Aung San Suu Kyi famous quotes

Humor is one of the best ingredients of survival.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Survival #Ingredients

My opinion is the greatest reward that any government could get is the approval of the people. If the people are happy and the people are at peace and the government has done something for them, that's the greatest reward I think any government could hope for.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Thinking #Government #People

It is not power that corrupts but fear.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

You have a great many things to do when you are under house arrest. On the one hand, it is more comfortable than sitting in prison; on the other hand, you have to look after a household, which is strenuous under such circumstances.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Hands #House #Looks

We will surely get to our destination if we join hands.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Hands #Collaboration #Destination

I think that freedom is sometimes a state of mind. Sometimes, mind you, but not always.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Thinking #Mind #Sometimes

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...
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Believe #Sacrifice #Journey

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

#Fear #Power #Losing

By helping others, you will learn how to help yourselves.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Helping Others #Helping

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Fear #Real #Civil Rights

You should never let your fears prevent you from doing what you know is right.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Courage #Women #Should

Government leaders are amazing. So often it seems they are the last to know what the people want.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Government #People #Leader

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

#Power #Viewpoints #Underprivileged

Please use your freedom to promote ours.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Freedom #Use #Please

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

#Helping Others #Feels #Solutions

With the right kind of institutions, starting with the rule of law, Burma could progress very quickly.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Law #Progress #Kind

It would be difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered by fear.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Ignorance #Would Be #Difficult

One should mature over 20 years.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Years #Mature #Should

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

#Mind #Absence #Individual

My top priority is for people to understand that they have the power to change things themselves.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#People #Priorities

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

#Add #Action #Contribution

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

#Crush #Men #Iron

All repressive laws must be revoked, and laws introduced to protect the rights of the people.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Rights #Law #People

I think, if you have enough inner resources, then you can live in isolation for long periods of time and not feel diminished by it.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Thinking #Long #Isolation

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

#Weekend #Mystery

If you are feeling helpless, help someone.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Feelings #Helping #Helpless

Fear is a habit; I am not afraid.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Habit #Not Afraid

I learned to work on a computer years before I was placed under house arrest. Fortunately I had two laptops when I was under house arrest - one an Apple and one a different operating system. I was very proud of that because I know how to use both systems.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Apples #Years #Two

The peace of our world is indivisible. As long as negative forces are getting the better of positive forces anywhere, we are all at risk.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Peace #Our World #Long

War is not the only arena where peace is done to death. Wherever suffering is ignored, there will be the seeds of conflict, for suffering degrades and embitters and enrages.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#War #Suffering #Done

The best way to help Burma is to empower the people of Burma, to help us have enough self-confidence to obtain what we want for ourselves.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Self Confidence #People #Empowering

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.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Men #Self #Common Sense

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

#Education #Peace #Passion

Peace as a goal is an ideal which will not be contested by any government or nation, not even the most belligerent.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Government #Goal

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

#Optimism #Have Faith #Want

Freedom and democracy are dreams you never give up.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Dream #Giving Up #Democracy

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

#Full Potential #Needs #World

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.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Perseverance #Attitude #Four

Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps the more precious thing is the courage acquired through endeavor, 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.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Courage #Grace #May

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

#Destiny #Giving #Perfect

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.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Country #Struggle #Government

I don't think of myself as unbreakable. Perhaps I'm just rather flexible and adaptable.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Thinking #Unbreakable

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

#Development #World #Stage

Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Fear #People #Natural

Sometimes I think that a parody of democracy could be more dangerous than a blatant dictatorship, because that gives people an opportunity to avoid doing anything about it.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Opportunity #Thinking #People

The true measure of the justice of a system is the amount of protection it guarantees to the weakest.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Justice #Guarantees #Protection

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

#Attitude #War #Mean

I think I should be active politically. Because I look upon myself as a politician. That's not a dirty work you know. Some people think that there are something wrong with politicians. Of course, something wrong with some politicians.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Dirty #Naughty #Thinking

You may not think about politics, but politics think about you.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Thinking #May

If you're feeling helpless, help someone.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Badass #Feelings #Helping

Kindness can change the lives of people.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Kindness #People

If you can make people understand why freedom is so important through the arts, that would be a big help.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Art #People #Important

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.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Responsibility #Men #Discipline

Fundamental violations of human rights always lead to people feeling less and less human.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Rights #People #Feelings

I only used a cell phone for the first time after I was released. I had difficulty coping with it because it seemed so small and insubstantial.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Phones #Cells #Firsts

Since we live in this world, we have to do our best for this world.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#World #This World

If you feel helpless, go help someone.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Helping #Feels #Helpless

When you feel helpless, help someone.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Helping #Feels #Helpless

Once serious political dialogue has begun, the international community can assume that we have achieved genuine progress along the road to real democratisation.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Real #Community #Political

Those who have to face persistent political persecution become highly politicized. Our lives take on a rhythm different from those who, on waking up in the morning, do not need to wonder who might have been arrested during the night and what further acts of blatant injustice might be committed against our people later during the day. Our antennae become highly sensitive to vibrations barely noticed by those whose everyday existence is removed from political struggle.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Morning #Struggle #Night

The act of willingly subtracting from one's own limited store of the good and the agreeable for the sake of adding to that of others reflects the understanding that individual happiness needs a base broader than the mere satisfaction of selfish passions. From there, it is not such a large step to the realization that respecting the susceptibilities and rights of others is as important as defending one's own susceptibilities and rights if civilized society is to be safeguarded.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Selfish #Passion #Rights

