Quotes by 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.”

“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.”

“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, proper...”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“It is not power that corrupts but fear.”

“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)”

“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.”

“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 ...”

“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 soc...”

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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