Malala Yousafzai, also known mononymously as Malala, is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate. Profoundly inspirational Malala Yousafzai quotes will challenge the way you think, change the way you live and transform your whole life.
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Famous Malala Yousafzai Quotes
Our men think earning money and ordering around others is where power lies. They don’t think power is in the hands of the woman who takes care of everyone all day long, and gives birth to their children Malala Yousafzai
My mother always told me, Hide your face when people are looking at you. I would reply, ‘It does not matter; I am also looking at them.
I remember when my friends and I would decorate our hands with henna on special occasions. And instead of drawing flowers and patterns, we would paint our hands with mathematical formulas and equations. Malala Yousafzai, in her Nobel Peace Prize Lecture.
I told myself, Malala, you have already faced death. This is your second life. Don’t be afraid if you are afraid, you can’t move forward.
In Pakistan when women say they want independence, people think this means we don’t want to obey our fathers, brothers, or husbands. But it does not mean that. It means we want to make decisions for ourselves. We want to be free to go to school or to go to work. Nowhere is it written in the Quran that a woman should be dependent on a man. The word has not come down from the heavens to tell us that every woman should listen to a man. Malala Yousafzai
Our men think earning money and ordering around others is where power lies. They don’t think power is in the hands of the woman, who takes care of everyone all day long, and gives birth to their children.
I tell my story, not because it is unique, but because it is not. It is the story of many girls. Malala Yousafzai, in her Nobel Peace Prize Lecture
Life isn’t just about taking in oxygen and giving out carbon dioxide.
I had one hope for today: that Afghan girls walking to school would not be sent back home. But the Taliban did not keep their promise. They will keep finding excuses to stop girls from learning because they are afraid of educated girls and empowered women. Malala Yousafzai, in a tweet.
I don’t want to be thought of as the ‘girl who was shot by the Taliban’ but the ‘girl who fought for education’. This is the cause to which I want to devote my life.
All we are asking is for girls to be able to go to school, for women to be safer we are not asking for a privilege, these are like basic human rights. Malala Yousafzai, in an interview for BBC Politics.
We liked to be known as the clever girls. When we decorated our hands with henna for holidays and weddings, we drew calculus and chemical formulae instead of flowers and butterflies.
I don’t want revenge on the Taliban, I want education for sons and daughters of the Taliban. Malala Yousafzai
There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women.
I don’t want to be thought of as the ‘girl who was shot by the Taliban’ but the ‘girl who fought for education.’ This is the cause to which I want to devote my life. Malala Yousafzai
When someone takes away your pens you realize quite how important education is.
When someone takes away your pens you realize quite how important education is. Malala Yousafzai
We human beings don’t realize how great God is. He has given us an extraordinary brain and a sensitive loving heart. He has blessed us with two lips to talk and express our feelings, two eyes which see a world of colors and beauty, two feet which walk on the road of life, two hands to work for us, a nose which smells the beauty of fragrance, and two ears to hear the words of love.
I truly believe the only way we can create global peace is through not only educating our minds, but our hearts and our souls. Malala Yousafzai
It was school that kept me going in those dark days. When I was in the street it felt as though every man I passed might be a Talib. We hid our school bags in our shawls. My father always said that the most beautiful thing in a village in the morning is the sight of a child in a school uniform, but now we were afraid to wear them.
Some people only ask others to do something. I believe that, why should I wait for someone else? Why don’t I take a step and move forward? Malala Yousafzai
My father would say to me, ‘Any organization which works for peace, I will join. If you want to resolve a dispute or come out from conflict, the very first thing is to speak the truth. If you have a headache and tell the doctor you have a stomachache, how can the doctor help? You must speak the truth. The truth will abolish fear.
