People ask me about what sacrifices I've made. I always answer: I've made no sacrifices, I've made choices.
It could achieve a lot if everyone in Burma could stop saying something is good if it is not good, or say something is just if it is not just.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of honesty and integrity in judgments and opinions.
Aung San Suu Kyi's quote highlights the vital role that truthfulness plays in society. She advocates for the necessity of speaking out against falsehoods and injustices, suggesting that the collective courage to voice the reality of situations—whether positive or negative—can lead to significant societal progress. By encouraging individuals in Burma to stop endorsing what is not genuinely good or just, she calls for a more honest and morally sound community that can foster genuine improvement and trust.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about social change, it would be impactful to emphasize the importance of honesty as highlighted by Aung San Suu Kyi.
More from Aung San Suu Kyi
All quotes →The struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for life and dignity. It is a struggle that encompasses our political, social and economic aspirations.
This was the way I was brought up to think of politics, that politics was to do with ethics, it was to do with responsibility, it was to do with service, so I think I was conditioned to think like that, and I'm too old to change now.
My top priority is for people to understand that they have the power to change things themselves.
If you want to bring an end to long-standing conflict, you have to be prepared to compromise.
Where there is no justice there can be no secure peace.
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You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
Fear not, we are of the nature of the lion, and cannot descend to the destruction of mice and such small beasts.
Nothing has been more detrimental to me than to be considered a symbol, because I never stood for any of that... The civil rights movement thought they would do me harm over the years by disassociating themselves from me. Well, nothing in the world was more to my advantage. I was never one of them... I had my own divine mission.
Take courage. We walk in the wilderness today and in the Promised Land tomorrow
What they forget is that, from Ancient Greece on, the people who returned from battle were either dead on their shields or stronger, despite and because of their scars.