We do need great change in Burma. We are trying to build a new society, a society where basic human rights are respected, and where our people enjoy all the benefits of democratic institutions.

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

If the restrictions on the work of my party and on me personally are not removed in the very, very near future - that is in a matter of days - I think the United States should start thinking seriously of sanctions. This is really about as bad as it has ever been.

Calamities that are not the result of purely natural phenomena usually have their origins, distant and obscure though they may be, in common human failings.

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.

We cannot be caught in the bond of suspicion. We have to carry out what we should be doing with a firm determination.

You may not think about politics, but politics think about you.