“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.”

We want to empower our people; we want to strengthen them; we want to provide them with the kind of qualifications that will enable them to build up their own country themselves.

I think more women should be involved in politics for the good of the human race.

The value systems of those with access to power and of those far removed from such access cannot be the same.

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear

The peace of our world is indivisible. As long as negative forces are getting the better of positive forces anywhere, we are all at risk.

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.

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.

Man, I can assure you, is a nasty creature.

But hereof be assured, that all is not lawful nor just that is statute by civil laws; neither yet is everything sin before God, which ungodly persons allege to be treason.

Assurance is not to be obtained so much by self-examination as by action.

But assuredly Fortune rules in all things; she raised to eminence or buries in oblivion everything from caprice rather than from well-regulated principle.

If you think of paying court to the men in power, your eternal ruin is assured.

History is not reassuring on the subject of the longevity of seemingly lasting great nations, is it?

A youth with wings are the assurance of our nation’s future. We must start to work right away and make progress so that; if one day Westerners leave their footprints on the moon, we shall place a Turkish one among those.

I’d rather be shot by a bullet than to be cut by your words. I’ll die cold on the pavement before I lie in the casket of your assurances.