Nelson Mandela
Religion is one of the most important forces in the world. Whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew, or a Hindu, religion is a great force, and it can help one have command of one's own morality, one's own behavior, and one's own attitude.Collection: Christian
A new society cannot be created by reproducing the repugnant past, however refined or enticingly repackaged.Collection: Past
A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.Collection: Inspirational
The world remains beset by so much human suffering, poverty and deprivation. It is in your hands to make of our world a better one for all, especially the poor, vulnerable and marginalised.Collection: Our World
We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success.Collection: Acting
Out of the experience of extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.Collection: Inspiring
The day I am afraid to do, that is the day I am no longer fit to lead.Collection: Fit
The time has come to accept in our hearts and minds that with freedom comes responsibility.Collection: Heart
I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.Collection: Wisdom
Hope is a powerful weapon, and (one) no one power on earth can deprive you of.Collection: Powerful
Sport has the power to overcome old divisions and create the bond of common aspirationsCollection: Sports
Our children are our greatest treasure. They are our future. Those who abuse them tear at the fabric of our society and weaken our nation.Collection: Children
Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.Collection: Inspiring
Disasters will always come and go, leaving their victims either completely broken or steeled and seasoned and better able to face the next crop of challenges that may occur.Collection: Broken
I have always admired men and women who used their talents to serve the community, and who were highly respected and admired for their efforts and sacrifices, even though they held no office whatsoever in government or society.Collection: Sacrifice
We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.Collection: Inspiring
I do not think that I was brought up in a unique society with unique features about giving.Collection: Unique
I've found that South Africa has produced good leaders. These are people who realize that when there is danger, they should be in the forefront and when there is victory to be celebrated, they should be in the background, allowing their colleagues and the ordinary civilians - the man in the street - to rejoice and to celebrate that victory.Collection: Men
I am sure that if somebody is giving a sum to charity, he or she should be encouraged to do so by the authorities because the spirit in which we encourage people to give has permeated our society.Collection: People
I am aware of what the position is in the United States of America. If somebody gives to charity, then he gets a tax incentive, provided the charity is registered in terms of the law.Collection: Law
We must also know that even before liberation in 1994 there [in South Africa] were people with resources who tried to share with those who were deprived.Collection: People
Therefore, we must not look at the African people, even before they met whites, as if they had something unique, which was not to be found in other societies.Collection: Unique
Of course we desire education and we think it is a good thing, but you don't have to have education in order to know that you want certain fundamental rights, you have got aspirations, you have got acclaims. It has nothing to do with education whatsoever.Collection: Thinking
I was neglected by my family because I had disappointed them - I'd run away from being forced into an arranged marriage, which was a big blow to them.Collection: Running
Our people outside of prison used my name to mobilize the community locally and internationally. But for me to be treated separately from my colleagues, who had contributed as much as and even more than I had, would have been a betrayal of them.Collection: Betrayal
In many respects, people on the outside suffered more than those of us in jail. In prison, we ate three times a day, we had clothing, we had free medical services, and we could sleep for 12 hours.Collection: Sleep
We have introduced equity into our life, including a uniform educational system. We have also introduced a Bill of Rights, which is not just a piece of paper, but a living document because we have created structures that are totally independent of the government and that can overrule the government, even the president.Collection: Educational
It is important to not be hostile to what a greater part of society has embraced, whether as Christians, Hindus or Muslims. It is important to respect that because whether you believe or not in the existence of a superior being, humanity does believe in that.Collection: Christian
Regarding African education in this country, there was a time when the government took no interest whatsoever in African education. It was the churches, that part of civil society, which bought land, built schools, and employed and paid teachers. People like myself, right from grade eight up to university, I was in missionary schools.Collection: Country
Some of the mission groups that have been responsible for our education have not been part of the government. In fact, they acted contrary to what the government had planned to do.Collection: Government
The first election in which all South Africans took part was in April, 1994. There were long queues [lines] of employers and employees, black and white. In the sense of Africans, Coloreds and Indians - when I talk about blacks, I mean those three. Blacks and whites mingled to vote without any hitches. Many people would have expected a great deal of tension, clashes and violence, but it did not occur.Collection: Mean
I told my cellmates about the oppression of the whites and apartheid. I helped organize hunger strikes and the like in my prison.Collection: Hunger Strike
Let the efforts of us all, prove that he [Martin Luther King] was not a mere dreamer when he spoke of the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace being more precious than diamonds or silver or goldCollection: Love
The more informed you are, the less arrogant and aggressive you are.Collection: Arrogant
Adversity cleanses the lethargies of manCollection: Adversity
The Children's Hospital will be a credible demonstration of the commitment of African leaders to place the rights of children at the forefront. Nothing less would be enough.Collection: Children
Continuously, we have to fight to defeat the primitive tendency towards the glorification of arms, the adulation of force, born of the illusion that injustice can be perpetuated by the capacity to kill, or that disputes are necessarily best resolved by resort to violent means.Collection: Mean
I love playing and chatting with children...feed ing and putting them to bed with a little story, and being away from the family has troubled me throughout my...life.Collection: Children
I am fundamentally an optimist.Collection: Optimist
Force is the only language the imperialists can hear, and no country became free without some sort of violence.Collection: Country
At the meeting I argued that the state had given us no alternative to violence. I said it was wrong and immoral to subject our people to armed attacks by the state without offering them some kind of alternative. I mentioned again that people on their own had taken up arms. Violence would begin whether we initiated it or not. Would it not be better to guide this violence ourselves, according to principles where we saved lives by attacking symbols of oppression, and not people? If we did not take the lead now, I said, we would soon be latecomers and followers to a movement we did not control.Collection: Taken
One effect of sustained conflict is to narrow our vision of what is possible. Time and time again, conflicts are resolved through shifts that were unimaginable at the start.Collection: Vision
[Gandhi] said, "I want to find God, and because I want to find God, I have to find God along with other people. I don't believe I can find God alone. If I did, I would be running to the Himalayas to find God in some cave there. But since I believe that nobody can find God alone, I have to work with people. I have to take them with me. Alone I can't come to Him."Collection: Running
One of the things that made me long to be back in prison was that I had so little opportunity for reading, thinking and quiet reflection after my release. I intend, amongst other things, to give myself much more opportunity for such reading and reflection.Collection: Reading
In all disputes, a point is arrived at where no party, no matter how right or wrong it might have been at the start of that dispute, will any longer be totally in the right or totally in the wrong. Such a point I believe, has been reached in this debate... Let us not equivocate. A tragedy of unprecedented proportions is unfolding in Africa.Collection: Party
I'm not going to sit here and argue with you. Just PUT THE BLOODY METER ON.Collection: Arguing
It is also the fate of leadership to be misunderstood. For historians, academics, writers and journalists to reflect great lives according to their own subjective canon.Collection: Fate