[I]t was... a meta-moment where some human being populated a territory which had been declared by the nations as international... So it was like... I was populating that vacuum... 7,000 journalists were on my back. I became world famous in seven days... because the moment was right, the words were right and the commitment was right...

A lot of times it works, and a lot of times it doesn’t, and we make no bones about that... But if you’re dealing with bureaucrats who recognize documents rather than human beings, then we will issue the documents. And if the bureaucrat doesn’t recognize it, whose fault is that?

As citizens of United World Government we threaten no one... we fear no one... we do not contribute voluntarily to the maintenance of national armaments... we accept responsibilities to the world community, abide by its tenants of order based on morality and common sense, and modify our national and communal allegiance accordingly.

Share Your Favorite Quotes

Know a quote that's missing? Help grow our collection.

Ever since my first mission over Brandenburg, I had felt pangs of conscience... I had begun to question the morality of punishing the German people... How many bombs had I dropped? How many men, women and children had I murdered? Wasn’t there another way...

The Madisons, Monroes and Jeffersons... had not merely urged a central government... [they] had declared it... they ceased to be mere proponents of an idea and became practitioners... This, the World Federalists were not willing to do. ...I would bring about world government ...simply by declaring myself an actual citizen of that government and then behaving like one.

We registered 750,000 people practically overnight. We set up the International Registry of World Citizens. We started issuing documents based upon world citizenship. ...This passport is one of the most important key documents in the world because it represents one world, no frontiers, freedom of travel and humanity.

On September 11, 1948 I went to the United Nations General Assembly meeting, which was in Paris. ...[T]hey declared that piece of France international territory. ...[T]hat was the same day that the French government said [to me] to get out. ...I knew that once I got on that territory I couldn't get off. ...I told the U.N. General Assembly ..."I'm your first citizen" and the U.N said... "We don't have citizens. We only have states." I said "Yeah, but... I'm a world citizen and this is international territory."

[I]t requires intelligence... guts... courage and commitment... but the tools are there. ...The People are sovereign. The Constitution... The first three words say "We the People"... [M]ost of the state constitutions say "This Constitution derives from the People." Well, we are the People, and we have to exercise our sovereignty.

All through history, the philosophers, Dante, Manius and Socrates, they called themselves world citizens. ...[I]t's one of the oldest ideas ...and we're the privileged ones who will decide whether the human race will go on... whether all those... prophets... seers... philosophers and poets... were justified. We here... in this day, in this age... decide whether the human race will continue and all the future people will be born.