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Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
120 quotes
“So here is my call to you: go all in.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Johnson Sirleaf: Let's go All In to end violence against women ontext.news (December 03, 2025)
“History will judge us not by what we say in this moment in time, but by what we do next to lift the lives of our countrymen and women. It will judge us by the legacy we leave behind for generations to come.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mine has been a long journey, a lifetime journey to Oslo. It was shaped by the values of my parents and by my two grandmothers – indigenous Liberians, farmers and market traders – neither of whom could read or write. They taught me that only through service is one’s life truly blessed.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My journey was supported by my many teachers and mentors who guided me to a world opened up by the enlightenment of higher education, and which led to my conviction that access to quality education is the social justice issue of our time.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My life was safeguarded when thousands mobilized around the world to free me from imprisonment, and my life was spared by individual acts of compassion by some of my captors.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My life was forever transformed when I was given the privilege to serve the people of Liberia – taking on the awesome responsibility of rebuilding a nation nearly destroyed by war and plunder. There was no roadmap for post-conflict transformation. But we knew that we could not let our country slip back into the past. We understood that our greatest responsibility was to keep the peace.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Nobel Committee cannot license us three Laureates to speak for women. But it has provided us a platform from which to speak to women, around the globe, whatever their nationality, their color, their religion, or their station in life. It is you, my sisters, and especially those who have seen the devastation that merciless violence can bring, to whom I dedicate my remarks, and this Prize.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Although international tribunals have correctly declared that rape, used as a weapon of war, is a crime against humanity, rapes in times of lawlessness continue unabated. The number of our sisters and daughters of all ages brutally defiled over the past two decades staggers the imagination, and the number of lives devastated by such evil defies comprehension.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Through the mutilation of our bodies and the destruction of our ambitions, women and girls have disproportionately paid the price of domestic and international armed conflict. We have paid in the currencies of blood, of tears, and of dignity.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“However, the need to defend the rights of women is not limited to the battlefield, and the threats to those rights do not emanate only from armed violence. Girls’ education, seen far too often as an unnecessary indulgence rather than the key investment it is, is still under-funded and under-staffed. Too often girls are discouraged from pursuing an academic training, no matter how promising they may be.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In too many parts of the world, crimes against women are still under-reported, and the laws protecting women are under-enforced. In this 21st century, surely there is no place for human trafficking that victimizes almost a million people, mostly girls and women, each year. Surely there is no place for girls and women to be beaten and abused. Surely there is no place for a continuing belief that leadership qualities belong to only one gender.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Technology has turned our world into one interconnected neighborhood. What happens in one place is seen in every corner, and there has been no better time for the spread of peace, democracy and their attending social justice and fairness for all.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Today, across the globe, women, and also men, from all walks of life are finding the courage to say, loudly and firmly, in a thousand languages, “No more.” They reject mindless violence, and defend the fundamental values of democracy, of open society, of freedom, and of peace.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I might thus speak to girls and women everywhere, I would issue them this simple invitation: My sisters, my daughters, my friends, find your voices!”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Each of us has her own voice, and the differences among us are to be celebrated. But our goals are in harmony. They are the pursuit of peace, the pursuit of justice. They are the defense of rights to which all people are entitled.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The political struggles that our countries – Liberia, Yemen and others – have gone through will be meaningful only if the new-found freedom opens new opportunities for all. We are well aware that a new order, born of hunger for change, can easily fall back into the lawless ways of the past. We need our voices to be heard. Find your voice! And raise your voice! Let yours be a voice for freedom!”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberia’s continued progress depends on policies and programs that invest in people and strengthen democratic institutions, while remaining grounded in the rule of law. Most importantly, they must stand the test of time. They must not be dependent on any one leader or any one political party. We must build space and respect for opposition voices; they are not the losers in our open society, but an essential component to strengthened accountability in government.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why are some countries able, despite their very real and serious problems, to press ahead along the road to reconciliation, recovery, and redevelopment while others cannot? These are critical questions for Africa, and their answers are complex and not always clear. Leadership is crucial, of course. Kagame was a strong leader–decisive, focused, disciplined, and honest–and he remains so today. I believe that sometimes people's characters are molded by their environment. Angola, like Liberia, like Sierra Leone, is resource-rich, a natural blessing that sometimes has the sad effect of diminishing the human drive for self-sufficiency, the ability and determination to maximize that which one has. Kagame had nothing. He grew up in a refugee camp, equipped with only his own strength of will and determination to create a better life for himself and his countrymen.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The events of April 12, 1980, remain among the most painful in Liberia’s history. I lived through them. I lost colleagues. I was detained. And like every Liberian who survived that period, I carry the weight of what was lost — not only lives, but a generation of promise for our country.I have dedicated my life to Liberia — as a public servant under both President Tubman and President Tolbert, as an advocate during our darkest years of civil conflict, and as President for twelve years. That record is documented, examined, and known. It does not require a defense.Liberia’s history is complex, and I have always believed it should be told fully and honestly — including the difficult chapters. I initiated and participated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process, precisely because accountability and transparency are foundational to healing.History is best served by evidence, rigorous inquiry, and a commitment to truth. I trust Liberians — and the broader world — to apply that standard to any account of Liberia’s past, including this period.I remain committed to Liberia’s future, to the advancement of African women in leadership, and to the work of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development. That is where my energy belongs, and where it will remain.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement from Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Documentary of the Assassination of President Tolbert ejscenter.org(April 2026)
“It was exactly 63 years ago today that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That document, the legacy of a generation that had just emerged from the horrors of a devastating World War, remains of great significance to us today. It is a Declaration that is universal. It speaks of rights that all humans have simply by virtue of being human. These rights are not given to us by governments, which might revoke them at their pleasure. It is a Declaration that is legal, not a list of benevolent aspirations. It obligates States, even in their treatment of their own citizens, to observe, and to uphold, those universal rights and freedoms that belong to us all.”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source