Nelson Mandela Quotes

“It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.”

“Unlike some politicians, I can admit to a mistake.”

“I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people.”

“No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.”

“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.”

“There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

“Give a child love, laughter and peace, not AIDS.”

“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.”

“Running taught me valuable lessons. In cross-country competition, training counted more than intrinsic ability, and I could compensate for a lack of natural aptitude with diligence and discipline. I applied this in everything I did.”

“As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.”

“We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.”

“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 fulfil themselves.”

“I dream of the realisation of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent.”

“I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.”

“In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.”

“Intervention only works when the people concerned seem to be keen for peace.”

“Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.”

“In my country we go to prison first and then become President.”

“After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent.”

“Sometimes, I feel like one who is on the sidelines, who has missed life itself.”

“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”

“The education I received was a British education, in which British ideas, British culture, British institutions, were automatically assumed to be superior. There was no such thing as African culture.”

“Even if you have a terminal disease, you don't have to sit down and mope. Enjoy life and challenge the illness that you have.”

“Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.”