“I think that freedom is sometimes a state of mind. Sometimes, mind you, but not always.”

We have to choose between dialogue and utter devastation.

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.

People ask me about what sacrifices I’ve made. I always answer: I’ve made no sacrifices, I’ve made choices.

Even the briefest touch of kindness can lighten a heavy heart. Kindness can change the lives of people.

When you decide to follow a certain path, you should follow it to the end and not be diverted from it for personal reasons.

It’s good to know that the people of different countries are really concerned and involved in the movement to help Burma.

That just laws which uphold human rights are the necessary foundation of peace and security would be denied only by closed minds which interpret peace as the silence of all opposition and security as the assurance of their own power.

Justice is a dream. But it is a dream that we are determined to realize.

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.

The greatest gift for an individual or a nation… was abhaya, fearlessness, not merely bodily courage but absence of fear from the mind.

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

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 price we have to pay for money is sometimes liberty.

Sometimes a poor performance is better for enjoyment, because you can look at those things that were wrong and analyze them.

All change is bad. But sometimes it has to be done.

Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.

Sometimes the right response to evil is an appeal to powerful and effective social organization – an appeal to civilization itself.

I quite like childlike songs, which sometimes cross over.

I turn on the TV sometimes, start watching something and think.

And sometimes you have to let it go limp and detach yourself from any associations.