"I don't understand why people say that I am full of courage. I feel terribly nervous."

"Human beings want to be free and however long they may agree to stay locked up, to stay oppressed, there will come a time when they say 'That's it.' Suddenly they find themselves doing something that they never would have thought they would be doing, simply because of the human instinct that makes them turn their face towards freedom."

"Even one voice can be heard loudly all over the world in this day and age."

"What does Burma have to give the United States? We can give you the opportunity to engage with people who are ready and willing to change a society."

"Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself."

"Where the state begins, individual liberty ceases, and vice versa."

"The paradox of freedom is that the only true currency in life is time well spent."

"The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission."