1.
“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”
2.
“They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed. And out of that silence came thousands of voices. The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions. But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”
3.
“What terrifies religious extremists like the Taliban are not American tanks or bombs or bullets… It’s a girl with a book.”
4.
“Part of our human nature [is] that we don’t learn the importance of anything until it’s snatched from our hands.”
5.
“Life isn’t just about taking in oxygen and giving out carbon dioxide.”
6.
“We call upon our sisters around the world to be brave–to embrace the strength within themselves and realize their full potential.”
7.
“It is also important that we should say no to wrong. And if there is something going wrong we must have the confidence to say that this thing is going wrong, and we must raise our voice.”
8.
“I tell my story, not because it is unique, but because it is not. It is the story of many girls.”
9.
“I used to think that the Talib would come, and he would just kill me. But then I said, ‘If he comes, what would you do Malala?’ then I would reply to myself, ‘Malala, just take a shoe and hit him.’ But then I said, ‘If you hit a Talib with your shoe, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with cruelty and that much harshly, you must fight others but through peace and through dialogue and through education.’ Then I said I will tell him how important education is and that ‘I even want education for your children as well.’ And I will tell him, ‘That’s what I want to tell you, now do what you want.'”
10.
“This is what my soul is telling me: be peaceful and love everyone.”
11.
“I believe that a gun has no power at all. Because a gun can only kill. But a pen can give life. A pen can save life.”
12.
“It does not matter what’s the color of your skin, what language do you speak, what religion you believe in. It is that we should all consider each other as human beings and we should respect each other and we should all fight for our rights, for the rights of children, for the rights of women and for the rights of every human being.”
13.
“My mother always told me, ‘hide your face, people are looking at you.’I would reply, ‘It does not matter; I am also looking at them.'”
14.
“One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.”
15.
“I remember that there was a boy in our school who was asked by a journalist, ‘Why are the Taliban against education?’ He answered very simply. By pointing to his book he said, ‘A Talib doesn’t know what is written inside this book.’”
16.
“If we want to achieve our goal, then let us empower ourselves with the weapon of knowledge and let us shield ourselves with unity and togetherness.”
17.
“I believe it’s a woman’s right to decide what she wants to wear and if a woman can go to the beach and wear nothing, then why can’t she also wear everything?”
18.
“The so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children don’t. Why is it that countries which we call strong are so powerful in creating wars but are so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so hard?”
19.
“Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow’s reality.”
20.
“I don’t mind if I have to sit on the floor at school. All I want is education and I am afraid of no one.”
21.
“We realize the importance of light when we see darkness. We realize the importance of our voice when we are silenced.”
22.
“I want to say to the world, that you must try to get education because it’s very important. The second thing is that if the new generation is not given pens, they will be given guns by the terrorists.”
23.
“They can only shoot a body, they cannot shoot my dreams.”
24.
“I raise up my voice – not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. ”
25.
“I don’t want to be remembered as the girl who was shot. I want to be remembered as the girl who stood up.”
