Quotes & Sayings About Mandela

Although I am a gregarious person, I love solitude even more. — Nelson Mandela

I pay tribute to the endless heroism of youth. — Nelson Mandela

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 defenceless people. — Nelson Mandela

In my country we go to prison first and then become President. — Nelson Mandela

My respect for human beings is based not on the colour of a man's skin nor authority he may wield, but purely on merit. — Nelson Mandela

Mandela has played a crucial part in history. He's done some extraordinary things, not only for his country but also for the whole world. — Zinedine Zidane

From Gandhi to Mandela, from the American patriot to the Polish shipbuilders, the makers of revolutions have not come from the top. — Gary Hamel

We are extricating ourselves from a system that insulted our common humanity by dividing us from one another on the basis of race and setting us against each other as oppressed and oppressor. That system committed a crime against humanity. — Nelson Mandela

All remained loyal to him, not because they always agreed with him, but because the regent listened to and respected different opinions. — 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

The cause of Communism is the greatest cause in the history of mankind! — Nelson Mandela

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another. — Nelson Mandela

We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom. We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success. We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world. Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world. Let freedom reign. — Nelson Mandela

My thoughts and love go out to the Mandela family. Rest in peace Madiba. You will be missed, but your impact on this world will live forever. — Charlize Theron

My son has died of AIDS. — Nelson Mandela

Having been in the presidency from the time of Mandela to that of Zuma, I am one of the privileged few who has seen it all, rather than hearing it via the grapevine. The challenge is say 'the things I could not say' in a responsible way that helps the country to move forward rather than backwards. — Frank Chikane

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. — Nelson Mandela

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. — Nelson Mandela

Before Nelson Mandela was arrested in 1962, he was an angry, relatively young man. He founded the ANC's military wing. When he was released, he surprised everyone because he was talking about reconciliation and forgiveness and not about revenge. — Desmond Tutu

Nelson's Mandela own sense of himself was a very humble reading, [different] from how the world read him. And, quite often, you had the sense that he was not comfortable with all the accolades that would be. — Kumi Naidoo

Prison life, fortunately, I spent a lot of years, about 18 years with other prisoners, and, as I say, they enriched your soul. — Nelson Mandela

When people at dinner parties ask me how I can possibly operate in the current political environment, with all the negative campaigning and personal attacks, I may mention Nelson Mandela, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, or some guy in a Chinese or Egyptian prison somewhere. In truth, being called names is not such a bad deal. — Barack Obama

I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances. — Nelson Mandela

Don't raise your voice, improve your argument.
[Address at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, Johannesburg, South Africa, 23 November 2004] — Desmond Tutu

For me, survival is the ability to cope with difficulties, with circumstances, and to overcome them. — Nelson Mandela

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. — Nelson Mandela

When an artist submerges a crucifix in a jar of his own urine, or smears elephant dung on an image of the Virgin Mary, do these works belong in art museums?21 Can the artist simply tell religious Christians, "If you don't want to see it, don't go to the museum"? Or does the mere existence of such works make the world dirtier, more profane, and more degraded? If you can't see anything wrong here, try reversing the politics. Imagine that a conservative artist had created these works using images of Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela instead of Jesus and Mary. Imagine that his intent was to mock the quasi-deification by the left of so many black leaders. Could such works be displayed in museums in New York or Paris without triggering angry demonstrations? Might some on the left feel that the museum itself had been polluted by racism, even after the paintings were removed? — Jonathan Haidt

Those South Africans who berate me for being loyal to our friends, literally they can go and throw themselves into a pool. I am not going to betray the trust of those who helped us. — Nelson Mandela

Men, I think, are not capable of doing nothing, of saying nothing, of not reacting to injustice, of not protesting against oppression, of not striving for the good of society and the good life in the ways they see it. — Nelson Mandela

As a younger person you can come in through many, many gateways. It's like some huge Mandela. You can enter into this and get refreshed. — Anne Waldman

Mandela's commitment to democracy was ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power — Barack Obama

During the years I lived here, the people of Alexandra ignored tribal and ethnic distinctions. Instead of being Xhosas, or Sothos, or Zulus, or Shangaans, we were Alexandrans. We were one people, and we undermined the distinctions that the apartheid government tried so hard to impose. It saddens and angers me to see the rising hatred of foreigners. — Nelson Mandela

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. — Nelson Mandela

There is no such thing as part freedom — Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela went to jail believing in violence, and 27 years later he and his colleagues had slowly and carefully honed the skills, the incredible skills, that they needed to turn one of the most vicious governments the world has known into a democracy. And they did it in a total devotion to non-violence. — Scilla Elworthy

The human body has an enormous capacity for adjusting to trying circumstances. I have found that one can bear the unbearable if one can keep one's spirit strong, even when one's body is being tested. Strong convictions are the secret of surviving deprivation. Your spirit can be full even when your stomach is empty. — Nelson Mandela

