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UNITED NATIONS — <\/span>Presidents, premiers, monarchs and cabinet ministers have plenty to say at their annual gathering at the U.N. General Assembly. Still, sometimes they borrow a few words, quoting from a range of sources. <\/p>\n Speakers this week touched on homeland sayings, ancient texts, figures of moral authority and more \u2014 even a bit of Talking Heads (not TV pundits \u2014 the 1980s new wave band.)<\/p>\n Here’s a sampling of references:<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n \u201cLaws are made to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak.\u201d \u2014 the ancient Babylonian king Hammurabi, quoted by Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n \u201cThe coral reef where different species of fish congregate to feed and seek shelter.\u201d \u2014 a reference from a Marshallese proverb, as explained by Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n “We’re on a road to nowhere.\u201d \u2014 David Byrne of the band Talking Heads, quoted by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis<\/p>\n __<\/p>\n \u201cWe are the land, its custodians and its inhabitants. To us it belongs, for we are its people and its home. Today belongs to the people, and the glorious yesterday belongs to them, as well. To them belong the future, history and time itself.\u201d \u2014 a Yemeni poet, as quoted by Abdullah Abdulkader al Alimi-Bawzer, vice president of Yemen’s internationally recognized governing council, and as translated by U.N. interpreters <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n \u201cThe breach of one rule inevitably leads to the breach of other rules.” \u2014 Mahatma Gandhi, quoted by Finnish President Alexander Stubb<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n \u201cMembers of the United Nations General Assembly, your very name implies commitment, through your peace initiatives and humanitarian policies, to igniting the fires of conscience, empathy, unity and equity.\u201d \u2014 Barbados\u2019 poet laureate, Esther Phillips, quoted by Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we gather together in the moonlit village ground, it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.\u201d \u2014 author Chinua Achebe, quoted by President Azali Assoumani of The Comoros<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n \u201cWhen there is anguish in Port-au-Prince, it\u2019s still Africa crying. We’re outing fires in faraway places when our neighbors are just burning…. I refuse to believe that we good people will forever turn our hearts and our eyes away. Haiti, I\u2019m sorry.\u201d \u2014 calypso singer David Rudder, quoted by President Godwin Friday of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n \u201cKnowledge is like the ocean\u2019s waves: It comes in many forms and sizes, yet no wave overpowers another, and all ultimately reach the same shore.\u201d \u2014 one of a couple of Palauan sayings translated and quoted by Palau President Surangel Whipps<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n \u201cHow wonderful it is that no one has to wait, but we can start right now to gradually change the world!” \u2014 Anne Frank, referred to by Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, who also quoted Mahatma Gandhi, Nuremberg war crimes trial prosecutor Robert H. Jackson and an inscription at a cemetery for American World War II soldiers in the Netherlands<\/p>\n<\/div>\n