UN General Assembly
1978

288. Having touched upon only a few important issues, I cannot help thinking of the many other problems which likewise demand our attention. We may have different priorities, different approaches and different proposals for solutions, but we have to be realistic. We have to acknowledge publicly that we may only be able to solve a few of those problems before we meet here next year. We cannot continue to use inflated rhetoric thereby implying that this year there is somehow, miraculously, cause for special optimism. If we continue to speak like that we shall lose, the confidence of the public. Action is needed if the public is not to grow cynical about the United Nations and its possibilities of solving problems. That, in our view, would be disastrous.