Nelson Mandela Quotes

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Difficulties break some men but make others.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.

It always seems impossible until it’s done.

We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.

Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me.

Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.

Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.

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

To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

I am the captain of my soul.

There is no passion to be found in playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

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

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

Nelson Mandela Quotes part 2

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.

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.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.

I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say.

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.

Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.

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

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.

Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It’s about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter.

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

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.

I was made, by the law, a criminal, not because of what I had done, but because of what I stood for, because of what I thought, because of my conscience.

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

Reconciliation means working together to correct the legacy of past injustice.

Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.

Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.

I hate racial discrimination most intensely and all its manifestations. I have fought it all during my life; I fight it now, and will do so until the end of my days.

The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed.

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

If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don’t ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.

As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself… Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.

A new world will be won not by those who stand at a distance with their arms folded, but by those who are in the arena, whose garments are torn by storms and whose bodies are maimed in the course of contest.

Remember the past, celebrate the present and inspire the future.

May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.