“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.”

To be kind is to respond with sensitivity and human warmth to the hopes and needs of others.

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.

I always say that one has no right to hope without endeavor.

Every kindness I received, small or big, convinced me that there could never be enough of it in our world…

Fearlessness may be a gift, but perhaps most precious is courage from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions.

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.

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.

The four basic ingredients for success are: you must have the will to want something; you must have the right kind of attitude.

There is no hope without endeavor.

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.

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.

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

Democracy is when the people keep a government in check.

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

The good ruler sublimates his needs as an individual to the service of the nation.

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.

We are living in a world where everything is based on security.

The best crime novels are all based on people keeping secrets.

I think you don’t support people based on one or two cases of situations.

In the ’80s, I was putting out an album virtually every year, I think mostly based on fear – that if I didn’t, people would soon forget about me.

A successful branding program is based on the concept of singularity.

I can’t have composite characters. I can’t attribute dialogue to someone based simply on my memory and not based on notes taken at the time that the words were spoken.

After going through a lot of procedures and spending a lot of money … the doctor said, ‘Look, based on what we’re seeing here, I just don’t think this is going to happen for you.’

You come to see that everything you think you know about yourself, everything you think you know about the world, is based on assumptions, beliefs, and opinions-things that you believe because you were taught or told they were true.