Learn to know yourself ... to search realistically and regularly the processes of your own mind and feelings. — Nelson Mandela

Israel should withdraw from all the areas which it won from the Arabs in 1967, and in particular Israel should withdraw completely from the Golan Heights, from south Lebanon and from the West Bank. — Nelson Mandela

A free press is one of the pillars of democracy. — Nelson Mandela

If you are poor, you are not likely to live long. — Nelson Mandela

If we are to accomplish anything in this world, it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievements of others. — Nelson Mandela

Banning not only confines one physically, it imprisons one's spirit. it induces a kind of psychological claustrophobia that makes one yearn not only for freedom of movement but spiritual escape...This insidious effect of bans was that at a certain point one began to think that the opponent was not without but within. — Nelson Mandela

We must work together to ensure the equitable distribution of wealth, opportunity and power in our society. — Nelson Mandela

It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another. — Nelson Mandela

Exercise is the key not only to physical health but to peace of mind. — Nelson Mandela

I discovered even before I went to jail that apartheid was not run by people who were monolithic in their approach. Some of them didn't even believe in apartheid. — Nelson Mandela

When I look at Africa many questions come to mind, many times I have asked myself what would happen if Dr Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba were to rise up and see what is happening, many times I have asked myself what would happen if Nelson Madiba Mandela were to rise up and see what is happening, because what they will be confronted with is an Africa where the Democratic Republic of Congo is unsettled, there is a war going on there, but it's not on the front pages of our newspapers because we don't even control our newspapers and the media. — Patrick L.O. Lumumba

We do not want freedom without bread, nor do we want bread without freedom. Investiture, Clark University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, July 10, 1993 — Nelson Mandela

There's no such thing as part freedom. — Nelson Mandela

Take it upon yourself where you live to make people around you joyful and full of hope. — Nelson Mandela

LIFE IN ALEXANDRA was exhilarating and precarious. Its atmosphere was alive, its spirit adventurous, its people resourceful. Although the township did boast some handsome buildings, it could fairly be described as a slum, living testimony to the neglect of the authorities. The roads were unpaved and dirty, and filled with hungry, undernourished children scampering around half-naked. The air was thick with the smoke from coal fires in tin braziers and stoves. A single water tap served several houses. Pools of stinking, stagnant water full of maggots collected by the side of the road. Alexandra was known as "Dark City" for its complete absence of electricity. Walking home at night was perilous, for there were no lights, the silence pierced by yells, laughter, and occasional gunfire. So different from the darkness of the Transkei, which seemed to envelop one in a welcome embrace. — Nelson Mandela

learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. — Nelson Mandela

The ordinary people of Africa tended not to have room in their hearts for hatred. They were sometimes foolish, like people anywhere, but they did not bear grudges, as Mr Mandela had shown the world. — Alexander McCall Smith

The past is a rich resource on which we can draw in order to make decisions for the future, but it does not dictate our choices. We should look back at the past and select what is good, and leave behind what is bad. — Nelson Mandela

In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility. — Nelson Mandela

Information is a basic human right and the fundamental foundation for the formation of democratic institutions. — Nelson Mandela

All that (Mr. Bush) wants is Iraqi oil. — Nelson Mandela

AIDS is our number one enemy. This enemy can be defeated. While the research for a cure continues, four principles
love, support, acceptance and care for those affected
can make us winners. — Nelson Mandela

The majority of South Africans, black and white, recognize that apartheid has no future. It has to be ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. The mass campaign of defiance and other actions of our organization and people can only culminate in the establishment of democracy. — Nelson Mandela

These numbers are staggering, in fact incomprehensible. By all accounts, we are dealing with the greatest health crisis in human history. — Nelson Mandela

I didn't survive, I prepared." Nelson Mandela's answer when Tony asked him, "Sir, how did you survive all those years in prison? — Timothy Ferriss

Through its imperialist system Britain brought about untold suffering of millions of people. And this is an historical fact. To be able to admit this would increase the respect, you know, which we have for British institutions. — Nelson Mandela

When the image of Nelson Mandela may be more familiar to us than the face of our next-door neighbour, something has changed in the nature of our everyday experience. — Anthony Giddens

Hope is a powerful weapon, and (one) no one power on earth can deprive you of. — Nelson Mandela

Soccer is one of the most unifying activities amongst us. — Nelson Mandela

Lead from the back - and let others believe they are in front. — Nelson Mandela

It will forever remain an accusation and a challenge to all men and women of conscience that it took as long as it has, before all of us stood up to say enough is enough. — Nelson Mandela

This sympathy is not translated into force against the British government because it is not like the anti- apartheid movement which had a high profile here and Mandela is a more engaging figure than Yasser Arafat. — Tom Paulin

