Nelson Mandela
South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999 and is widely regarded as one of the great moral leaders of the twentieth century. Born in 1918 in Mvezo, he led the African National Congress's resistance to apartheid, was imprisoned for twenty-seven years (most of them on Robben Island), and emerged in 1990 to lead negotiations that ended white minority rule. His autobiography Long Walk to Freedom and his speeches — including the Rivonia Trial speech of 1964 ('I am prepared to die') and his 1994 inauguration address — are among the most-cited texts of modern political philosophy. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and died in Johannesburg in 2013.
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Quotes by Nelson Mandela
116 quotes“I never lose. I either win or I learn.”
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
“It always seems impossible until it's done.”
“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.”
“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.”
“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.”
“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
“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.”
“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.”
“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.”
“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.”
“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”
“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.”
“Love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
“A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”
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