Aung San Suu Kyi Quotes

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

When the Nobel Committee chose to honor me, the road I had chosen of my own free will became a less lonely path to follow.

Moulmein for food,
Mandalay for conversation,
Rangoon for ostentation

That's not how politics works - sometimes things move in a rather imperceptible way. There are no fireworks, and then comes a time when change comes unexpectedly. Sometimes change comes with a lot of fireworks, but not always.

I wish people wouldn't think of me as a saint - unless they agree with the definition of a saint that a saint's a sinner who goes on trying.

It cannot be doubted that in most countries today women, in comparison to men, still remain underprivileged.

I think corporations should give more attention to this suffering and should wait to invest until there is a responsible government in Burma. I do not think it is a good idea to separate economics from politics; in fact, I do not think economics can be separated from politics It's quite understandable that many business concerns think only about their own profits It's up to the public to put as much pressure as it can on these companies, through shareholder resolutions and public actions.

I don't believe in professional dissidents. I think it's just a phase, like adolescence.

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.

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.

There are those who argue that the concept of human rights is not applicable to all cultures. We in the National League for Democracy believe that human rights are of universal relevance. But even those who do not believe in human rights must certainly agree that the rule of law is most important. Without the rule of law there can be no peace.

I would like to have seen my sons growing up.

Frankly, if you do politics, you should not be thinking about your dignity.

I think by now I have made it fairly clear that I am not very happy with the word hope. I don't believe in people just hoping.

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

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.

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.

If you feel helpless, go help someone.

Assuming the chairmanship of ASEAN isn't going to do anything about improving the lives of people.

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.

I've been repeating ad nauseam that we in Burma, we are weak with regard to the culture of negotiated compromises, that we have to develop the ability to achieve such compromises.

The people have given me their support; they have given me their trust and confidence. My colleagues have suffered a lot in order to give me support. I do not look upon my life as a sacrifice at all.

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

I think it's time for the Army to understand that power should be enshrined in the people if we are to be a genuine democracy and not in any particular institution or organisation.

I do not like to encourage personalized politics, so we would not like it to be thought that just because certain political personalities were attacked, this means the situation is very grave. The true gravity of the situation comes from the fact that ordinary members of the NLD are repressed all the time. We don't want a completely paralyzed political organization, while a select few leaders are protected by international attention.

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

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

If I were the blushing kind, I would blush to be called a hero.

Democracy, like liberty, justice and other social and political rights, is not "given", it is earned through courage, resolution and sacrifice.

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.

Every government must consider the security of the country. That is just part of the responsibilities of any government. But true security can only come out of unity within a country where there are so many ethnic nationalities.

I don't think I have achieved anything that I can really be proud of.

It is often in the name of cultural integrity as well as social stability and national security that democratic reforms based on human rights are resisted by authoritarian governments.

Please use your freedom to promote ours.

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, i.e. 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.

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 lightness 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.

Suffering degrades, embitters and enrages.

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

Dissidents can't be dissidents forever; we are dissidents because we don't want to be dissidents.

I'm feeling a little delicate.

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.

I do not hold to non-violence for moral reasons, but for political and practical reasons.

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.

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.

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

If you give in to intimidation, you'll go on being intimidated

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

Each man has in him the potential to realize the truth through his own will and endeavour and to help others to realize it.

Unless there is free and fair competition, there can't be healthy economic development. And what we have in Burma now is not an open-market economy that allows free and fair competition, but a form of colonialism makes a few people very, very wealthy. It's what you would crony capitalism.

After all it was my father who founded the Burmese army and I do have a sense of warmth towards the Burmese army.

In spite of the open, laughing face that the Burmese presented to the world, the ingrained, if inarticulate, conviction of their own nationhood prevented them from truly admitting those they saw as 'foreign' into their inner sancturns.

To be forgotten, is to die a little.

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.

I look upon myself as a politician. That isn't a dirty word.

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 ...

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.

What I have experienced is nothing compared to what political prisoners in prisons suffer.

When you feel helpless, help someone.

I am not unaware of the saying that more tears have been shed over wishes granted than wishes denied.

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.

If you are feeling helpless, help someone.

I don't want to be president, but I want to be free to decide whether or not I want to be president of this country.

Absolute peace in our world is an unattainable goal. But it is one towards which we must continue to journey, our eyes fixed on it as a traveller in a desert fixes his eyes on the one guiding star that will lead him to salvation.

In general people feel more relaxed about participating in politics. They aren't frightened as they used to be.

I was surprised by the response of young people because there is a perception that those younger than the 1988 generation are not interested in politics.

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

Regime is made up of people, so I do put faces to regimes and governments, so I feel that all human beings have the right to be given the benefit of the doubt, and they also have to be given the right to try to redeem themselves if they so wish.

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.

I don't believe in people just hoping. We work for what we want. I always say that one has no right to hope without endeavor, so we work to try and bring about the situation that is necessary for the country, and we are confident that we will get to the negotiation table at one time or another.

A more significant phase should mean serious political dialogue.

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

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.

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

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.

History is always changing.

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 ...

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

I've always been strongly on the side of non-violence.

I saw many aspects of the country which I needed to see in order that I might know what we need to do.

A family is very special. So when a family splits up, it's not good, it's never good.

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.

We're nowhere near democracy. I've been released, that's all.

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 struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for life and dignity. It is a struggle that encompasses our political, social and economic aspirations.

Burmese authors and artists can play the role that artists everywhere play. They help to mold the outlook of a society - not the whole outlook, and they are not the only ones to mold the outlook of society, but they have an important role to play there.

One wants to be together with one's family. That's what families are about.

I can say with absolute confidence that the general public of Burma would be very little affected, if at all, by sanctions. So far, the kind of investments that have come in have benefited the public very little indeed. If you have been in Burma long enough, you will be aware of the fact that a small elite has developed that is extremely wealthy. Perhaps they would be affected, but my concern is not with them but with the general public.

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.

The basis of democratic freedom is freedom of speech.

When you think of Buddhism, you're likely to think of peace and tranquility.

Democracy is when the people keep a government in check.

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

When we think of the state of the economy, we are not thinking in terms of money flow. We are thinking in terms of the effect on everyday lives of people.

The root of a nation's misfortunes has to be sought in the moral failings of the government.

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.

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.

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.

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.

You cannot compromise unless people talk to you.

I'm not the only one working for democracy in Burma - there are so many people who have worked for it because they believe that this is the only way we can maintain the dignity of our people.