Top 500 Nelson Mandela Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “We can’t fight AIDS unless we do much more to fight TB as well.”

— Nelson Mandela

152. “Great anger and violence can never build a nation.”

— Nelson Mandela

153. “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

154. “The UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

— Nelson Mandela

155. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

157. “It is in the character of growth that we should learn from both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.”

— Nelson Mandela

158. “Honour belongs to those who never forsake the truth even when things seem dark and grim, who try over and over again, who are never discouraged by insults, humiliation and even defeat.”

— Nelson Mandela

159. “You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself.”

— Nelson Mandela

160. “You encourage people by seeing the good in them.”

— Nelson Mandela

161. “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front.”

— Nelson Mandela

162. “Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.”

— Nelson Mandela

163. “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”

— Nelson Mandela

164. “Artists reach areas far beyond the reach of politicians. Art, especially entertainment and music, is understood by everybody, and it lifts the spirits and the morale of those who hear it.”

— Nelson Mandela

165. “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

166. “Each of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.”

— Nelson Mandela

167. “When those in power deny you of freedom the only path to freedom is power.”

— Nelson Mandela

168. “I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.”

— Nelson Mandela

169. “I am not an optimist, but a great believer of hope.”

— Nelson Mandela

170. “Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.”

— Nelson Mandela

171. “Education has become a very powerful weapon in the struggle to produce a well-developed person.”

— Nelson Mandela

172. “Hating clouds the mind. It gets in the way of strategy. Leaders cannot afford to hate.”

— Nelson Mandela

173. “The day I am afraid to do, that is the day I am no longer fit to lead.”

— Nelson Mandela

174. “I believe that in the end that it is kindness and accommodation that are all the catalysts for real change.”

— Nelson Mandela

175. “Our society needs to re-establish a culture of caring.”

— Nelson Mandela

176. “Keep your friends close – and your rivals even closer.”

— Nelson Mandela

177. “Give a child love, laughter and peace, not AIDS.”

— Nelson Mandela

178. “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.”

— Nelson Mandela

179. “The curious beauty of African music is that it uplifts even as it tells a sad tale. You may be poor, you may have only a ramshackle house, you may have lost your job, but that song gives you hope.”

— Nelson Mandela

180. “Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.”

— Nelson Mandela

181. “Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.”

— Nelson Mandela

182. “You see, when there is danger, a good leader takes the front line. But when there is celebration, a good leader stays in the back room. If you want the cooperation of human beings around you, make them feel that they are important. And you do that by being humble.”

— Nelson Mandela

183. “As long as women are bound by poverty and as long as they are looked down upon, human rights will lack substance.”

— Nelson Mandela

184. “As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

— Nelson Mandela

185. “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

186. “If you make one gift this year, make it the gift of knowledge.”

— Nelson Mandela

187. “Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.”

— Nelson Mandela

188. “My dream would be a multicultural society, one that is diverse and where every man, woman and child are treated equally. I dream of a world where all people of all races work together in harmony.”

— Nelson Mandela

189. “The curious beauty about African music is that it uplifts even as it tells a sad story.”

— Nelson Mandela

190. “If our expectations, if our fondest prayers and dreams, are not realized then we should all bear in mind that the greatest glory of living lies not in never falling but in rising every time you fall.”

— Nelson Mandela

191. “Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for the eternity.”

— Nelson Mandela

192. “In the end, reconciliation is a spiritual process, which requires more than just a legal framework. It has to happen in the hearts and minds of people.”

— Nelson Mandela

193. “Politics can be strengthened by music, but music has a potency that defies politics.”

— Nelson Mandela

194. “It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”

— Nelson Mandela

195. “I was not born with a hunger to be free, I was born free.”

— Nelson Mandela

196. “You mustn’t compromise your principles, but you mustn’t humiliate the opposition. No one is more dangerous than one who is humiliated.”

— Nelson Mandela

197. “No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.”

— Nelson Mandela

198. “MY greatest regret in life is that I never became the heavyweight boxing champion ofthe world.”

— Nelson Mandela

199. “Take it upon yourself where you live to make people around you joyful and full of hope.”

— Nelson Mandela

200. “The history of struggle is rich with stories of heroes and heroines – some of them leaders, some of them followers, all of them deserve to be remembered.”

— Nelson Mandela