I have given you independence, now go and preserve it-Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibor Rahman

"আমি জন্মদিন পালন করি না। আমার জন্মদিনে মোমের বাতি জ্বালি না, কেকও কাটি না।আমি এই দেশের জনগণেরই একজন!আমার জন্মদিনই কি, আর মৃত্যুদিনই কি?"- ১৭ মার্চ, ১৯৭১-সাংবাদিকদের সাথে আলাপকালে জন্মদিনের শুভেচ্ছার জবাবে বঙ্গবন্ধু!!

My greatest strength is the love for my people, my greatest weakness is that I love them too much

I never celebrate my birthday ! I'm not defferent from mass people of Bangladesh-17th March 1971

• We gave blood in 1952, we won a mandate in 1954. But we were not allowed to take up the reins of this country. In 1958, Ayub Khan clamped Martial Law on our people and enslaved us for the next 10 years. In 1966, our people fought for the Six points but the lives of our our young men and women were stilled by government bullets.

• I had said, Mr. Yahya Khan, you are the President of this country. Come to Dhaka, come and see how our poor Bengali people have been mown down by your bullets, how the laps of our mothers and sisters have been robbed and left empty and bereft, how my helpless people have been slaughtered. Come, I said, come and see for yourself and then be the judge and decide. That is what I told him.

• Nor did they succeed in hanging me on the gallows, for you rescued me with your blood from the infamous conspiracy case. That day, right here on this racecourse, I had pledged to you that I would pay this debt with my own blood. Do you remember? I am ready today to fulfill that promise!

• There shall be no transaction between East and West Pakistan. All communications, telegraph and telephone, will be confined within Bangladesh. The people of this land are facing elimination.If need be, we will bring everything to a total standstill. Collect your salaries on time. If the salaries are held up, if a single bullet is fired upon us henceforth, if the murder of my people does not cease, I call upon you to turn every home into a fortress against their onslaught. Use whatever you can put your hands on to confront this enemy. Every last road must be blocked.

• As we have already learned how to sacrifice our own lives, now no one can stop us!

• As we have already shed blood, we are ready to shed more blood!

• This time the struggle is for our freedom, this time the struggle is for our independence!

I have given you independence, now go and preserve it.While speaking to Awami League leaders a few hours before his arrest on the night of 25th March, 1971. Mujib:Triumph and Tragedy by S A Karim

This may be my last message. From today Bangladesh is independent. I call upon the people of Bangladesh wherever you are and with whatever you have, to resist the occupation army. Our fight will go on till the last soldier of the Pakistan Occupation Army is expelled from the soil of independent Bangladesh. Final victory is ours. Joy Bangla!The Declaration of Independence on the night of 26th March, 1971. The declaration was made minutes before his arrest by the Pakistan Army.

''My greatest strength is the love for my people, my greatest weakness is that I love them too much.''-Interview with Sir David Frost on the BBC, 1972.

"If we had remained in Pakistan, it would be a strong country. Again, if India had not been divided in 1947, it would be an even stronger country. But, then, Mr. President, in life do we always get what we desire?"- Speaking about the break up of Pakistan with Nigerian leader Yakubu Gowon. "I am happy with my Bangladesh."-Replying to a question on whether he contemplated the Indian state of West Bengal joining his country and creating a "Greater Bangladesh". He was speaking to reporters at a press conference in London in January, 1972 after his release from prision in Pakistan. 

"Yes, but there is a difference. You see, I am a very poor sheikh."-While being cheered with UAE ruler Sheikh Zayed Al Nahiyan as both men had the name Sheikh.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), also popularly known in Bangladesh and West Bengal as Bangabandhu (Friend of Bengal) and Sheikh Mujib, was a Bengali politician and the founding leader of Bangladesh. He is widely revered in the country as the Father of the Nation. Mujib served twice as the President of Bangladesh, including the first presidency of the country and later during one party rule. He was assassinated by junior army officers in a military coup on 15 August, 1975.