Quotes by Michelle Bachelet

"You have to be doing things that matter - responsibility, but also responsibility with epic and beautiful and noble tasks."

"The United Nations should become a proactive agent in the dissemination of democratic principles."

"We have had scarce investment in women... One of my tasks is that everyone spends much more on women."

"In artillery exercises, women always win because they're more accurate."

"For me, a better democracy is a democracy where women do not only have the right to vote and to elect but to be elected."

"As the old joke goes, I have all the sins together. I am a woman, a Socialist, separated and agnostic."

"I'm working for the women in the world, today; that's my essential issue."

"My top priority for 2012 will be to make a renewed push for women's economic empowerment and political participation."

"I believe that if you want to fight inequality you have to do it starting at infancy."

"I don't like stereotypes - no kind of stereotypes."

"Having experienced personally and through my family the tragedy of Chile is something always present in my memory. I do not want events of that nature ever to happen again, and I have dedicated an important part of my life to ensuring that and to the reunion of all Chileans."

"Because I'm a doctor, I know when you have an injury it will heal if it's clean enough to heal; if your injury is dirty, it won't heal. And so when you are talking in societies, we are also talking in healing processes, and for a good healing process, you need to make things right."

"My message to women is: Women: We can do it. We are capable of doing almost anything, but we must learn we cannot do it all at once, we need to prioritize."

"Chile has done a lot to rid itself of poverty, especially extreme poverty, since the return to democracy. But we still have a ways to go toward greater equity. This country does not have a neoliberal economic model anymore. We have put in place a lot of policies that will ensure that economic growth goes hand in hand with social justice."

"During my lifetime, I realized that discrimination was not accidental, that there were structural roots and causes to it. So if we wanted to change women's lives, we need to deal with those root causes."

"You all want to know what is my dream? Very simple. To walk along the beach, holding the hand of my lover."

"Women's strength, women's industry, women's wisdom are humankind's greatest untapped resource. The challenge then for U.N. Women is to show our diverse constituencies how this resource can be effectively tapped in ways that benefit us all."

"The respect for human rights is nowadays not so much a matter of having international standards, but rather questions of compliance with those standards."

"Violence against women in all its forms is a human rights violation. It's not something that any culture, religion or tradition propagates."

"As a vibrant force in civil society, women continue to press for their rights, equal participation in decision-making, and the upholding of the principles of the revolution by the highest levels of leadership in Egypt."