People ask me about what sacrifices I've made. I always answer: I've made no sacrifices, I've made choices.
Aung San Suu KyiRead
Fearlessness may be a gift, but perhaps most precious is courage from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one's actions.
Interpretation
Courage is the ability to act in spite of fear, developed through conscious practice.
This quote highlights the distinction between innate fearlessness and the cultivated courage that arises from a deliberate choice to confront and overcome fear. It suggests that true courage is a practiced habit rather than a natural trait, emphasizing the importance of actively deciding to not allow fear to control our actions.
In practice
In a motivational speech to inspire students to overcome their fears.
People ask me about what sacrifices I've made. I always answer: I've made no sacrifices, I've made choices.
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.
The action of Rosa Parks, the words and leadership of Dr. King inspired me. I was deeply inspired. I wanted to do something.
Seeing their children touched and seared and wounded by race prejudice is one of the heaviest crosses which colored women have to bear.
My adolescent rebellions took the form of, if anything, passive aggressively doing what was asked of me but doing it ten times more than what was asked of me, so that eventually they'd have to beg me to stop.
Stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves; its your responsibility
Whenever I get stuck on something, I'm like, 'What would I do if I wasn't afraid? What would I write if I wasn't afraid? What would I say in this situation if I wasn't afraid?'
Women have to summon courage to fulfill dormant dreams.
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