Nelson Mandela can rot in prison until he dies or I die, whichever takes longer. — P. W. Botha

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. — Nelson Mandela

Tread softly,
Brathe peacefully,
Laugh hysterically. — Nelson Mandela

I spent a lot of time with President Mandela supporting his efforts in the peace process in Burundi. The thing that impressed me the most was his humility. — John Prendergast

He knew when to compromise. Yet he never compromised his principles. He was a militant. Yet a militant who knew how to plan, assess concrete situations and emerge with rational solutions to problems. — Nelson Mandela

Be absolute for death; for either death or life shall be the sweeter. — Nelson Mandela

To that, I say this: a few may not agree, but one of the greatest men to have walked the earth in my lifetime is Nelson Mandela. He and his people suffered tremendously under the apartheid regime, but when he took over the mantle of governing South Africa, he did not vindictively return the favour to the opposition, which would probably have sent South Africa into chaos and terminal decline. Instead he charted a way forward that started with forgiveness and inclusiveness, bringing about a smooth transition instead of possible revenge and bloodshed. Maybe some folk in cricket administration can learn something from the great man. — Michael Holding

Let your greatness bloom. — Nelson Mandela

Although Verwoerd thought Africans were lower than animals, his death did not yield us any pleasure. Political assassination is not something I or the ANC ever supported. It is a primitive way of contending with an opponent — Nelson Mandela

Part of building a new nation means building a spirit of tolerance, love and respect amongst the people of this country. — Nelson Mandela

It is the dictate of history to bring to the fore the kind of leaders who seize the moment, who cohere the wishes and aspirations of the oppressed. Such was Steve Biko, a fitting product of his time; a proud representative of the re-awakening of a people. — Nelson Mandela

-After all this pain and heartache, how are you now able to forgive? You seem so at peace with yourself and your life. How are you so able to move on? ...
-Because Mr. Mandela asked us to. — Wes Moore

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. — Nelson Mandela

You know you are really famous the day you discover you have become a comic character! — Nelson Mandela

Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair — Nelson Mandela

Before I went to jail, I was active in politics as a member of South Africa's leading organization - and I was generally busy from 7 A.M. until midnight. I never had time to sit and think. — Nelson Mandela

I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east. — Nelson Mandela

When I first met Mandela, we did not discuss anything of substance; we just felt each other out. He spent a long time expressing his admiration for the Boer generals and how ingenious they were during the Anglo-Boer war. — F. W. De Klerk

The question of crime is one of concern to everybody. But the position is that the security forces in our country for the last four decades did not concentrate on suppressing crime. Their main objective was to suppress, to crush political activity. And in the process, crime grew to unacceptable proportions. And criminals were able to form powerful syndicates, and they virtually took over the control of the life of the community in certain areas. — Nelson Mandela

Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one's commitment. — Nelson Mandela

I was generally busy from 7 A.M. until midnight. I never had time to sit and think. As I worked, physical and mental fatigue set in and I was unable to operate to the maximum of my intellectual ability. But in a single cell in prison, I had time to think. I had a clear view of my past and present, and I found that my past left much to be desired, both in regard to my relations with other humans and in developing personal worth. — Nelson Mandela

Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die. — Nelson Mandela

Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual. — Nelson Mandela

Home is home even for those who aspire to serve wider interests and who have established their home of choice in distant regions. — Nelson Mandela

A garden was one of the few thing in prison that one could control. To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend it then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction. The sense of being the custodian of this small patch of earth offered a taste of freedom. — Nelson Mandela

When you are behind bars with no hope of release, you need to find strength wherever you can. Personally, I found strength in Michael Jackson. — Nelson Mandela

When I went to jail, I was a trained lawyer. And when the wardens received letters of demands or summonses, they didn't have the resources to go to an attorney to help them. I would help them settle their cases, so they became attached to me and the other prisoners. — Nelson Mandela

One effect of sustained conflict is to narrow our vision of what is possible. — Nelson Mandela

I heard somebody say, 'Where's (Nelson) Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead. Because Saddam killed all the Mandelas.
George W. Bush, on the former South African president, who is still very much alive, Washington, D.C., Sept. 20, 2007 — George W. Bush

The gracefulness of the slender fishing boats that glided into the harbor in Dakar was equaled only by the elegance of the Senegalese women who sailed through the city in flowing robes and turbaned heads. I wandered through the nearby marketplace, intoxicated by the exotic spices and perfumes. The Senegalese are a handsome people and I enjoyed the brief time that Oliver and I spent in their country. The society showed how disparate elements
French, Islamic, and African
can mingle to create a unique and distinctive culture. — Nelson Mandela

It is music and dancing that make me at peace with the world. — Nelson Mandela

To go to prison because of your convictions and be prepared to suffer for what you believe in, is something worthwhile. It is an achievement for a man to do his duty on earth irrespective of the consequences. — Nelson Mandela