Nelson Mandela Quotes

Strong convictions are the secret of surviving deprivation; your spirit can be full even when your stomach is empty.

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

Justice and I became friends, though we were opposites in many ways - he was extroverted, I was introverted; he was lighthearted, I was serious.

History and the generations to come will judge our leaders by the decisions they make in the coming weeks.

We shall immunize every child in Africa to get rid of this terrible disease forever.

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

What has sustained me even in the most grim moments is the knowledge that I am a member of a tried and tested family which has triumphed over many difficulties.

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

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

What freedom am I being offered while the organization of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.

I am not the only one who did not want revenge. Almost all my colleagues in prison did not want revenge, because there is no time to do anything else except to try and save your people.

We can't fight AIDS unless we do much more to fight TB as well.

I admire young people who are concerned with the affairs of their community and nation perhaps because I also became involved in struggle whist I was still at school.

I have found Jews to be more broad-minded than most whites on issues of race and politics, perhaps because they themselves have historically been victims of prejudice.

Why is the United States behaving so arrogantly? All that (Mr. Bush) wants is Iraqi oil.

The more informed you are, the less arrogant and aggressive you are.

AIDS today in Africa is claiming more lives than the sum total of all wars, famines and floods and the ravages of such deadly diseases as malaria ... We must act now for the sake of the world.

But the hard facts were that fifty years of non-violence had brought the African people nothing but more and more repressive legislation, and fewer and fewer rights.

I'm not going to sit here and argue with you. Just PUT THE BLOODY METER ON.

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.

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.

Let us join hands and build a truly South African nation.

My son has died of AIDS.

The march to freedom is irreversible.

We can't afford to be killing one another.

We now undertake that we cannot rest while millions of our people suffer the pain and indignity of poverty in all its forms.

If you want to preach a revolutionary message, wear a suit.

Force is the only language the imperialists can hear, and no country became free without some sort of violence.

I enjoyed the discipline and solitariness of long-distance running, which allowed me to escape from the hurly-burly of school life.

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

I feel like a young man of 15.

I do not think that I was brought up in a unique society with unique features about giving.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I told my cellmates about the oppression of the whites and apartheid. I helped organize hunger strikes and the like in my prison.

A Nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but it's lowest ones

I AM THE MASTER OF MY FATE AND THE CAPTAIN OF MY DESTINY.

It reaffirmed my long-held belief that education was the enemy of prejudice. These were men and women of science, and science had no room for racism.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

When the women begin to take an active part in the struggle, no power on earth can stop us from achieving freedom in our lifetime.

Of course you cannot know a man completely, his character, his principles, sense of judgement, not till he’s shown his colors, run the people, making laws. Experience, there’s the test.

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. -Nelson Mandela, activist, South African president, Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1918)

To deny people of their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.

If I preached unity, I must act like a unifier, even at the risk of perhaps alienating some of my own colleagues.

A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.