today, we recognise that trade and investment, and not aid, are pillars of development.

Such problems are not solved in one day but there is a great step toward peace and security in the region.

I’m not British. I’m not American. I’m not French. Whatever thing they practise, that is their business. I am an African. I am Rwandese.

The judicial system of Rwanda is not subordinate to France or France’s interests.

I don’t think that what we need is an eternal leader.

Let no one think that flexibility and a predisposition to compromise is a sign of weakness or a sell-out.

The U.N. must be a good steward of the funds entrusted to it. Abuse and waste are therefore not a mere public relations problem. Institutional reform is not a one-off event, like applying a fresh coat of paint.

We cannot just be a corridor to smuggle minerals out.

You kept quiet… When these victims wanted your help to survive, you kept quiet.