How does one girl’s voice defy a world’s silence?
Malala Yousafzai’s I Am Malala chronicles her stand for girls’ education against the Taliban’s ban in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, surviving a near-fatal attack to become a global beacon of courage. These 46 quotes, woven by theme, capture her bravery, wisdom, and unyielding hope.
Drawn from the Back Bay Books, 2015 edition, her words resonate with defiance and dreams. See the note below for edition details, as page numbers may vary.
Voice of Valor: Courage
Malala’s courage rises against fear, defying oppression with unwavering resolve.
“One year ago I left my home for school and never returned.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Prologue, (Theme: Courage, Page 3)
“Now, every morning when I open my eyes, I long to see my old room full of my things, my clothes all over the floor and my school prizes on the shelves.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Prologue, (Theme: Courage, Page 3)
“Like my father I’ve always been a daydreamer, and sometimes I’d imagine that on the way home a terrorist might jump out and shoot me on those steps. I wondered what I would do. Maybe I’d take off my shoes and hit him, but then I’d think if I did that there would be no difference between me and a terrorist. It would be better to plead, ‘OK, shoot me, but first listen to me. What you are doing is wrong. I’m not against you personally, I just want every girl to go to school.’”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Prologue, (Theme: Courage, Pages 6, 7)
“That’s when he lifted up a black pistol. I later learned it was a Colt .45. Some of the girls screamed. Moniba tells me I squeezed her hand.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Prologue, (Theme: Courage, Page 9)
“At night our fear is strong . . . but in the morning, in the light, we find our courage again.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 11, (Theme: Courage, Page 138)
“We were scared, but our fear was not as strong as our courage.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 11, (Theme: Courage, Page 138)
“In his pocket he kept a poem written by Martin Niemöller, who had lived in Nazi Germany. First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak out because I was not a Catholic. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 11, (Theme: Courage, Page 140)
“If people were silent nothing would change.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 11, (Theme: Courage, Page 141)
“If one man, Fazlullah, can destroy everything, why can’t one girl change it?”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 11, (Theme: Courage, Page 142)
“Some people are afraid of ghosts, some of spiders or snakes—in those days we were afraid of our fellow human beings.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 14, (Theme: Courage, Page 166)
Yet Malala’s fight for knowledge endures…
Beacon of Learning: Education
Malala’s passion for education fuels her mission to empower all.
“No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. 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.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 1, (Theme: Education, Page 31)
“His sisters—my aunts—did not go to school at all, just like millions of girls in my country. Education had been a great gift for him. He believed that lack of education was the root of all of Pakistan’s problems. Ignorance allowed politicians to fool people and bad administrators to be re-elected. He believed schooling should be available for all, rich and poor, boys and girls. The school that my father dreamed of would have desks and a library, computers, bright posters on the walls and, most important, washrooms.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 3, (Theme: Education, Page 41)
“Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.’”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 5, (Theme: Education, Page 72)
“Outside his office my father had a framed copy of a letter written by Abraham Lincoln to his son’s teacher, translated into Pashto. It is a very beautiful letter, full of good advice. ‘Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books…But also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and the flowers on a green hillside,’ it says. ‘Teach him it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat.’”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 5, (Theme: Education, Page 72)
“The boys learn the Quran by heart, rocking back and forth as they recite. They learn that there is no such thing as science or literature, that dinosaurs never existed and man never went to the moon.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 8, (Theme: Education, Page 107)
“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.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 11, (Theme: Education, Page 135)
“The Taliban could take our pens and books, but they couldn’t stop our minds from thinking.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 11, (Theme: Education, Page 146)
“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.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 11, (Theme: Education, Page 146)
“When someone takes away your pens you realize quite how important education is.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 13, (Theme: Education, Page 160)
“Education is education. We should learn everything and then choose which path to follow. Education is neither Eastern nor Western, it is human.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 13, (Theme: Education, Page 162)
Still, Malala’s spirit heals through hardship…
Heart of Resilience: Recovery and Strength
Malala’s recovery reflects her unbreakable will to rise above adversity.
“If people volunteered in the same way to construct schools or roads or even clear the river of plastic wrappers, by God, Pakistan would become a paradise within a year.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 9, (Theme: Resilience, Page 117)
“Life isn’t just about taking in oxygen and giving out carbon dioxide.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 9, (Theme: Resilience, Page 122)
“I don’t want awards, I want my daughter. I wouldn’t exchange a single eyelash of my daughter for the whole world.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 17, (Theme: Resilience, Page 215)
“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 a Talib or cancer. So I should do whatever I want to do.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 19, (Theme: Resilience, Page 224)
“I reassured my mother that it didn’t matter to me if my face was not symmetrical. Me, who had always cared about my appearance, how my hair looked! But when you see death, things change. ‘It doesn’t matter if I can’t smile or blink properly,’ I told her. ‘I’m still me, Malala. The important thing is God has given me my life.’”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 24, (Theme: Resilience, Page 292)
“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 Am Malala, Epilogue, (Theme: Resilience, Page 308)
“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, I Am Malala, Epilogue, (Theme: Resilience, Page 309)
“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.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Epilogue, (Theme: Resilience, Page 310)
“Once I had asked God for one or two extra inches in height, but instead he made me as tall as the sky, so high that I could not measure myself.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Epilogue, (Theme: Resilience, Page 313)
Her identity shapes her purpose…
Roots of Resolve: Identity
Malala’s sense of self, grounded in culture and defiance, defines her mission.
