Nelson Mandela Quotes

I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.

Especially for those of us who lived in single cells, you had the time to sit down and think, and we discovered that sitting down just to think is one of the best ways of keeping yourself fresh and able, to be able to address the problems facing you, and you had the opportunity, also, of examining your past.

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?

I realized quickly what Mandela and Tambo meant to ordinary Africans. It was a place where they could come and find a sympathetic ear and a competent ally, a place where they would not be either turned away or cheated, a place where they might actually feel proud to be represented by men of their own skin color.

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

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.

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

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

When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Nonviolence is a good policy when the conditions permit.

Unlike some politicians, I can admit to a mistake.

Apart from life, a strong constitution, and an abiding connection to the Thembu royal house, the only thing my father bestowed upon me at birth was a name, Rolihlahla.

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

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.

It always seems impossible until it’s done.