It seemed to me that everyone knows they will die one day. My feeling was nobody can stop death; it doesn’t matter if it comes from Talib or cancer. So I should do whatever I want to do. Malala Yousafzai
School wasn’t the only thing my aunts missed out on. In the morning when my father was given a bowl of cream with his tea, his sisters were given only tea. If there were eggs, they would only be for the boys. When a chicken was slaughtered for dinner, the girls would get the wings and the neck while the luscious breast meat was enjoyed by my father, his brother, and my grandfather. ‘From early on I could feel I was different from my sisters,’ my father says.
I had two options. One was to remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose the second one. I decided to speak up. Malala Yousafzai, in her Nobel Peace Prize Lecture.
Islamabad was totally different from Swat. It was as different for us as Islamabad is to New York. Shiza introduced us to women who were lawyers and doctors and also activists, which showed us that women could do important jobs yet still keep their culture and traditions. We saw women in the streets without purdah, their heads completely uncovered. I stopped wearing my shawl over my head in some of the meetings, thinking I had become a modern girl.
I told myself, Malala, you have already faced death. This is your second life. Don’t be afraid if you are afraid, you can’t move forward. Malala Yousafzai
I think everyone makes a mistake at least once in their life. The important thing is what you learn from it.
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. Malala Yousafzai
As we crossed the Malakand Pass I saw a young girl selling oranges. She was scratching marks on a piece of paper with a pencil to account for the oranges she had sold, as she could not read or write. I took a photo of her and vowed I would do everything in my power to help educate girls just like her. This was the war I was going to fight.
At night our fear is strong but in the morning, in the light, we find our courage again. Malala Yousafzai
They are abusing our religion, I said in an interview. How will you accept Islam if I put a gun to your head and say Islam is the true religion? If they want every person in the world to be Muslim why don’t they show themselves to be good Muslims first?
Don’t be afraid if you are afraid you can’t move forward. Malala Yousafzai
Education is neither Eastern or Western, it is human.
I am those 66 million girls who are deprived of education. And today I am not raising my voice, it is the voice of those 66 million girls. Malala Yousafzai, in her Nobel Peace Prize lecture.
Peace in every home, every street, every village, every country. This is my dream. Education for every boy and every girl in the world. To sit down on a chair and read my books with all my friends at school is my right. To see each and every human being with a smile of happiness is my wish.
In my own village, there is still no secondary school for girls. And it is my wish and my commitment, and now my challenge to build one so that my friends and my sisters can go to school there and get a quality education and get this opportunity to fulfill their dreams. This is where I will begin, but it is not where I will stop. I will continue this fight until I see every child in school. Malala Yousafzai, in her Nobel Peace Prize lecture.
I realized that even if you win three or four times, the next victory will not necessarily be yours without trying.
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? Malala Yousafzai, in her Nobel Peace Prize lecture.
My father wanted us to be inspired by our great hero, but in a manner fit for our times with pens, not swords. Just as Khattak had wanted the Pashtuns to unite against a foreign enemy, so we needed to unite against ignorance.
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? Malala Yousafzai, in her Nobel Peace Prize lecture.
I was a girl in a land where rifles are fired in celebration of a son, while daughters are hidden away behind a curtain, their role in life simply to prepare food and give birth to children.
If one man can destroy everything, why can’t one girl change it? Malala Yousafzai
My parents never once suggested I should withdraw from school, ever. Though we loved school, we hadn’t realized how important education was until the Taliban tried to stop us. Going to school, reading and doing our homework wasn’t just a way of passing time, it was our future.
Life isn’t just about taking in oxygen and giving out carbon dioxide. Malala Yousafzai
Education had been a great gift for him. He believed that lack of education was the root of all the Pakistan’s problems. Ignorance allowed politicians to fool people and bad administrators to be reelected. He believed schooling should be available for all, rich and poor, boys and girls.
With guns you can kill terrorists, with education you can kill terrorism. Malala Yousafzai
Let us pick up our books and our pens, I said. They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.
Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow’s reality. Malala Yousafzai
We felt like the Taliban saw us as little dolls to control, telling us what to do and how to dress. I thought if God wanted us to be like that He wouldn’t have made us all different.
