Quotes By Nelson Mandela

I am confident that nobody... will accuse me of selfishness if I ask to spend time, while I am still in good health, with my family, my friends and also with myself.

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.

The titanic effort that has brought liberation to South Africa, and ensured the total liberation of Africa, constitutes an act of redemption for the black people of the world.

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

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

Let us give publicity to H.I.V./AIDS and not hide it, because the only way to make it appear like a normal illness like TB, like cancer, is always to come out and say somebody has died because of H.I.V./AIDS, and people will stop regarding it as something extraordinary.

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

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

I have always regarded myself, in the first place, as an African patriot.

In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

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.

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.

No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.

There is no such thing as part freedom.

Communists have always played an active role in the fight by colonial countries for their freedom, because the short-term objects of Communism would always correspond with the long-term objects of freedom movements.

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.

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

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

If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.

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

Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.

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 wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.

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

Leaders in all spheres who are living with HIV should be encouraged, not coerced, to lead by example and disclose their HIV status.

By ancestry, I was born to rule.

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.