Aung San Suu Kyi Quotes

You should never let your fears prevent you from doing what you know is right.

It is not power that corrupts but fear.

I do not believe that I'm sacrificing, in fact I feel very uneasy when others used the word sacrifice to describe my life. It sounds like I'm demanding returns for my investments. I chose to walk on this journey, because I solely believed in it and wholeheartedly decided to do so, and I'm willing and able to pay for the consequences.

Humor is one of the best ingredients of survival.

Every thought, every word, and every action that adds to the positive and the wholesome is a contribution to peace. Each and every one of us is capable of making such a contribution.

We will surely get to our destination if we join hands.

It is not a sacrifice, it's a choice. If you choose to do something, then you shouldn't say it's a sacrifice, because nobody forced you to do it

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear

The four basic ingredients for success are: you must have the will to want something; you must have the right kind of attitude; you must have perseverance, and then you must have wisdom. Then you combine these four and then you get to where you want to get to.

Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one's actions, courage that could be described as 'grace under pressure' - grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure.

I don't think of myself as unbreakable. Perhaps I'm just rather flexible and adaptable.

By helping others, you will learn how to help yourselves.

To be kind is to respond with sensitivity and human warmth to the hopes and needs of others. Even the briefest touch of kindness can lighten a heavy heart. Kindness can change the lives of people.

If you are feeling helpless, help someone.

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.

Weak logic, inconsistencies and alienation from the people are common features of authoritarianism. The relentless attempts of totalitarian regimes to prevent free thought and new ideas and the persistent assertion of their own rightness bring on them an intellectual stasis which they project on to the nation at large. Intimidation and propaganda work in a duet of oppression, while the people, lapped in fear and distrust, learn to dissemble and to keep silent.

Every kindness I received, small or big, convinced me that there could never be enough of it in our world... Kindness can change the lives of people.

Solidarity is a beautiful word because it means that you reach out to those who are different from you and who have to cope with different circumstances because we recognize that we all share the same human needs and same values. It is the values that count most of all. The value of freedom of thought, the value of democratic practices, the value of respect for your fellow human beings.

The true measure of the justice of a system is the amount of protection it guarantees to the weakest.

Fearlessness may be a gift, but perhaps most precious is courage from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one's actions.

The search for scapegoats is essentially an abnegation of responsibility: it indicates an inability to assess honestly and intelligently the true nature of the problems which lie at the root of social and economic difficulties and a lack of resolve in grappling with them.

If you look at the democratic process as a game of chess, there have to be many, many moves before you get to checkmate. And simply because you do not make any checkmate in three moves does not mean it's stalemate. There's a vast difference between no checkmate and stalemate. This is what the democratic process is like.

My attitude to peace is rather based on the Burmese definition of peace - it really means removing all the negative factors that destroy peace in this world. So peace does not mean just putting an end to violence or to war, but to all other factors that threaten peace, such as discrimination, such as inequality, poverty.

There is nothing to be gained by being unnecessarily nasty. Violence begets violence.

Challenges mean opportunities as well.

Human beings the world over need freedom and security that they may be able to realize their full potential.

The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all.

I've always thought that the best solution for those who feel helpless is for them to help others.

I always say that one has no right to hope without endeavor.

Democracy is when the people keep a government in check.

Since we live in this world, we have to do our best for this world.

Government leaders are amazing. So often it seems they are the last to know what the people want.

Fundamental violations of human rights always lead to people feeling less and less human.

Human beings want to be free and however long they may agree to stay locked up, to stay oppressed, there will come a time when they say 'That's it.' Suddenly they find themselves doing something that they never would have thought they would be doing, simply because of the human instinct that makes them turn their face towards freedom.

As I travel through my country, people often ask me how it feels to have been imprisoned in my home -first for six years, then for 19 months. How could I stand the separation from family and friends? It is ironic, I say, that in an authoritarian state it is only the prisoner of conscience who is genuinely free. Yes, we have given up our right to a normal life. But we have stayed true to that most precious part of our humanity-our conscience.

The people of my country want the two freedoms that spell security: freedom from want and freedom from fear.

Saints, it has been said, are the sinners who go on trying. So free men and women are the oppressed who go on trying and who in the process make themselves fit to bear the responsibilities and uphold the disciplines which will maintain a free society.

The main aim of the [political] dialogue should be to resolve the problems of the nation, not to find who is the winner and who is the loser. That's not what it's all about. It's to try and find an answer that is acceptable to all parties concerned, which would of course require some give and take.

Kindness can change the lives of people.

For me, 'revolution' simply means radical change.

The Nobel Peace Prize opened up a door in my heart.

If I advocate cautious optimism it is not because I do not have faith in the future but because I do not want to encourage blind faith.

Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.

Please use your freedom to promote ours.

It is not enough to sit and hope. You have to work in order to realize your hopes.

The greatest gift for an individual or a nation... was abhaya, fearlessness, not merely bodily courage but absence of fear from the mind.

In Burma, we have only about four percent of the people in our country who are (college) graduates. So can we not value the majority? No, we must. If we just value the graduates, then does that mean our people are not valuable? I don't believe that. What is important is we need right people in right positions.

A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity.

Part of our struggle is to make the international community understand that we are a poor country not because there is an insufficiency of resources and investment, but because we are deprived of the basic institutions and practices that make for good government.

It's good to know that the people of different countries are really concerned and involved in the movement to help Burma. I think in some ways it's better to have the people of the world on your side than the governments of the world, even if governments can be more effective in certain directions.