Quotes By Nelson Mandela

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.

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.

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

Before I went to jail, I was active in politics as a member of South Africa's leading organization - and I was generally busy from 7 A.M. until midnight. I never had time to sit and think.

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

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.

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.

No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.

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.

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.

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

There is no such thing as part freedom.

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

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.