The 2020s: Crisis & Urgency - UN Speeches Research

Most Cited Figures (2020-2024)

In the current decade, Antonio Guterres is frequently cited as the sitting Secretary-General. Legacy figures like Mandela and King remain relevant, while Winston Churchill saw a spike in citations during the COVID-19 crisis.

Rank	Person	Mentions	Category
#1	António Guterres	763	UN Leader
#2	Simon Bolivar	43	Historical Figure
#3	Pope Francis	36	Religious Figure
#4	Nelson Mandela	28	Civil Rights Leader
#5	Dag Hammarskjöld	20	UN Leader
#6	Winston Churchill	19	World Leader
#7	Fidel Castro	15	World Leader
#8	Salvador Allende	10	World Leader
#9	Kofi Annan	10	UN Leader
#10	Martin Luther King Jr.	9	Civil Rights Leader
#11	Joseph Stalin	8	World Leader
#12	Mikhail Gorbachev	7	World Leader
#13	Saddam Hussein	6	World Leader
#14	Willy Brandt	6	World Leader
#15	Immanuel Kant	6	Philosopher
#16	Franklin D. Roosevelt	5	World Leader
#17	José Martí	5	Historical Figure
#18	Derek Walcott	4	Writer
#19	Charles de Gaulle	4	World Leader
#20	Abraham Lincoln	4	World Leader

Notable Quotations

"It always seems impossible until it"

Nelson Mandela•Cited by Netherlands (2024)

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"There is no path to peace. Peace is the path."

Mahatma Gandhi•Cited by Serbia (2024)

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"The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned."

Dag Hammarskjöld•Cited by Malta (2024)

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"The price of greatness is responsibility."

Winston Churchill•Cited by New Zealand (2024)

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"Peace is the greatest weapon for development that any person can have"

Nelson Mandela•Cited by Serbia (2023)

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