Top 74 Quotes & Sayings by Phan Thi Kim Phuc

When I felt real forgiveness, my heart was set free.

I am praying every day for peace.

Yet I was ready for love and joy. I wanted to let go of my pain. I wanted to pursue life instead of holding fast to fantasies of death.

I wanted to share my experience with people so that they feel better.

When those four bombs fell, I was in the middle and I should have died.

I have suffered a lot from both physical and emotional pain.

My character is not sad, not angry. In my house, I'm always laughing, smiling, smiling.

For years I bore the crippling weight of anger, bitterness and resentment toward those who caused my suffering. Yet as I look back over a spiritual journey that has spanned more than three decades, I realize the same bombs that caused so much pain and suffering also brought me to a place of great healing. Those bombs led me to Jesus Christ.

I did not think that I could marry or have any children because of my burns. But now I have a wonderful husband, a lovely child and a happy family, thank God.

I love my scars. It reminds me where I come from.

I want to have freedom myself, and build my family.

My name is Kim Phuc, though you likely know me by another name. It is one I never asked for, a name I have spent a lifetime trying to escape: 'Napalm Girl.'

I wished I died in that attack with my cousin, with my south Vietnamese soldiers. I wish I died at that time so I won't suffer like that anymore... it was so hard for me to carry all that burden with that hatred, with that anger and bitterness.

My parents gave me life, but the doctors gave me life again.

We should work together to be of peace and happiness for all people in all nations.

I forgive everyone who caused my suffering, even the pilot, commander, people controlling me.

I have a husband and a new life and want to be normal like everyone else.

I have two boys, so I don't want any more child to suffer like me.

I just wish one day I am free from pain.

Even if I could talk face to face with the pilot who dropped the bombs I would tell him, 'We cannot change history, but we should try to do good things for the present and for the future to promote peace.'

I was a happy child, just 9 years old, and I knew nothing about war.

I count my blessings and do things to help others.

Let the world see how horrible wars can be.

Behind that picture of me, thousands and thousands of people, they suffered - more than me. They died. They lost parts of their bodies. Their whole lives were destroyed, and nobody took that picture.

That little girl became me now. I have accepted it and I'm thankful that my picture worked for good.

Having known war I know the value of peace. Having lived under government control I know the value of freedom. Having lived with hatred, terror and corruption I know the value of faith and forgiveness.

The more I prayed for my enemies, the softer my heart became.

I went through 17 operations. I had to deal with the pain every single day. I used to compare my scars with buffalo skin. And because my skin wasn't have any pores, I cannot sweat, make me feel so tired, so headache.

I remember June 8, 1972. I saw the airplane. And it's so loud, so close to me. Suddenly, the fire everywhere around me. The fire burned off my clothes. And I saw my arm got burned with the fire. I thought, oh, my goodness, I get burned. People will see me different way.

Through my experiences, I was living with anger and hatred, which was a really bad thing for me. Then I learned how to forgive, and it freed me from hatred and helped me a lot.

You will remember me as a little child in another time, during another war, and involving another airplane.

The more I travel the more I see and know what people need. They need peace, they need joy and they need love.

In war time, nowhere is safe.

Religion doesn't help me at all. But the relationship between me and God and Jesus, that changed my life.

I cannot sweat because there is no hair and no pores on the skin grafts. And, can you imagine, there is no blood at all in my scars?

I want to give back all the love and care that I have received over the years from so many people.

My dream is that one day, all people will live without fear, in real peace, with no fighting and no hostility.

I really want to say, 'Thank God I'm alive.' I want to forgive the people who caused my suffering. I did.

In 1974, I cried all day long. I kept putting my well arm next to my left one, which could not move. My mother kept saying, 'Don't be sad. If you cry, I will cry and then we will all be twice as sad.'

I really wanted to escape from that little girl. But it seems to me that the picture didn't let me go.

I saw the bombs, and, like a kid, I looked back at them. Instantly there was fire everywhere.

No more war. Live with love and peace. That is my message.

People can learn the tragedy of war from me.

As a child, I loved to climb on the tree, like a monkey.

People ask me a lot, 'How can you smile all the time?' I tell them, 'I was never angry. God created me this way. He created me laughing and smiling.'

I want to be a doctor, to give treatment to other people.

Every movement of mine was under the control of the Vietnamese government, a communist country. I was just a prisoner without walls.

I hated myself. I hated people who made war. I hated people who were normal. I envied them. I wish I would be normal.

I had a lot of pity for myself. But I could concentrate more on my studies as a result.

Sometimes I could not breathe, but God saved my life and gave me faith and hope.

If I ever see those pilots who dropped the bombs on me - or any American pilots - I would say to them, 'The war is over. The past is past.' I would ask those pilots what can they do to bring us all together.

I got burned by napalm, and I became a victim of war.

I built my life very normal with everything I do.

I am not religious; I am not political.

God used me that day. Even though so much of my body was burned, my feet were not burned, and so I could run out and be there for that photo. It saved a lot of souls and brought an end to the war.

Nine years old, I became the victim of war. I didn't like that picture at all. I felt like, why he took my picture, when I was agony, naked, so ugly? I wished that picture wasn't taken.

I know what it is like to experience terror, to feel despondent, to live in fear. I know how wearying and hopeless life can be sometimes.

I do not want to talk about the war, because I cannot change history.

Dear friends: faith and forgiveness is much more powerful than napalm could ever be.

There's such a connection between Vietnam and America, but it should be one of friendship. Not bitterness. Not enemies.