Mandela's Quotes

#1. I heard somebody say, 'Where's (Nelson) Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead. Because Saddam killed all the Mandelas.
George W. Bush, on the former South African president, who is still very much alive, Washington, D.C., Sept. 20, 2007

George W. Bush

#2. Mandela's message will never die. It will continue to inspire freedom fighters and give confidence to people who defend just causes and universal rights.

Francois Hollande

#3. I believe that anybody with Mandela's capacity to endure hardship and then forgive is a born leader and example to us all.

Rory McIlroy

#4. The charismatic portrait of the modern leadership looks nothing like Fidel Castro. It is a faceless portrait that epitomizes the toughness of Ronald Reagan, Nelson Mandela's charisma, and the most compassionate heart of Mother Theresa.

Anthony Obi Ogbo

#5. I didn't survive, I prepared." Nelson Mandela's answer when Tony asked him, "Sir, how did you survive all those years in prison?

Timothy Ferriss

#6. The first time I was privileged to meet president Mandela was during his visit to Malawi ... shortly after he was released from prison. I was amazed by his humility and his great sense of leadership ... Mandela's character has shaped my life.

Joyce Banda

#7. Nelson Mandela will always be the face of South Africa. The traveler passing through the country will see Mandela's face almost everywhere he looks. Truly, the man is omnipresent.

Henry Rollins

#8. It was a hallmark of Nelson Mandela's leadership that being open to change made him appear not weaker, but even stronger.

Klaus Schwab

#9. I wrote this book for the Nelson Mandela's of our communities who are willing to stand up for change and people who are oppressed or suppressed from fulfilling their life's purpose

Sahndra Fon Dufe

#10. Mandela's commitment to democracy was ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power

Barack Obama

#11. As a world leader who refused to accept injustice, Nelson Mandela's courage helped change our entire world

Salil Shetty

#12. Mandela's political evolution was gradual.

William Finnegan

#13. Mandela's heroism is the heroism of a man who suffered so badly for what he thought of as freedom. And yet when he had the upper hand he has this incredible self-control and these incredible leadership qualities.

Bono

#14. Because Mr. Mandela's early opponents invested so many resources into distorting the true nature of his advocacy, the singular historic moment millions now celebrate could have been tragically lost to guerrilla decontextualization.

Aberjhani

#15. When I was growing up, Mandela's name was synonymous with terror. We were scared of him. You couldn't see any photos of him. A photo of him could have gotten you in jail.

Kenneth Bonert

#16. Nelson Mandela was in jail when I was really young, and Winnie Mandela was one of the biggest faces of the movement. In South Africa we have a common phrase - it's like a chant in the street and at rallies: "Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo." Which means, "You strike a woman, you strike a rock."

Trevor Noah

#17. Sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour, Desmond Tutu's voice will always be the voice of the voiceless.

Nelson Mandela

#18. Isimangaliso must be the only place on the globe where the oldest land mammal (rhinoceros) and the world biggest terrestrial mammal (elephant) share an ecosystem with the world's oldest fish (coelacanth) and the world's biggest marine mammal (whale)

Nelson Mandela

#19. Like you do about Nelson Mandela, you can't help feeling the guy's a good man.

Ralph Steadman

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

Nelson Mandela

#21. It was deeply important for me to understand where Mandela came from. Because we know where he was going, and that's a famous story, but who was he? Where did he come from? What was his upbringing?

Idris Elba

#22. My respect for human beings is based not on the colour of a man's skin nor authority he may wield, but purely on merit.

Nelson Mandela

#23. Nelson Mandela was just a human being, a person like other people, and everyone relaxed. Within a minute, that sort of thing about the leader and the lead, the gap was closed, and that's a rare thing.

Kumi Naidoo

#24. Che Guevara's life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom. We will always honor his memory.

Nelson Mandela

#25. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward.

Nelson Mandela

#26. I have retired, but if there's anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.

Nelson Mandela

#27. I found solitary confinement the most forbidding aspect of prison life. There is no end and no beginning; there is only one's mind, which can begin to play tricks. Was that a dream or did it really happen? One begins to question everything.

Nelson Mandela

#28. If you sit down and talk to a person, it's easy to convince him that apartheid can never save a country and will lead to the slaughtering of innocent people - including his own people.

Nelson Mandela

#29. I knew that one movie could either kill my career or give birth to it. It's the same thing with Nelson. If you fail at Nelson [movie about nelson Mandela], you don't get to comeback and say, 'Well, I was trying. Let me do it again.' There are no re-takes.

Terrence Howard

#30. 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.

Nelson Mandela

#31. 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.

Nelson Mandela

#32. I commend #AIESEC's continuing efforts to develop the #future #business #leadership of our countries.

Nelson Mandela

#33. It is my greatest wish that the Children's Fund should continue to be a beacon of hope and light.

