Nelson Mandela
Unlike some politicians, I can admit to a mistake.
In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.
I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.
There can be no greater gift than that of giving one’s time and energy to help others without expecting anything in return.Collection: Helping Others
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.Collection: Love
It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it.Collection: Inspirational
Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.Collection: Inspiring
You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself.Collection: Inspirational
It only seems impossible until it's done.Collection: Inspiring
What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.Collection: Leadership
Fools multiply when wise men are silent.Collection: Wise
It is not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.Collection: Inspirational
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 farm workers 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.Collection: Success
If you want the cooperation of humans around you, you must make them feel they are important - and you do that by being genuine and humble.Collection: Humble
A winner is a dreamer who never gives upCollection: Motivational
May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.Collection: Inspirational
Living isn't just about doing for yourself,but what you do for others as well.Collection: Wells
We can change the world and make it a better place. It is in your hands to make a difference.Collection: Inspiring
Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.Collection: Forgiveness
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.Collection: Inspirational
Our fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.Collection: Powerful
Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead.Collection: Inspirational
Do not allow your anger to control your reason, but rather your reason to control your anger.Collection: Reason
My dream would be a multicultural society, one that is diverse and where every man, woman and child are treated equally. I dream of a world where all people of all races work together in harmony.Collection: Dream
Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.Collection: Success
The brave man is not the one who has no fears, he is the one who triumphs over his fears.Collection: Inspiring
No child in Africa, and in fact anywhere in the world, should be denied education.Collection: Children
To the youth of today, I also have a wish to make: be the scriptwriters of your destiny and feature yourselves as stars that showed the way towards a brighter future.Collection: Stars
As long as women are bound by poverty and as long as they are looked down upon, human rights will lack substance.Collection: Rights
We can neither heal nor build if, on the one hand the rich in our society see the poor as hordes of irritants or if on the other hand the poor sit back, expecting charity. All of us must take responsibility for the upliftment of our conditions, prepared to give our best to the benefit of allCollection: Responsibility
The collapse of good conscience and the absence of accountability and public scrutiny have led to crimes against humanity and violations of international law.Collection: Law
The importance of a high moral code, which is at the foundation of the Scout movement, cannot be stressed too highly.Collection: Stressed
If you make one gift this year, make it the gift of knowledge.Collection: Years
I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.Collection: Life
I am influenced more than ever before by the conviction that social equality is the only basis of human happiness.Collection: Conviction
Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way.Collection: Way
The Church was as concerned with this world as the next: I saw that virtually all of the achievements of Africans seemed to have come about through the missionary work of the Church.Collection: Achievement
It is not a question of patronizing philanthropy towards disabled people. They do not need the patronage of the non-disabled. It is not for them to adapt to the dominant and dominating world of the so-called non-disabled. It is for us to adapt our understanding of a common humanity; to learn of the richness of how human life is diverse; to recognize the presence of disability in our human midst as an enrichment of our diversity.Collection: Common Humanity
It is most unusual to return to a place that has changed in ways you yourself have altered.Collection: Inspiring
No one in my family had ever attended school [...] On the first day of school my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education. That day, Miss Mdingane told me that my new name was Nelson. Why this particular name I have no idea.Collection: Teacher
It is your duty to examine the conduct of public figures and to place them in the spotlight - that is your duty.Collection: Spotlight
Negotiation and discussion are the greatest weapons we have for promoting peace and development.Collection: Peace
To a freedom fighter hope is what a lifebelt is to a swimmer - a guarantee that one will keep afloat and free from danger.Collection: Guarantees That
You have a limited time to stay on earth. You must try to use that period for the purpose of transforming your country into what you desire it to be: a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist country. And that is a great task.Collection: Country
That was one of the things that worried me – to be raised to the position of a semi-god – because then you are no longer a human being. I wanted to be known as Mandela, a man with weaknesses, some of which are fundamental, and a man who is committed, but never the less, sometimes he fails to live up to expectations.Collection: Men
I have never cared very much for personal prizes. A person does not become a freedom fighter in the hope of winning awards.Collection: Inspiring
It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. 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.Collection: Lonely
One of the things I learned when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself, I could not change others.Collection: Change
The very right to be human is denied every day to hundreds of millions of people as a result of poverty, the unavailability of basic necessities such as food, jobs, water and shelter, education, health care and a healthy environment.Collection: Jobs