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

From Wikidata (CC0)

Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes and apsirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry or savour their songs. I again realized that we were not different people with separate languages; we were one people, with different tongues.

التحدي الكبير الذي يواجه كل سجين وخاصة السجين السياسي هو كيف يحافظ على سلامة عقله وبدنه ويخرج من السجن دون أن يفقد إيمانه وقناعاته بل يزيدها وينميها

It was ANC policy to try to educate all people, even our enemies: we believed that all men, even prison service warders, were capable of change, and we did our utmost to try to sway them.

Non-violence is a good policy when conditions permit.

" When you are young and strong...you can stay alive on your hatred"....but realized later "They can take everything from me except my mind and heart"

Nelson Mandela from Long Walk to Freedom

"A blind pursuit of cheap popularity has nothing to do with revolution."

[Political Report of the National Executive Committee to the forty-ninth A.N.C. National Conference, Bloemfontein, South Africa, 17 December 1994]

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.

I do not deny, however, that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the Whites.

I was a young man who attempted to make up for his ignorance with militancy.

Tread softly,
Breathe peacefully,
Laugh hysterically.” — Nelson Mandela

القائد كالمزارع يتحمل مسؤولية نتاج مايزرع وعليه أن يحمي عمله ويصرف عنه مخاطر الأعداء وأن يحافظ على ماهو صالح منه وأن يتخلص مما هو ضار أو لا أمل فيه

we fought injustice wherever we found it, no matter how large, or how small, and we fought injustice to preserve our own humanity.

before either of us knew it, we were in the same room and in each other’s arms. I kissed and held my wife for the first time in all these many years. It was a moment I had dreamed about a thousand times. It was as if I were still dreaming. I held her to me for what seemed like an eternity. We were still and silent except for the sound of our hearts. I did not want to let go of her at all, but I broke free and embraced my daughter and then took her child into my lap. It had been twenty-one years since I had even touched my wife’s hand.

الحرية لا تعطى على جرعات فالمرء اما ان يكون حرا او لا يكون حرا

If I had my time over I would do the same again, so would any man who dares call himself a man.