Nelson Mandela Quotes
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Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.
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As an attorney, I could be rather flamboyant in court. I did not act as though I were a black man in a white man's court, but as if everyone else - white and black - was a guest in my court. When trying a case, I often made sweeping gestures and used high-flown language.
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The majority of South Africans, black and white, recognize that apartheid has no future. It has to be ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. The mass campaign of defiance and other actions of our organization and people can only culminate in the establishment of democracy.
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We admire the achievements of the Cuban revolution in the sphere of social welfare. We note the transformation from a country of imposed backwardness to universal literacy. We acknowledge your advances in the fields of health, education, and science.
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I realized quickly what Mandela and Tambo meant to ordinary Africans. It was a place where they could come and find a sympathetic ear and a competent ally, a place where they would not be either turned away or cheated, a place where they might actually feel proud to be represented by men of their own skin color.
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Even if you have a terminal disease, you don't have to sit down and mope. Enjoy life and challenge the illness that you have.
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There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.
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I started to make a study of the art of war and revolution and, whilst abroad, underwent a course in military training. If there was to be guerrilla warfare, I wanted to be able to stand and fight with my people and to share the hazards of war with them.
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There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.
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Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one's commitment.
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We can't afford to be killing one another.
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For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
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There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile to continue talking about peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people.
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A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
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I can't pretend that I'm brave and that I can beat the whole world.
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By ancestry, I was born to rule.
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There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty.
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If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.
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In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.
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The names of those who were incarcerated on Robben Island is a roll call of resistance fighters and democrats spanning over three centuries. If indeed this is a Cape of Good Hope, that hope owes much to the spirit of that legion of fighters and others of their calibre.
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If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.
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Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.
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After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent. The simple act of being able to control one's person.
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Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.