Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Possibilities
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
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: Socialism, Communism
These numbers are staggering, in fact incomprehensible. By all accounts, we are dealing with the greatest health crisis in human history.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Humanity
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
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
The so-called ‘Palestinian autonomous areas’ are bantustans. These are restricted entities within the power structure of the Israeli apartheid system.
—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
After climbing a great hill, one finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk has not yet ended.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Freedom, Rest, Great
I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Forgiveness
Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me.
—Nelson Mandela
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Words
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
Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.
—Nelson Mandela
Money will not create success, the freedom to make it will.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: One liners
I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.
—Nelson Mandela
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
There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Society
It is an achievement for a man to do his duty on earth irrespective of the consequences.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Duty
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
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
s a leader… I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a con-sensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the axiom: a leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Opinions
Courageous people do not fear forgiving for the sake of peace.
—Nelson Mandela
It always seems impossible until it’s done.
—Nelson Mandela
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
—Nelson Mandela
Topics: Love, Tolerance
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
Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.
—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
A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones.
—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 Founding Father, Inventor
- Henry L. Stimson American Political leader
- Dante Alighieri Italian Poet, Philosopher
- Adolf Hitler German Fascist Dictator
- Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading English Humanitarian
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