Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2021. She has served as the president of the National League for Democracy (NLD) since 2011, having been the General Secretary from 1988 to 2011. She played a vital role in Myanmar’s transition from military junta to partial democracy in the 2010s. These Aung San Suu Kyi quotes will motivate you.
Best Aung San Suu Kyi Quotes
- “You should never let your fears prevent you from doing what you know is right.” ~ 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
- “It is not power that corrupts but fear.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “We will surely get to our destination if we join hands.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
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“Humor is one of the best ingredients of survival.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “It is not enough to sit and hope. You have to work in order to realize your hopes.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
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“If you are feeling helpless, help someone.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “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.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “All right, your knees may be knocking but that shouldn’t prevent you from going ahead and doing what you need to do.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “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
- “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
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“Freedom and democracy are dreams you never give up.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “By helping others, you will learn how to help yourselves.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “Democracy is when the people keep a government in check.” ~ 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
- “My top priority is for people to understand that they have the power to change things themselves.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “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.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
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“We have to choose between dialogue and utter devastation.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “Fearlessness may be a gift, but perhaps most precious is courage from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “I always say that one has no right to hope without endeavor.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “I don’t think of myself as unbreakable. Perhaps I’m just rather flexible and adaptable.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “Since we live in this world, we have to do our best for this world.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
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“Please use your freedom to promote ours.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “I think sometimes if you are alone, you are freer because your time is your own.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “If you give in to intimidation, you’ll go on being intimidated” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “The good ruler sublimates his needs as an individual to the service of the nation.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
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“Challenges mean opportunities as well.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “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.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “The true measure of the justice of a system is the amount of protection it guarantees to the weakest.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “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
- “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
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“Fundamental violations of human rights always lead to people feeling less and less human.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “There is nothing to be gained by being unnecessarily nasty. Violence begets violence.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “It would be difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered by fear.” ~ 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
- “Sometimes, 24 hours can bring a total revolutionary change.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
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“Even one voice can be heard loudly all over the world in this day and age.” ~ 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
- “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
- “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.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
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“Kindness can change the lives of people.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “We must contemplate what the meaning of being “educated” is. Some people think a person with plenty of degrees is an educated one. But I believe a person who can judge a situation correctly and make timely decisions is more important.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “I’ve always thought that the best solution for those who feel helpless is for them to help others.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “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
- “I don’t like to be called a symbol. And I don’t like to be called an icon. I will just say that I have to work very, very hard. So I’d rather be known as a hard worker. I don’t think symbols do much, nor icons.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
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“I think that freedom is sometimes a state of mind. Sometimes, mind you, but not always.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “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.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “If you want democracy, you have got to be prepared to accept the responsibilities of democracy. The people have to take part. They have to understand that they have the power to move things, and they must really commit themselves to change if they want it.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi Quotes
- “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. 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. This is the way all such situations pan out even with the most truculent dictator.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
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“There is no hope without endeavor.” ~ 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
- “Each man has in him the potential to realize the truth through his own will and endeavour and to help others to realize it.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “Fear is a habit; I am not afraid.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “Early childhood development has proved to be very beneficial and very cost-effective in societies where this is been tried. So let’s not confine ourselves to primary education. Let’s think of early childhood development and education as a whole.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “To the best of my knowledge, no war was ever started by women. But it is women and children who have always suffered most in situations of conflict.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “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
