Quotes by Nelson Mandela

“And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same”

“How can I be expected to believe that this same racial discrimination which has been the cause of so much injustice and suffering right through the years, should now operate here to give me a fair and open trial?....consider myself neither morally nor legally obliged to obey laws made by a Parliament in which I am not represented. That the will of the people is the basis of the authority of government, is a principle universally acknowledged as sacred throughout the civilized world.”

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

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

““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,” Mr Mandela has said.”

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

“As a leader... I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a con-sensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the axiom: a leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”

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

“I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment”

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

“Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a”

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

“As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

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

“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 li”

“Does anybody really think that they didnt get what they had because they didnt have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?”

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

“I have never cared very much for personal prizes. A man does not become a freedom fighter in the hope of winning awards, but when I was notified that I had won the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Mr de Klerk, I was deeply moved. The Nobel Peace P”

“I cherish my own freedom dearly, but I care even more for your freedom. Too many have died since I went to prison. Too many have suffered for the love of freedom. I owe it to their widows, to their orphans, to their mothers and their fathers, who hav”

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