Top 500 Nelson Mandela Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “None of us, acting alone, can achieve the success.”

— Nelson Mandela

102. “Be a life long student, read as many books as possible.”

— Nelson Mandela

103. “Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.”

— Nelson Mandela

104. “The United States of America is a threat to world peace.”

— Nelson Mandela

105. “Children are the most important asset in a country. For them to become that asset, they must receive education and love from their parents.”

— Nelson Mandela

106. “Other people have qualities that may be better than your own. Let them express them.”

— Nelson Mandela

107. “Nonviolence is a good policy when the conditions permit.”

— Nelson Mandela

108. “The very right to be human is denied every day to hundreds of millions of people as a result of poverty, the unavailability of basic necessities such as food, jobs, water and shelter, education, health care and a healthy environment.”

— Nelson Mandela

109. “When I walked out of the gate I knew that if I continued to hate these people I was still in prison.”

— Nelson Mandela

110. “The more informed you are, the less arrogant and aggressive you are.”

— Nelson Mandela

111. “If you want the cooperation of humans around you, you must make them feel they are important – and you do that by being genuine and humble.”

— Nelson Mandela

112. “Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward.”

— Nelson Mandela

113. “If you want to preach a revolutionary message, wear a suit.”

— Nelson Mandela

114. “If the ANC does to you what the apartheid government did to you, then you must do to the ANC what you did to the apartheid government.”

— Nelson Mandela

115. “Negotiation and discussion are the greatest weapons we have for promoting peace and development.”

— Nelson Mandela

116. “A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of.”

— Nelson Mandela

117. “We owe our children – the most vulnerable citizens in any society – a life free from violence and fear.”

— Nelson Mandela

118. “The best weapon is to sit down and talk.”

— Nelson Mandela

119. “You can start changing our world for the better daily, no matter how small the action.”

— Nelson Mandela

120. “It is not beyond our power to create a world in which all children have access to a good education.”

— Nelson Mandela

121. “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

122. “My son has died of AIDS.”

— Nelson Mandela

123. “A free press is one of the pillars of democracy.”

— Nelson Mandela

124. “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.”

— Nelson Mandela

125. “Che Guevara’s life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom. We will always honor his memory.”

— Nelson Mandela

126. “There is nobody more dangerous than one who has been humiliated, even when you humiliate him rightly.”

— Nelson Mandela

127. “It is music and dancing that make me at peace with the world.”

— Nelson Mandela

128. “It never hurts to think too highly of a person; often they become ennobled and act better because of it.”

— Nelson Mandela

129. “Young people are capable, when aroused, of bringing down the towers of oppression and raising the banners of freedom.”

— Nelson Mandela

130. “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. 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.”

— Nelson Mandela

131. “We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”

— Nelson Mandela

132. “Lead from the front – but don t leave your base behind.”

— Nelson Mandela

133. “There is no passion to be found playing small.”

— Nelson Mandela

134. “We forgive but not forgotten.”

— Nelson Mandela

135. “Our fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.”

— Nelson Mandela

136. “Today we are a nation at peace with itself, united in our diversity, not only proclaiming but living out the contention that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. We take our place amongst the nations of the world, confident and proud in being an African country.”

— Nelson Mandela

137. “In order to build our nation, we must all exceed our own expectations.”

— Nelson Mandela

138. “Do not allow your anger to control your reason, but rather your reason to control your anger.”

— Nelson Mandela

139. “I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses. We must never forget that it is our duty to protect this environment.”

— Nelson Mandela

140. “Poverty is not natural; it is man-made.”

— Nelson Mandela

141. “Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great, you can be that generation.”

— Nelson Mandela

142. “Few things make the life of a parent more rewarding and sweet as successful children.”

— Nelson Mandela

143. “It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.”

— Nelson Mandela

144. “Our hope is that the elementary reading of comics will lead to the joy of reading good books.”

— Nelson Mandela

145. “The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us.”

— Nelson Mandela

146. “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion.”

— Nelson Mandela

147. “We can’t fight AIDS unless we do much more to fight TB as well.”

— Nelson Mandela

148. “The world is truly round and seems to start and end with those we love.”

— Nelson Mandela

149. “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.”

— Nelson Mandela

150. “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.”

— Nelson Mandela