It always seems impossible until it's done.
Nelson Mandela
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.
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.
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.
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.
There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.
For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
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.
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.
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.
A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
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.
To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.
We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.
A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.
Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.
Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.
No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.
I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.
Unlike some politicians, I can admit to a mistake.
If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.
I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.
Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.
I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.
Forget the past.
Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.
There is no such thing as part freedom.
I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.
In my country we go to prison first and then become President.
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 do not deny 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 detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.
I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people.
Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they will face. So it's very important to give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country.
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.
Does anybody really think that they didn't get what they had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?
On the first day of school, my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name and said that from thenceforth that was the name we would answer to in school. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education.
Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.
If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America.
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 defenseless people.
Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.
It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.
After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent. The simple act of being able to control one's person.