Nelson Mandela

#34. I'm inspired by people like Nelson Mandela. Can you imagine - you know how racist America was back then - imagine how racism was in South Africa when he had to stand up and say what he had to say. That's bravery beyond comprehension.

Nas

#35. There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.

Nelson Mandela

#36. Before Nelson Mandela was arrested in 1962, he was an angry, relatively young man. He founded the ANC's military wing. When he was released, he surprised everyone because he was talking about reconciliation and forgiveness and not about revenge.

Desmond Tutu

#37. People respond in accordance to how you relate to them. If you approach them on the basis of violence, that's how they'll react. But if you say, 'We want peace, we want stability,' we can then do a lot of things that will contribute towards the progress of our society.

Nelson Mandela

#38. We're trained to see the world in terms of charismatic organizations and charismatic people. That's who we look to for leadership and change, for transformation. We're awaiting the next J.F.K., the next Martin Luther King, the next Gandhi, the next Nelson Mandela.

Paul Hawken

#39. Of course, Nelson Mandela, everybody knows Nelson Mandela. I mean, he's a great gift not only for Africa but for the whole world, actually. But do not expect everybody to be a Nelson Mandela.

Mo Ibrahim

#40. It's in your hands to make the world a better place.

Nelson Mandela

#41. Courage is not the absence of fear - it s inspiring others to move beyond it.

Nelson Mandela

#42. The Children's Hospital will be a credible demonstration of the commitment of African leaders to place the rights of children at the forefront. Nothing less would be enough.

Nelson Mandela

#43. To truly lead one's people, one must also truly know them.

Nelson Mandela

#44. South Africa is the most beautiful place on earth. Admittedly, I am biased but when you combine the natural beauty ... and the fact that the region is a haven for Africa's most splendid wildlife ... Then I think that we have been blessed with a truly wonderful land.

Nelson Mandela

#45. Nelson's Mandela own sense of himself was a very humble reading, [different] from how the world read him. And, quite often, you had the sense that he was not comfortable with all the accolades that would be.

Kumi Naidoo

#46. Religion is one of the most important forces in the world. Whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew, or a Hindu, religion is a great force, and it can help one have command of one's own morality, one's own behavior, and one's own attitude.

Nelson Mandela

#47. Mandela is just the eternal man. You want that man to be around forever. It's the closest thing we have to God, I think. He's the father of mankind, almost.

Anton Corbijn

#48. I like people who are minimalist with their words. Jack Nicholson thinks a lot then says something, and it's always spot on. Nelson Mandela is the same.

David A. Stewart

#49. [I] read Anne Frank's diary [while imprisoned] on Robben Island and derived much encouragement from it.

Nelson Mandela

#50. To make peace with an enemy one must work with that enemy, and that enemy becomes one's partner.

Nelson Mandela

#51. My greatest hero is Nelson Mandela. What a man. Incarcerated for 25 years, he was released in 1990 and he hasn't reoffended. I think he's going straight, which shows you prison does work.

Ricky Gervais

#52. Nelson Mandela said: 'It always seems impossible until it's done.' Peace is possible.

John Bonifaz

#53. Mandela has played a crucial part in history. He's done some extraordinary things, not only for his country but also for the whole world.

Zinedine Zidane

#54. Nelson Mandela is, for me, the single statesman in the world. The single statesman, in that literal sense, who is not solving all his problems with guns. It's truly unbelievable.

Toni Morrison

#55. 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.

Nelson Mandela

#56. Mind you, you don't get albums written about really good people like Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, do you? Good people's places in Heaven may be assured, but nobody's going to have a chart-topping album full of songs about someone's good deeds.

Mitch Winehouse

#57. 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 ... Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.

Nelson Mandela

#58. We, the people of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know:
That South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people.

Nelson Mandela

#59. There's no such thing as part freedom.

Nelson Mandela

#60. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone.

Nelson Mandela

#61. A lot of controversy over this possible invasion of Iraq. In fact, Nelson Mandela was so upset, he called Bush's dad. How embarrassing, when world leaders start calling your father.

Jay Leno

#62. Music is a great blessing. It has the power to elevate and liberate us. It sets people free to dream. It can unite us to sing with one voice. Such is the value of music.

Nelson Mandela

#63. Trade justice for the developing world and for this generation is a truly significant way for the developed countries to show commitment to bringing about an end to global poverty.

Nelson Mandela

#64. 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.

Nelson Mandela

#65. Each of us, as citizens, has a role to play in creating a better world for our children

Nelson Mandela

#66. Why is it that in this courtroom I face a white magistrate, am confronted by a white prosecutor and escorted into the dock by a white orderly? Can anyone honestly and seriously suggest that in this type of atmosphere the scales of justice are evenly balanced?

Nelson Mandela

#67. Peace is not just the absence of conflict; peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, class, caste or any other social markers of difference.

