Top 40 Helen Clark Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Girls can do anything. We do do anything and we expect to be treated as equals.”

— Helen Clark

2. “Someone’s got to break the glass ceiling, and once it’s broken, everybody else comes clamouring up behind.”

— Helen Clark

3. “Of course I have an opinion on many things but I don’t micromanage.”

— Helen Clark

4. “Equity, dignity, happiness, sustainability – these are all fundamental to our lives but absent in the GDP.”

— Helen Clark

5. “Marine protected areas, and particularly no-take zones, are very effective in allowing regeneration of fish stocks.”

— Helen Clark

6. “Never look back. Move on. Aim high. Etc.”

— Helen Clark

7. “Business can talk itself into a blue funk.”

— Helen Clark

8. “No country will reach its full potential if its female citizens do not enjoy full equality.”

— Helen Clark

9. “I’m not into power for the sake of it.”

— Helen Clark

10. “Grounded in international human rights, gender equality doesn’t just improve the lives of individual women, girls, and their families; it makes economic sense, strengthens democracy, and enables long-term sustainable progress.”

— Helen Clark

11. “Any serious shift towards more sustainable societies has to include gender equality.”

— Helen Clark

12. “I only take on roles that I’m passionate about. Life is too short to do things that you’re not happy with.”

— Helen Clark

13. “I’ve been round Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and China in the last few months and the message that I’ve been taking is that New Zealand is building an up market dynamic into a connected economy. And that we are not the old-fashioned, ship mutton kind of product the people associate their export in work.”

— Helen Clark

14. “I have no beliefs of a religious kind.”

— Helen Clark

15. “Adopting and promoting sustainable production practices require concerted effort, something which in practice is too often missing or insufficient. Making this shift at the scale required demands forward-looking leadership in the public and private sectors alike.”

— Helen Clark

16. “Although biodiversity loss continues globally, many countries are significantly slowing the rate of loss by shoring up protected natural areas and the services they provide, and in expanding national park systems with tighter management and more secure funding.”

— Helen Clark

17. “I deeply detest social distinction and snobbery, and in that lies my strong aversion to titular honours.”

— Helen Clark

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18. “We need a lot of thinking and ideas. We need all the innovators, particularly with the new sustainable technologies – how do we get them to affordability so that people can generate clean energy?”

— Helen Clark

19. “Health and education are always issues.”

— Helen Clark

20. “Economic growth which strips out the planet’s ecosystems is not sustainable.”

— Helen Clark

21. “In the end, there will always be a fundamental difference of perspective between New Zealand and Australia on defense, whoever is in government.”

— Helen Clark

22. “It is a very small minority point of view and I think, through continuing to set the tone of tolerance, acceptance, and diversity, you just have to further marginalize such people. Hopefully one day nobody will think that way.”

— Helen Clark

23. “New Zealand and SA should take this dimension into account, the skills South Africans are presently contributing to New Zealand.”

— Helen Clark

24. “I think that generally New Zealand is respected for the positions it takes because it thinks them through.”

— Helen Clark

25. “Innovation applied across the board of development is having a huge impact, and can have more. All sorts of technology can provide shortcuts, can overcome obstacles which once seemed insuperable.”

— Helen Clark

26. “If ordinary means I have suddenly got to produce a household of kids and iron Peter’s shirts, I’m sorry, I’m not interested.”

— Helen Clark

27. “I think the issue of North Korea is one where the international community as a whole has to work to resolve the crisis.”

— Helen Clark

28. “Fortunately New Zealand doesn’t have land borders so we are able to be somewhat more rigorous on who gets in and out of our country than perhaps some people.”

— Helen Clark

29. “Well of course New Zealand isn’t anti-American.”

— Helen Clark

30. “People are optimistic about the future.”

— Helen Clark

31. “It’s fair to say that, for much of my lifetime, New Zealand certainly was a property-owning democracy and working people, ordinary people, had assets.”

— Helen Clark

32. “As New Zealanders, we’ve been in on the United Nations from the very beginning, played a role in the drafting of the charter – it means a lot to us that those processes are followed.”

— Helen Clark

33. “We just sent our condolences to the President of the United States and the American people on what is a terrible, terrible tragedy.”

— Helen Clark

34. “If you neglect those who are currently poor and stable, you may create more poor and unstable people. There has been a tremendous concentration of donor interest in countries that are seen as particularly fragile – but it becomes harder to mobilise money for sub-Saharan, plain poor countries.”

— Helen Clark

35. “Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries on earth. Security issue or no security issue, there would need to be a focus on it.”

— Helen Clark

36. “Of course as a small country you’re not necessarily in the strongest negotiating position unless you’re negotiating with other small countries.”

— Helen Clark

37. “I don’t know that you’re ever going to persuade New Zealanders that they’re not going to own their own homes and I’m not going to try.”

— Helen Clark

38. “I think it’s inevitable that New Zealand will become a republic and that would reflect the reality that New Zealand is a totally sovereign-independent 21st century nation 12,000 miles from the United Kingdom.”

— Helen Clark

39. “Senator Obama will be taking office at a critical juncture. There are many pressing challenges facing the international community, including the global financial crisis and global warming. We look forward to working closely with President-elect Obama and his team to address these challenges.”

— Helen Clark

40. “If the market is left to sort matters out, social injustice will be heightened and suffering in the community will grow with the neglect the market fosters.”

— Helen Clark

41. “In terms of having views and being prepared to express them, yes, I think New Zealand’s had a leadership role in a lot of things.”

— Helen Clark

42. “Well in the end the world can crank itself up to sanctions, as it has with Zimbabwe, another sad case.”

— Helen Clark