Top 500 Nelson Mandela Quotes (2024 Update)
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251. “We recall our terrible past so that we can deal with it, to forgive where forgiveness is necessary, without forgetting; to ensure that never again will such inhumanity tear us apart; and to move ourselves to eradicate a legacy that lurks dangerously as a threat to our democracy.”

— Nelson Mandela

252. “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

253. “Freedom alone is not enough without light to read at night, without time or access to water to irrigate your farm, without the ability to catch fish to feed your family.”

— Nelson Mandela

254. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

256. “Israel should withdraw from all the areas which it won from the Arabs in 1967, and in particular Israel should withdraw completely from the Golan Heights, from south Lebanon and from the West Bank.”

— Nelson Mandela

257. “I was called a terrorist yesterday, but when I came out of jail, many people embraced me, including my enemies, and that is what I normally tell other people who say those who are struggling for liberation in their country are terrorists.”

— Nelson Mandela

258. “Blaming things on the past does not make them better.”

— Nelson Mandela

259. “To truly lead one’s people, one must also truly know them.”

— Nelson Mandela

260. “The cause of Communism is the greatest cause in the history of mankind!”

— Nelson Mandela

261. “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

262. “The message of reconciliation, of nation-building, of granting amnesty, indemnity, has struck a powerful, favorable chord. And people can understand that we’re here not for purposes of retribution but to forget the past and to build our country.”

— Nelson Mandela

263. “A government which uses force to maintain its rule teaches the oppressed to use force to oppose it.”

— Nelson Mandela

264. “As long as many of our people still live in utter poverty, as long as children still live under plastic covers, as long as many of our people are still without jobs, no South African should rest and wallow in the joy of freedom.”

— Nelson Mandela

265. “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

266. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

268. “The virtue and the strength of UWC is that it provides small, but powerful cells of innovation, catalysts for change, breaking barriers of habit and opening broader vistas of experience for both pupils and educationalists.”

— Nelson Mandela

269. “The time comes in the life of any nation when there remains only two choices – submit or fight.”

— Nelson Mandela

270. “We can’t win a war, but we can win an election.”

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

273. “It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor.”

— Nelson Mandela

274. “I learned that to humiliate another person is to make him suffer an unnecessarily cruel fate. Even as a boy, I defeated my opponents without dishonoring them.”

— Nelson Mandela

275. “Even behind prison walls I can see the heavy clouds and the blue sky over the horizon.”

— Nelson Mandela

276. “The world remains beset by so much human suffering, poverty and deprivation. It is in your hands to make of our world a better one for all, especially the poor, vulnerable and marginalized.”

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

278. “For me, nonviolence was not a moral principle but a strategy; there is no moral goodness in using an ineffective weapon.”

— Nelson Mandela

279. “To deny people of their human rights is to challenge their very humanity. To impose on them a wretched life of huger and deprivation is to dehumanize them. But such has been the terrible fate of all black persons in our country under the system of apartheid.”

— Nelson Mandela

280. “I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.”

— Nelson Mandela

281. “When the history of our times is written, will we be remembered as the generation that turned our backs in a moment of global crisis or will it be recorded that we did the right thing?”

— Nelson Mandela

282. “Thinking too well of people often allows them to be better than they otherwise would.”

— Nelson Mandela

283. “Poetry cannot block a bullet or still a sjambok, but it can bear witness to brutality-thereby cultivating a flower in a graveyard.”

— Nelson Mandela

284. “There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile to continue talking about peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenceless people.”

— Nelson Mandela

285. “In the 21st Century, the capacity to communicate will almost certainly be a key human right.”

— Nelson Mandela

286. “Through its imperialist system Britain brought about untold suffering of millions of people. And this is an historical fact. To be able to admit this would increase the respect, you know, which we have for British institutions.”

— Nelson Mandela

287. “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

288. “We need to exert ourselves that much more, and break out of the vicious cycle of dependence imposed on us by the financially powerful: those in command of immense market power and those who dare to fashion the world in their own image.”

— Nelson Mandela

289. “I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.”

— Nelson Mandela

290. “Jinnah is a constant source of inspiration for all those who are fighting against racial and group discrimination.”

— Nelson Mandela

291. “My family is very large. 42 million.”

— Nelson Mandela

292. “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

293. “The Good News borne by our risen Messiah who chose not one race, who chose not one country, who chose not one language, who chose not one tribe, who chose all of humankind!”

— Nelson Mandela

294. “I have found Jews to be more broad-minded than most whites on issues of race and politics, perhaps because they themselves have historically been victims of prejudice.”

— Nelson Mandela

295. “When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both.”

— Nelson Mandela

296. “Freedom can never be taken for granted. Each generation must safeguard it and extend it. Your parents and elders sacrificed much so that you should have freedom without suffering what they did. Use this precious right to ensure that the darkness of the past never returns.”

— Nelson Mandela

297. “I cannot and will not give any undertaking at a time when I, and you, the people, are not free. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.”

— Nelson Mandela

298. “Let us remind ourselves that our work is far from complete. Where there is poverty and sickness, including AIDS, where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done. Our work is for freedom for all...”

— Nelson Mandela

299. “Since the dawn of history, mankind has honoured and respected brave and honest people.”

— Nelson Mandela

300. “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