Quotations by South African President Nelson Mandela
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
“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.”
“A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.”
“It always seems impossible until it's done.”
“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.”
“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”
“I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”
“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.”
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us: it's in everyone. And when 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.”
“The greatest glory in living
lies not in never falling,
but in rising every time we fall.”
“(...) when a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.”
“Courage is not the absence of fear — it s inspiring others to move beyond it.”
“I am the captain of my soul.”
“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
“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.”
“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.”
“In my country we go to prison first and then become President. ”
“We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”
“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.”
“When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.”
“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.”
“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”
“You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.”
“There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.”