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Nelson Mandela

46 quotes

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and political leader who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. After 27 years of imprisonment, Mandela led his country's transition from apartheid to democracy with remarkable grace and a commitment to reconciliation that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

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

— Nelson Mandela

Life

All Quotes by Nelson Mandela

“Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.”

— Nelson Mandela

Future

“I really wanted to retire and rest and spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and of course with my wife.”

— Nelson Mandela

Time

“Where globalization means, as it so often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom.”

— Nelson Mandela

Freedom

“Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual.”

— Nelson Mandela

Freedom

“I started to make a study of the art of war and revolution and, whilst abroad, underwent a course in military training. If there was to be guerrilla warfare, I wanted to be able to stand and fight with my people and to share the hazards of war with them.”

— Nelson Mandela

Art

“There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile to continue talking about peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenceless people.”

— Nelson Mandela

Government

“I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.”

— Nelson Mandela

Great

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

— Nelson Mandela

Courage

“If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.”

— Nelson Mandela

Dreams

“I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.”

— Nelson Mandela

Society

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

— Nelson Mandela

Peace

“Forget the past.”

— Nelson Mandela

Movingon

“Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.”

— Nelson Mandela

Freedom

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

— Nelson Mandela

Life

“I have retired, but if there's anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.”

— Nelson Mandela

Morning

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

— Nelson Mandela

Life

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

— Nelson Mandela

Wisdom

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

— Nelson Mandela

Good

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

— Nelson Mandela

Freedom

“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?”

— Nelson Mandela

Strength