Top 500 Nelson Mandela Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “The Commonwealth makes the world safe for diversity.”

— Nelson Mandela

202. “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

203. “Who could doubt that sport is a crucial window for the propagation of fair play and justice? After all, fair play is a value that is essential to sport.”

— Nelson Mandela

204. “If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.”

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

Featured in: Country Quotes

206. “Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair.”

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

208. “One effect of sustained conflict is to narrow our vision of what is possible. Time and time again, conflicts are resolved through shifts that were unimaginable at the start.”

— Nelson Mandela

209. “We must nurture tolerance, collective wisdom, and democracy.”

— Nelson Mandela

210. “Our economic approach to food and its distribution reflects our basic moral values.”

— Nelson Mandela

211. “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

212. “If you are negotiating you must do so in a spirit of reconciliation, not from the point of view of issuing ultimatums.”

— Nelson Mandela

213. “I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.”

— Nelson Mandela

214. “The power of imagination created the illusion that my vision went much farther than the naked eye could actually see.”

— Nelson Mandela

215. “No form of violence can ever be excused in a society that wishes to call itself decent.”

— Nelson Mandela

216. “I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come.”

— Nelson Mandela

217. “Ethiopia always has a special place in my imagination and the prospect of visiting Ethiopia attracted me more strongly than a trip to France, England, and America combined. I felt I would be visiting my own genesis, unearthing the roots of what made me an African.”

— Nelson Mandela

218. “I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all.”

— Nelson Mandela

219. “To be the father of a nation is a great honor, but to be the father of a family is a greater joy.”

— Nelson Mandela

220. “There is nothing more important in life than giving. Tolerance is forged when people look beyond their own desires.”

— Nelson Mandela

221. “Freedom would be meaningless without security in the home and in the streets.”

— Nelson Mandela

222. “No problem is so deep that it cannot be overcome, given the will of all parties, through discussion and negotiation rather than force and violence.”

— Nelson Mandela

223. “I was neglected by my family because I had disappointed them – I’d run away from being forced into an arranged marriage, which was a big blow to them.”

— Nelson Mandela

224. “Racism is a blight on the human conscience. The idea that any people can be inferior to another, to the point where those who consider themselves superior define and treat the rest as subhuman, denies the humanity even of those who elevate themselves to the status of gods.”

— Nelson Mandela

225. “Only armchair politicians are immune from committing mistakes. Errors are inherent in political action.”

— Nelson Mandela

226. “For me, survival is the ability to cope with difficulties, with circumstances, and to overcome them.”

— Nelson Mandela

227. “It is a grave error for any leader to be oversensitive in the face of criticism.”

— Nelson Mandela

228. “If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America.”

— Nelson Mandela

Featured in: Country Quotes

229. “Sport has the power to inspire and unite people. In Africa, soccer enjoys great popularity and has a particular place in the hearts of people.”

— Nelson Mandela

230. “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination...”

— Nelson Mandela

231. “There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere.”

— Nelson Mandela

232. “Tread softly, Brathe peacefully, Laugh hysterically.”

— Nelson Mandela

233. “The most difficult matter is not so much to change the world as yourself.”

— Nelson Mandela

234. “Let your greatness bloom.”

— Nelson Mandela

235. “Each of us, as citizens, has a role to play in creating a better world for our children.”

— Nelson Mandela

236. “The victory of democracy in South Africa is the common achievement of all humanity.”

— Nelson Mandela

237. “Let us join hands and build a truly South African nation.”

— Nelson Mandela

238. “There are few misfortunes in this world that you cannot turn into a personal trimuph if you have the iron will and the neccessary skill.”

— Nelson Mandela

239. “A garden was one of the few thing in prison that one could control. To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend it then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction. The sense of being the custodian of this small patch of earth offered a taste of freedom.”

— Nelson Mandela

240. “I approach every problem with optimism.”

— Nelson Mandela

241. “A new world will be won not by those who stand at a distance with their arms folded, but by those who are in the arena, whose garments are torn by storms and whose bodies are maimed in the course of the contest.”

— Nelson Mandela

242. “To the youth of today, I also have a wish to make: be the scriptwriters of your destiny and feature yourselves as stars that showed the way towards a brighter future.”

— Nelson Mandela

243. “The truth is we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free.”

— Nelson Mandela

244. “Where people of goodwill get together and transcend their differences for the common good, peaceful and just solutions can be found even for those problems which seem most intractable.”

— Nelson Mandela

245. “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

246. “Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.”

— Nelson Mandela

247. “While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.”

— Nelson Mandela

248. “Those who conduct themselves with morality, integrity and consistency need not fear the forces of inhumanity and cruelty.”

— Nelson Mandela

249. “Strong convictions are the secret of surviving deprivation; your spirit can be full even when your stomach is empty.”

— Nelson Mandela

Featured in: Strong Quotes

250. “Those who can’t imagine change reveal the deficits of their imaginations, not the difficulty of change.”

— Nelson Mandela