Nelson Mandela
I have retired, but if there's anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.Collection: Morning
I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.Collection: Hope
Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.Collection: Peace
Forget the past.Collection: Moving
It always seems impossible until it's done.Collection: Motivational
When I came to Johannesburg from the countryside, I knew nobody, but many strangers were very kind to me. I then was dragged into politics, and then, subsequently, I became a lawyer.Collection: Politics
There are so many men and women who hold no distinctive positions but whose contribution towards the development of society has been enormous.Collection: Society
It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.Collection: Leadership
Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.Collection: Independence
Give a child love, laughter and peace, not AIDS.Collection: Peace
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.Collection: Great
Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.Collection: Experience
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.Collection: Future
There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.Collection: Motivational
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.Collection: Peace
There is no such thing as part freedom.Collection: Freedom
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.Collection: Dreams
There is nothing I fear more than waking up without a program that will help me bring a little happiness to those with no resources, those who are poor, illiterate, and ridden with terminal disease.Collection: Fear
I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.Collection: Peace
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.Collection: Wisdom
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.Collection: Death
A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.Collection: Wisdom
Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.Collection: Freedom
Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.Collection: Peace
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.Collection: Peace
There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.Collection: Society
In the 1940s, traveling for an African was a complicated process. All Africans over the age of sixteen were compelled to carry 'Native passes' issued by the Native Affairs Department and were required to show that pass to any white policeman, civil servant, or employer. Failure to do so could mean arrest, trial, a jail sentence or fine.Collection: Failure
I came across few whites as a boy at Qunu. The local magistrate, of course, was white, as was the nearest shopkeeper. Occasionally, white travelers or policemen passed through our area. These whites appeared as grand as gods to me, and I was aware that they were to be treated with a mixture of fear and respect.Collection: Respect
I am confident that nobody... will accuse me of selfishness if I ask to spend time, while I am still in good health, with my family, my friends and also with myself.Collection: Health
Intervention only works when the people concerned seem to be keen for peace.Collection: Peace
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.Collection: Freedom
I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.Collection: Freedom
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.Collection: Future
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.Collection: Politics
Where globalization means, as it so often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom.Collection: Freedom
On the first day of school, my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name and said that from thenceforth that was the name we would answer to in school. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education.Collection: Teacher
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.Collection: Freedom
I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.Collection: Society
Does anybody really think that they didn't get what they had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?Collection: Strength
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.Collection: Courage
Whatever position I occupied, it was the result of colleagues - of my comrades in the movement - who had decided in their wisdom to use me for the purpose of focusing the attention of the country and the international community on me.Collection: Wisdom
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.Collection: Change
People respond in accordance to how you relate to them. If you approach them on the basis of violence, that's how they'll react. But if you say, 'We want peace, we want stability,' we can then do a lot of things that will contribute towards the progress of our society.Collection: Peace
Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Education
I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.Collection: Great
Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.Collection: Freedom
A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.Collection: Good
I have always regarded myself, in the first place, as an African patriot.
I would wear the blue overalls of the fieldworker and often wore round, rimless glasses known as Mazzawati teaglasses. I had a car, and I wore a chauffeur's cap with my overalls. The pose of chauffeur was convenient because I could travel under the pretext of driving my master's car.