Nelson Mandela Quotes

President of South Africa and anti-apartheid activist (1918–2013)

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Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist, who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black chief executive, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Politically an African nationalist and democratic socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997. He was the co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk in 1993.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Native Name: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Alternative Names: Mandela • Prisoner 46664 • Madiba • Rolihllahla • Rolihllahla Mandela • Father of the Nation

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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.

I immediately regretted that last point because I have discovered that in discussions it never helps to take a morally superior tone to one's opponent.

A freedom fighter learns the hard way that it is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle,and the oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor.At a point, one can only fight fire with fire

I am the captain of my soul.

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.

No matter what I suffered in my pursuit of freedom, I always took strength from the fact that I was fighting with and for my own people. Bram was a free man who fought against his own people to ensure the freedom of others

We stand here today as nothing more than a representative of the millions of our people who dared to rise up against a social system whose very essence is war, violence, racism, oppression, repression and the impoverishment of an entire people.

The authorities liked to say that we received a balanced diet; it was indeed balanced — between the unpalatable and the inedible.

She married a man who soon left her; that man became a myth; and then that myth returned home and proved to be just a man after all.

If I am asked, by credible organizations, to mediate, I will consider that very seriously. But a situation of this nature does not need an individual, it needs an organization like the United Nations to mediate. We must understand the seriousness of this situation. The United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken.

Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world

Democracy meant all men were to be heard, and a decision was taken together as a people. Majority rule was a foreign notion. A minority was not to be crushed by a majority.

Niente come tornare in un luogo rimasto immutato
ci fa scoprire quanto siamo cambiati...

I am your servant…. It is not the individuals that matter, but the collective….

One of the things I learned when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself, I could not change others.