There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Self-Discovery, Change
One effect of sustained conflict is to narrow our vision of what is possible.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Vision, Peace
I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being an optimist is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward.
—Nelson Mandela
Money will not create success, the freedom to make it will.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: One liners
Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Freedom
You may succeed in delaying, but never in preventing the transition of South Africa to a democracy.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Things, Little Things
When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.
—Nelson Mandela
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.
—Nelson Mandela
The authorities liked to say that we received a balanced diet; it was indeed balanced—between the unpalatable and the inedible.
—Nelson Mandela
There is no passion to be found in playing small—settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
—Nelson Mandela
It always seems impossible until it’s done.
—Nelson Mandela
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.
—Nelson Mandela
Courageous people do not fear forgiving for the sake of peace.
—Nelson Mandela
It is an achievement for a man to do his duty on earth irrespective of the consequences.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Duty
A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones.
—Nelson Mandela
Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.
—Nelson Mandela
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Negotiation, Business
I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities and a thousand unremembered moments produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, “Henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people”; instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise.
—Nelson Mandela
It was the government that should have been told to refrain from its inhuman policy of violence and massacre, not the African people. It was further argued that it is wrong and indefensible for a political organization to repudiate picketing, which is used the world over as a legitimate form of pressure to prevent scabbing.
—Nelson Mandela
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Reputation
Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others—qualities which are within easy reach of every soul—are the foundation of one’s spiritual life.
—Nelson Mandela
We recall the joy and excitement of a nation that had found itself, the collective relief that we had stepped out of our restrictive past, and the expectant air of walking into a brighter future.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Liberty
Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Possibilities
As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.
—Nelson Mandela
Our human compassion binds us to one another—not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.
—Nelson Mandela
There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Books, Reading
Communists have always played an active role in the fight by colonial countries for their freedom, because the short-term objects of Communism would always correspond with the long-term objects of freedom movements.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Communism, Socialism
A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Forgiveness
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Bravery, Courage, Moving on
I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.
—Nelson Mandela
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Desmond Tutu South African Clergyman
- Jack Penn South African Surgeon
- Mohandas K. Gandhi Indian Hindu Political leader
- Che Guevara Argentine-Cuban Revolutionary
- J. William Fulbright American Politician
- Benjamin Franklin American Polymath
- Henry L. Stimson American Statesman
- Dante Alighieri Italian Poet, Philosopher
- Adolf Hitler German Fascist Dictator
- Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading English Humanitarian
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