Aung San Suu Kyi Quotes

If you're feeling helpless, help someone. ”― Aung San Suu Kyi (from Freedom from Fear)

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

Some of the most relaxing weekends I have ever enjoyed were those I spent quietly with a sense of all work to date completed, and an absorbing mystery.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. 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. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

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.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

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

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

To view the opposition as dangerous is to misunderstand the basic concepts of democracy. To oppress the opposition is to assault the very foundation of democracy.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

It is not power that corrupts but fear.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

In societies where men are truly confident of their own worth, women are not merely tolerated but valued.(From a speech read on video on August 31, 1995 before the NGO Forum on Women, Beijing, China)

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

There is a special charm to journeys undertaken before daybreak in hot lands: the air is soft and cool and the coming of dawn reveals a landscape fresh from the night dew.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

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.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

If ideas and beliefs are to be denied validity outside the geographical and cultural bounds of their origin, Buddhism would be confined to north India, Christianity to a narrow tract in the Middle East and Islam to Arabia.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

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.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

My top priority is for people to understand that they have the power to change things themselves.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

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.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

My attitude is, do as much as I can while I'm free. And if I'm arrested I'll still do as much as I can.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

I do protect human rights, and I hope I shall always be looked up as a champion of human rights.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

Freedom and democracy are dreams you never give up.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

Humor is one of the best ingredients of survival.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

War is not the only arena where peace is done to death.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

Even one voice can be heard loudly all over the world in this day and age.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

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

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

The history of the world shows that peoples and societies do not have to pass through a fixed series of stages in the course of development.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

The value systems of those with access to power and of those far removed from such access cannot be the same. The viewpoint of the privileged is unlike that of the underprivileged.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

I've always tried to explain democracy is not perfect. But it gives you a chance to shape your own destiny.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

I don't understand why people say that I am full of courage. I feel terribly nervous.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

I don't want to see the military falling. I want to see the military rising to dignified heights of professionalism and true patriotism.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

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.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

This was the way I was brought up to think of politics, that politics was to do with ethics, it was to do with responsibility, it was to do with service, so I think I was conditioned to think like that, and I'm too old to change now.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

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

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

Maybe it is something to do with age, but I have become fonder of poetry than of prose.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

The democracy process provides for political and social change without violence.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

One person alone can't do anything as important as bringing genuine democracy to a country.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

I think sometimes if you are alone, you are freer because your time is your own.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

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.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

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

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

We are not out to boast that there is so much percentage of growth per year. Our real concern is how it affects the lives of people, the future of our country.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

Whatever help we may want from the international community now or in the future, we want to make sure that this help is tailored to help our people to help themselves.

~ Aung San Suu Kyi