Nelson Mandela Quotes

I realized that they could take everything from me except my mind and my heart. They could not take those things. Those things I still had control over. And I decided not to give them away.

There is no such thing as part freedom

في أعماق كل إنسان حتى أكثر الناس وحشية وقسوة قدراً من الإنسانية وبإمكان كل إنسان أن يتغير إذا مالمستَ جوانب الخير في قلبه ونفسه

انسانها آفريده شده اند؛
که عشق بورزند و به آنها عشق ورزیده شود....!!!
اشیاء ساخته شده اند؛
که مورد استفاده قرار بگیرند...!!!
دلیل آشفتگی های دنیا این است؛
که به اشياء عشق ورزیده می شود
و انسانها مورد استفاده قرار میگيرند.

Having resentment against someone is like drinking poison and thinking it will kill your enemy.

It is most unusual to return to a place that has changed in ways you yourself have altered.

يقال إنما تعرف الأمم بسجونها،إذ ينبغي الحكم على أمة ما من خلال معاملتهالأدنى مواطنيهاوليس لأرقاهم.

التعليم هو أعظم محرك للنضوج الشخصي.
فهو الذي يمكّن ابنة الفلاح من أن تصبح طبيبة، وابن عامل المناجم من أن يصبح رئيساً للمناجم، وابن عامل المزرعة من أن يصبح رئيساً لدولة عظمى.
إن ما يميز فرد عن آخر هو قدرته على توظيف ما عنده من إمكانيات وليس ما يُعطى من ممتلكات ومزايا.

الذي يسلب إنساناً حريته يصير هو نفسه أسيراً للحقد والكراهية يعيش وراء قضبان التعصب وضيق الأفق

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails.

It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, White and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.
When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both. Some say that has now been achieved. But I know that that is not the case. The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to castoff one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning.
I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.

life has a way of forcing decisions on those who vacillate.

"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."
"Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies."
"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."

I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination,” he told the court. “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realized. But my lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

Losing a sense of time is an easy way to lose one’s grip and even one’s sanity.