Nelson Mandela

#68. Our freedom is also incomplete, dear compatriots, as long as we are denied our security by criminals who prey on our communities, who rob our businesses and undermine our economy, who ply their destructive trade in drugs in our schools, and who do violence against our women and children.

Nelson Mandela

#69. I would wear the blue overalls of the fieldworker and often wore round, rimless glasses known as Mazzawati teaglasses. I had a car, and I wore a chauffeur's cap with my overalls. The pose of chauffeur was convenient because I could travel under the pretext of driving my master's car.

Nelson Mandela

#70. Whenever anybody called Nelson Mandela a saint, he would say: "If by saint you mean a sinner who is trying to be better, then I'm a saint."

Kumi Naidoo

#71. HIV/AIDS is the greatest danger we have faced for many, many centuries. HIV/AIDS is worse than a war. It is like a world war. Millions of people are dying from it.

Nelson Mandela

#72. We have laid the foundation for a better life. Things that were unimaginable a few years ago have become everyday reality. I belong to the generation of leaders for whom the achievement of democracy was the defining challenge.

Nelson Mandela

#73. It was a useful reminder that all men, even the most seemingly cold-blooded, have a core of decency, and that if their heart is touched, they are capable of changing.

Nelson Mandela

#74. The leaders who we admire who have been able to bring great change in the past - Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela - they're all inspirational religious leaders and smart tacticians. It would be nice to find the Muslim Gandhi, wouldn't it?

Dennis C. Blair

#75. I came to accept that I have no right whatsoever to judge others in terms of my own customs, however much I may be proud of such customs.

Nelson Mandela

#76. Keep your friends close - and your rivals even closer.

Nelson Mandela

#77. It is not the kings and generals that make history, but the masses of the people.

Nelson Mandela

#78. 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.

Nelson Mandela

#79. For a revolution is not just a question of pulling a trigger; its purpose is to create a fair just society

Nelson Mandela

#80. Prison is designed to break one's spirit and destroy one's resolve. To do this, the authorities attempt to exploit every weakness, demolish every initiative, negate all signs of individuality
all with the idea of stamping out that spark that makes each of us human and each of us who we are.

Nelson Mandela

#81. As an attorney, I could be rather flamboyant in court. I did not act as though I were a black man in a white man's court, but as if everyone else - white and black - was a guest in my court. When trying a case, I often made sweeping gestures and used high-flown language.

Nelson Mandela

#82. It's a blessing that South Africa has a man like Nelson Mandela.

Desmond Tutu

#83. Nelson Mandela also spoke about how, as a human being, he's made mistakes.

Kumi Naidoo

#84. South Africans have no concept of time and this is also why we can't solve poverty and social problems ... It's now 10 years since the fall of the Apartheid government and we cannot blame Apartheid for being tardy.

Nelson Mandela

#85. This document [the Reconstruction and Development Programme] was translated into a simpler manifesto called 'A Better Life for All', which in turn became the ANC's campaign slogan.

Nelson Mandela

#86. Before I went to jail, I was active in politics as a member of South Africa's leading organization - and I was generally busy from 7 A.M. until midnight. I never had time to sit and think.

Nelson Mandela

#87. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.

Barack Obama

#88. Millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain enslaved by the chains of poverty. It is time to set them free.

Nelson Mandela

#89. It's not our weaknesses that frighten us. It's our strengths.

Nelson Mandela

#90. I never think of the time I have lost. I just carry out a programme because it's there. It's mapped out for me.

Nelson Mandela

#91. It's a tragedy what is happening, what Bush is doing. All Bush wants is Iraqi oil. There is no doubt that the U.S. is behaving badly. Why are they not seeking to confiscate weapons of mass destruction from their ally Israel? This is just an excuse to get Iraq's oil.

Nelson Mandela

#92. If we do not do something to prevent it, Africa's animals, and the places in which they live, will be lost to our world, and her children, forever. Before it is too late, we need your help to lay the foundation that will preserve this precious legacy long after we are gone.

Nelson Mandela

#93. It always seems impossible until it's done.

Nelson Mandela

#94. I think there's a mythology that if you want to change the world, you have to be sainted, like Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela or Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Ordinary people with lives that go up and down and around in circles can still contribute to change.

Jody Williams

#95. It only seems impossible until it's done.

Nelson Mandela

#96. George W. Bush in Washington decided that Nobel Peace Prize winner and ex-president Nelson Mandela could probably be taken off the U.S. list of terrorists).

Jonas Jonasson

#97. Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one's commitment.

Nelson Mandela

#98. Mandela means a lot to the world. He's something special. There's only a few people in the history of mankind with that kind of charisma.

Ruud Gullit

#99. 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.

Nelson Mandela

#100. As a younger person you can come in through many, many gateways. It's like some huge Mandela. You can enter into this and get refreshed.

Anne Waldman