“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.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 1, (Theme: Identity, Page 13)
“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, I Am Malala, Chapter 9, (Theme: Identity, Page 116)
“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, I Am Malala, Chapter 9, (Theme: Identity, Pages 118, 119)
“We felt like the Taliban saw us as like little dolls to control, telling us what to do and how to dress. I thought if God wanted us to be like that He would not have made us all different.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 10, (Theme: Identity, Page 124)
“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, I Am Malala, Chapter 18, (Theme: Identity, Page 219)
“I love physics because it is about truth, a world determined by principles and laws—no messing around or twisting things like in politics, particularly those in my country.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 20, (Theme: Identity, Page 238)
“Tell me how can one live without daughters.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 21, (Theme: Identity, Page 260)
“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. I am Malala. My world has changed but I have not.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Epilogue, (Theme: Identity, Page 313)
“Someone gave me a copy of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, a fable about a shepherd boy who travels to the Pyramids in search of treasure when all the time it’s at home. I loved that book and read it over and over again. ‘When you want something all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it,’ it says. I don’t think that Paulo Coelho had come across the Taliban or our useless politicians.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 14, (Theme: Identity, Page 165)
Her faith anchors her vision…
Light of Belief: Faith
Malala’s spirituality and compassion guide her fight for justice.
“Is Islam such a weak religion that it cannot tolerate a book written against it? Not my Islam!”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 3, (Theme: Faith, Page 46)
“Kindness can only be repaid with kindness. It can’t be repaid with expressions like ‘thank you’ and then forgotten.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 5, (Theme: Faith, Page 73)
“We like to put sacred texts in flowing waters, so I rolled it up, tied it to a piece of wood, placed a dandelion on top, and floated it in the stream which flows into the Swat River. Surely God would find it there.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 6, (Theme: Faith, Page 89)
“We don’t have any option. We are dependent on these mullahs to learn the Quran,’ he said. ‘But you just use him to learn the literal meaning of the words; don’t follow his explanations and interpretation. Only learn what God says. His words are divine messages, which you are free and independent to interpret.’”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 10, (Theme: Faith, Page 134)
“I couldn’t understand what the Taliban were trying to do. ‘They are abusing our religion,’ I said in interviews. ‘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?’”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 12, (Theme: Faith, Page 149)
“Education is our right, I said. Just as it is our right to sing. Islam has given us this right and says that every girl and boy should go to school. The Quran says we should seek knowledge, study hard and learn the mysteries of our world.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 12, (Theme: Faith, Page 154)
“It is my belief God sends the solution first and the problem later,” replied Dr. Javid.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 22, (Theme: Faith, Page 269)
“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 colours and beauty, two feet which walk on the road of life, two hands to work for us, and two ears to hear the words of love. As I found with my ear, no one knows how much power they have in their each and every organ until they lose one.”
~Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Chapter 24, (Theme: Faith, Pages 300, 301)
Malala’s Unsilenced Dream
These 46 quotes from I Am Malala weave a tapestry of courage, learning, resilience, identity, and faith. From defying the Taliban to inspiring the world, Malala’s voice calls for education and peace. Which quote ignites your hope?
A Note on Page Numbers & Edition:
We gathered these quotes like a pen defying silence, using the Back Bay Books, 2015 edition (ISBN-13: 978-0316322423). Yet, like Malala’s courage crossing borders, page numbers may shift across editions. Check your copy for precise references.
Cite the Book (MLA):
Yousafzai, Malala, and Christina Lamb. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. Back Bay Books, 2015.
Cite This Page (MLA):
Mortis, Jeremy. “46 I Am Malala Quotes With Page Numbers.” Ageless Investing, 15 Apr. 2025, https://agelessinvesting.com/i-am-malala-quotes/. Accessed [Date].
Cite This Page (APA):
Mortis, J. (2025, April 15). 46 I Am Malala quotes with page numbers. Ageless Investing. Retrieved [Date], from https://agelessinvesting.com/i-am-malala-quotes/
Jeremy Mortis, founder of Ageless Investing, applies a rigorous analytical approach (the AAM framework) to distill timeless wisdom and contextualized quotes from classic literature, saving you time while deepening understanding. Learn more about Jeremy’s unique background and methodology on his author bio page.