As the twentieth century draws to a close it has become obvious that material yardsticks alone cannot serve as an adequate measure of human well-being. Even as basic an issue as poverty has to be re-examined to take into account the psychological sense of deprivation that makes people feel poor.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Issues #People #Adequate

While it is undeniable that many have been driven to immorality and crime by the need to survive, it is equally evident that the possession of a significant surplus of material goods has never been a guarantee against covetousness, rapacity and the infinite variety of vice and pain which spring from such passions. Indeed, it could be argued that the unrelenting compulsion of those who already have much to acquire even more has generated greater injustice, immorality and wretchedness than the cumulative effect of the struggles of the severely underprivileged to better their lot.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Pain #Spring #Struggle

There is nothing to compare with the courage of ordinary people whose names are unknown and whose sacrifices pass unnoticed. The courage that dares without recognition, without the protection of media attention, is a courage that humbles and inspires and reaffirms our faith in humanity.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Courage #Sacrifice #Names

Where there is no justice there can be no secure peace.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Justice

Agreeing to disagree is a prerogative only of those who live under a democratic system.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Conflict #Democratic #Disagree

I was a prisoner, but I always felt free because I was not frightened So for me real freedom is freedom from fear.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Real #Frightened #Prisoner

Justice is a dream. But it is a dream that we are determined to realize.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Dream #Justice #Determined

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
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Sacrifice #Choices #You Choose

As you look at me and listen to me, please remember the often repeated truth that one prisoner of conscience is one too many.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Looks #Remember #Prisoner

Some of the best indicators of a country developing along the right lines are healthy mothers giving birth to healthy children who are assured of good care and a sound education that will enable them to face the challenges of a changing world.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Country #Mother #Children

Peace, development, and justice are all connected to each other. We cannot talk about economic development without talking about peace. How can we expect economic development in a battlefield?
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Talking #Justice #Development

Calamities that are not the result of purely natural phenomena usually have their origins, distant and obscure though they may be, in common human failings.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#May #Common #Failing

More people, especially young people, are realising that if they want change, they've got to go about it themselves – they can't depend on a particular person, ie me, to do all the work. They are less easy to fool than they used to be, they now know what's going on all over the world.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#People #World #Want

We must all work together if we are all to live together in unity and harmony.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Unity #Working Together #Together

Religion is about increasing peace and harmony in the world. ... People of all different religions should be given the opportunity to pursue good in their own way.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Opportunity #People #Religion

People ask me about what sacrifices I've made. I always answer: I've made no sacrifices, I've made choices.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Sacrifice #People #Choices

I always say that one has no right to hope without endeavor,
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Endeavor

Sometimes I didn't even have enough money to eat. I became so weak from malnourishment that my hair fell out, and I couldn't get out of bed.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Hair #Bed #Sometimes

I look upon myself as a politician. That isn't a dirty word.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Dirty #Looks #Politician

Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Strong #Mean #Men

It is the love of ordinary people, in Burma, in Japan or anywhere else in the world, for justice and peace and freedom that is our surest defense against the forces of unreason and extremism ...
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Japan #People #Justice

Regimented minds cannot grasp the concept of confrontation as an open exchange of major differences with a view to settlement through genuine dialogue.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Views #Differences #Mind

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that 'if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression', human rights should be protected by the rule of law. That just laws which uphold human rights are the necessary foundation of peace and security would be denied only by closed minds which interpret peace as the silence of all opposition and security as the assurance of their own power.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Peace #Men #Rights

As we strive to teach others we must have the humility to acknowledge that we too still have much to learn.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Humility #Strive #Teach

We achieve everything by our efforts alone. Our fate is not decided by an almighty God. We decide our own fate by our actions. You have to gain mystery over yourself. It is not a matter of sitting back and accepting.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Fate #Achievement #Effort

The provision of basic material needs is not sufficient to make minority groups and indigenous peoples feel they are truly part of the greater national entity. For that they have to be confident that they too have an active role to play in shaping the destiny of the state that demands their allegiance.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Destiny #Play #Groups

There is no intrinsic virtue to law and order unless "law" is equated with justice and "order" with the discipline of a people satisfied that justice has been done.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Order #Law #Discipline

If you want to bring an end to long-standing conflict, you have to be prepared to compromise.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Long #Want #Compromise

The basis of democratic freedom is freedom of speech.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Freedom Of Speech #Speech #Democratic

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.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Kindness #Heart #People

When you decide to follow a certain path, you should follow it to the end and not be diverted from it for personal reasons.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Path #Reason #Ends

I feel that the BBC World Service is not as versatile as it used to be - or perhaps I'm not listening at the right times.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Listening #World #Used

I haven't heard any music on the BBC World Service in a long time. Maybe I'm listening at the wrong times. But not one single piece of music.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Long #Listening #Pieces

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.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Country #Home #Years

It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere brute.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Men #Self #Redemption

A more significant phase should mean serious political dialogue.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Mean #Political #Phases

Sometimes, 24 hours can bring a total revolutionary change.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Sometimes #Revolutionary #Hours

The French say that to part is to die a little. To be forgotten too is to die a little. It is to lose some of the links that anchor us to the rest of humanity.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Anchors #Humanity #Links

It is undeniably easier to ignore the hardships of those who are too weak to demand their rights than to respond sensitively to their needs. To care is to accept responsibility, to dare to act in accordance with the dictum that the ruler is the strength of the helpless.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi

#Responsibility #Rights #Needs