Some of the most relaxing weekends I have ever enjoyed were those I spent quietly with a sense of all work to date completed, and an absorbing mystery.
— Letters from Burma
Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese politician, diplomat and author who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2021, and is widely described as the country's de facto leader in that period. She has been general secretary of the National League for Democracy since its founding in 1988, and she received the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
She played a vital role in Myanmar's transition from military junta to partial democracy in the 2010s. The youngest daughter of Aung San, regarded as the Father of the Nation of modern Myanmar, she was born in Rangoon. She graduated from the University of Delhi in 1964 and St Hugh's College, Oxford, in 1968, then worked at the United Nations for three years. Freedom from Fear and Letters from Burma are her most quoted works in our library.
She played a vital role in Myanmar's transition from military junta to partial democracy in the 2010s. The youngest daughter of Aung San, regarded as the Father of the Nation of modern Myanmar, she was born in Rangoon. She graduated from the University of Delhi in 1964 and St Hugh's College, Oxford, in 1968, then worked at the United Nations for three years. Freedom from Fear and Letters from Burma are her most quoted works in our library.
Most quoted works
- Freedom from Fear 4
- Letters from Burma 3
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.
— Freedom from Fear
To view the opposition as dangerous is to misunderstand the basic concepts of democracy. To oppress the opposition is to assault the very foundation of democracy.
— Letters from Burma
If you're feeling helpless, help someone. ”― Aung San Suu Kyi (from Freedom from Fear)
— Freedom from Fear
There is a special charm to journeys undertaken before daybreak in hot lands: the air is soft and cool and the coming of dawn reveals a landscape fresh from the night dew.
— Letters from Burma
If ideas and beliefs are to be denied validity outside the geographical and cultural bounds of their origin, Buddhism would be confined to north India, Christianity to a narrow tract in the Middle East and Islam to Arabia.
— Freedom from Fear
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.
— Freedom from Fear
Government leaders are amazing. So often it seems they are the last to know what the people want.
In societies where men are truly confident of their own worth, women are not merely tolerated but valued."(From a speech read on video on August 31, 1995 before the NGO Forum on Women, Beijing, China)
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.