Aung San Suu Kyi quotes - page 8

Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese politician, diplomat, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, recognized for her long struggle for democracy in Myanmar. Her activism inspired a global movement supporting human rights and nonviolent resistance. She has faced both international praise and criticism for her leadership and political actions. Here are 202 of her quotes:

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

Aung San Suu Kyi

Sanctions and boycotts would be tied to serious political dialogue.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Confidence-building is not something that can go on forever. If it goes on forever then it becomes counterproductive.

Aung San Suu Kyi

We will not change in matters of policy until such time as dialogue has begun.

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

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

Aung San Suu Kyi

People must work in unison.

Aung San Suu Kyi

You cannot compromise unless people talk to you.

Aung San Suu Kyi

If I was afraid of being killed, I would never speak out against the government.

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

In the end, I think people prefer the good to win rather than the bad.

Aung San Suu Kyi

If you do nothing you get nothing.

Aung San Suu Kyi

If you look at the democratic process as a game of chess, there have to be many, many moves before you get to checkmate. And simply because you do not make any checkmate in three moves does not mean it's stalemate. There's a vast difference between no checkmate and stalemate. This is what the democratic process is like.

Aung San Suu Kyi

We always think that everybody can do a little bit more, if not a lot more.

Aung San Suu Kyi

I think when the people in Burma stop thinking about whether or not they're free, it'll mean that they're free.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Sanctions are not really an economic weapon.

Aung San Suu Kyi

There is so much that we need to do for our country. I don't think that we can afford to wait.

Aung San Suu Kyi

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

Aung San Suu Kyi

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

The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation's development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Those of us who decided to work for democracy in Burma made our choice in the conviction that the danger of standing up for basic human rights in a repressive society was preferable to the safety of a quiescent life in servitude. Ours is a nonviolent movement that depends on faith in the human predilection for fair play and compassion. Some would insist that man is primarily an economic animal interested only in his material well-being. This is too narrow a view of a species which has produced numberless brave men and women who are prepared to undergo relentless persecution to uphold deeply held beliefs and principles. It is my pride and inspiration that such men and women exist in my country today.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Are we not still guilty, if to a less violent degree, of recklessness, of improvidence with regard to our future and our humanity? 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