Top 500 Nelson Mandela Quotes (2024 Update)
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451. “I appeal to the Youth and those on the ground: start talking to each other across divisions of race and political organizations.”

— Nelson Mandela

452. “There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty.”

— Nelson Mandela

453. “South Africans must recall the terrible past so that we can deal with it, forgiving where forgiveness is necessary but never forgetting.”

— Nelson Mandela

454. “I watched, along with all of you, as the tens of thousands of our people stood patiently in long queues for many hours. Some sleeping on the open ground overnight waiting to cast this momentous vote.”

— Nelson Mandela

455. “We tried in our simple way to lead our life in a manner that may make a difference to those of others.”

— Nelson Mandela

456. “The impression that you are a demigod worried me. I wanted to be like an ordinary human being with virtues and vices.”

— Nelson Mandela

457. “In my younger days, I was arrogant – jail helped me to get rid of it. I did nothing but make enemies because of my arrogance.”

— Nelson Mandela

458. “Thinking is one of the most important weapons in dealing with problems.”

— Nelson Mandela

459. “I am convinced that floods of personal disaster can never drown a determined revolutionary nor can the cumulus of misery that accompanies tragedy suffocate him.”

— Nelson Mandela

460. “I discovered even before I went to jail that apartheid was not run by people who were monolithic in their approach. Some of them didn’t even believe in apartheid.”

— Nelson Mandela

461. “No child in Africa, and in fact anywhere in the world, should be denied education.”

— Nelson Mandela

462. “I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.”

— Nelson Mandela

463. “Extremists on all sides thrive, fed by the blood lust of centuries gone by.”

— Nelson Mandela

464. “I made a mistake by being ejected from the presidency. Next time, I will choose a Cabinet which will allow me to be life President.”

— Nelson Mandela

465. “Although Verwoerd thought Africans were lower than animals, his death did not yield us any pleasure. Political assassination is not something I or the ANC ever supported. It is a primitive way of contending with an opponent.”

— Nelson Mandela

466. “Press Freedom will never be under threat in South Africa for as long as the ANC is the majority party.”

— Nelson Mandela

467. “If you look at those matters, you will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace.”

— Nelson Mandela

468. “I really wanted to retire and rest and spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and of course with my wife. But the problems are such that for anybody with a conscience who can use whatever influence he may have to try to bring about peace, it’s difficult to say no.”

— Nelson Mandela

469. “One of the things that made me long to be back in prison was that I had so little opportunity for reading, thinking and quiet reflection after my release. I intend, amongst other things, to give myself much more opportunity for such reading and reflection.”

— Nelson Mandela

470. “I feel like a young man of 15.”

— Nelson Mandela

471. “The laws that stopped blacks from voting were the worst, because they prevented blacks from voting someone into parliament who could change the other laws. Even though the blacks were the majority of the population, they were still not getting a say.”

— Nelson Mandela

472. “History and the generations to come will judge our leaders by the decisions they make in the coming weeks.”

— Nelson Mandela

473. “There are so many men and women who hold no distinctive positions but whose contribution towards the development of society has been enormous.”

— Nelson Mandela

474. “It is the dictate of history to bring to the fore the kind of leaders who seize the moment, who cohere the wishes and aspirations of the oppressed. Such was Steve Biko, a fitting product of his time; a proud representative of the re-awakening of a people.”

— Nelson Mandela

475. “Our continent must be allowed to do its own things, charting its course and destiny.”

— Nelson Mandela

476. “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

477. “Apart from life, a strong constitusion and an abiding connection to the Thembu royal house, the only thing my father bestowed upon me at birth was a name, Rolihlahla.”

— Nelson Mandela

478. “Individuals get caught up in the policy of their country. In prison, for instance, a warden or officer is not promoted if he doesn’t follow the policy of the government – though he himself does not believe in that policy.”

— Nelson Mandela

479. “Continuously, we have to fight to defeat the primitive tendency towards the glorification of arms, the adulation of force, born of the illusion that injustice can be perpetuated by the capacity to kill, or that disputes are necessarily best resolved by resort to violent means.”

— Nelson Mandela

480. “There is little favorable to be said about poverty, but it was often an incubator of true friendship.”

— Nelson Mandela

481. “When I went to jail, I was a trained lawyer. And when the wardens received letters of demands or summonses, they didn’t have the resources to go to an attorney to help them. I would help them settle their cases, so they became attached to me and the other prisoners.”

— Nelson Mandela

482. “I have never regarded any man as my superior, either in my life outside or inside prison.”

— Nelson Mandela

483. “The freedom we enjoy is a richly textured gift handcrafted by ordinary folk.”

— Nelson Mandela

484. “You know you are really famous the day you discover you have become a comic character!”

— Nelson Mandela

485. “I don’t think there is much history can say about me. I just want to be remembered as part of that collective.”

— Nelson Mandela

486. “I was able to change my life by knowing that if somebody does something good for you, you have to respond.”

— Nelson Mandela

487. “I really wanted to retire and rest and spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and of course with my wife.”

— Nelson Mandela

488. “When I came to Johannesburg from the countryside, I knew nobody, but many strangers were very kind to me. I then was dragged into politics, and then, subsequently, I became a lawyer.”

— Nelson Mandela

489. “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

490. “I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.”

— Nelson Mandela

491. “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

492. “Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.”

— Nelson Mandela

493. “There was much in such a society that was primitive and insecure and it certainly could never measure up to the demands of the present epoch. But in such a society are contained the seeds of revolutionary democracy in which none will be held in slavery.”

— Nelson Mandela

494. “We should take heart from our own experience and performance. In a cynical world we have become an inspiration to many.”

— Nelson Mandela

495. “We cannot proclaim this century the African Century and then ignore the AIDS pandemic, as some political leaders are apt to do. To claim this century the African Century is to declare war on AIDS.”

— Nelson Mandela

496. “We shall immunize every child in Africa to get rid of this terrible disease forever.”

— Nelson Mandela

497. “What has sustained me even in the most grim moments is the knowledge that I am a member of a tried and tested family which has triumphed over many difficulties.”

— Nelson Mandela

498. “I cannot overemphasise the value we place on a free, independent and outspoken press.”

— Nelson Mandela

499. “It generally appears outlandish until its carried out.”

— Nelson Mandela

500. “Our people outside of prison used my name to mobilize the community locally and internationally. But for me to be treated separately from my colleagues, who had contributed as much as and even more than I had, would have been a betrayal of them.”

— Nelson Mandela