Nelson Mandela Quotes
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At the outset, I want to say that the suggestion that the struggle in South Africa is under the influence of foreigners or communists is wholly incorrect. I have done whatever I did because of my experience in South Africa and my own proudly felt African background, and not because of what any outsider might have said.
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When the history of our times is written, will we be remembered as the generation that turned our backs in a moment of global crisis or will it be recorded that we did the right thing?
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I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.
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Sabotage did not involve loss of life, and it offered the best hope for future race relations. Bitterness would be kept to a minimum and, if the policy bore fruit, democratic government could become a reality.
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When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.
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It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.
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We stand here today as nothing more than a representative of the millions of our people who dared to rise up against a social system whose very essence is war, violence, racism, oppression, repression and the impoverishment of an entire people.
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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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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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Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they will face. So it's very important to give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country.
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A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
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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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I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people.
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If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.
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My son has died of AIDS.
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There is no such thing as part freedom.
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If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.
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Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual.
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You sharpen your ideas by reducing yourself to the level of the people you are with and a sense of humour and a complete relaxation, even when you’re discussing serious things, does help to mobilise friends around you. And I love that.
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Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.
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It is in the character of growth that we should learn from both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.
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The Gandhian influence dominated freedom struggles on the African continent right up to the 1960s because of the power it generated and the unity it forged among the apparently powerless. Nonviolence was the official stance of all major African coalitions, and the South African A.N.C. remained implacably opposed to violence for most of its existence.
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I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.
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From the beginning, Mandela and Tambo was besieged with clients. We were not the only African lawyers in South Africa, but we were the only firm of African lawyers. For Africans, we were the firm of first choice and last resort.