Top 500 Nelson Mandela Quotes (2024 Update)
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301. “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

302. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

304. “The Liberty Bell is “a very significant symbol for the entire democratic world.””

— Nelson Mandela

305. “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

306. “Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual.”

— Nelson Mandela

307. “Greece is the mother of democracy and South Africa is its youngest daughter.”

— Nelson Mandela

308. “From the poorest of countries to the richest of nations, education is the key to moving forward in any society.”

— Nelson Mandela

309. “The time has come to accept in our hearts and minds that with freedom comes responsibility.”

— Nelson Mandela

310. “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.”

— Nelson Mandela

311. “I enjoyed the discipline and solitariness of long-distance running, which allowed me to escape from the hurly-burly of school life.”

— Nelson Mandela

312. “When you are behind bars with no hope of release, you need to find strength wherever you can. Personally, I found strength in Michael Jackson.”

— Nelson Mandela

313. “The histories of our two peoples, Palestinian and South African, correspond in such painful and poignant ways, that I intensely feel myself being at home amongst compatriots.”

— Nelson Mandela

314. “For a revolution is not just a question of pulling a trigger; its purpose is to create a fair just society.”

— Nelson Mandela

315. “There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.”

— Nelson Mandela

316. “If you don’t allow people to contribute, to offer their point of view, or to criticize what has been put before them, then they can never like you. And you can never build that instrument of collective leadership.”

— Nelson Mandela

317. “I would like it to be said: here lies a man who has done his duty on earth.”

— Nelson Mandela

318. “No single person can liberate a country. You can only liberate a country if you act as a collective.”

— Nelson Mandela

319. “There is nothing like a fixed, steady aim, with an honorable purpose. It dignifies your nature, and insures your success.”

— Nelson Mandela

320. “That day, Miss Mdingane told me that my new name was Nelson. Why she bestowed this particular name upon me I have no idea. Perhaps it had something to do with the great British sea captain Lord Nelson, but that would be only a guess.”

— Nelson Mandela

321. “Together as a nation, we have the obligation to put sunshine into the hearts of our little ones. They are our precious possessions. They deserve what happiness life can offer.”

— Nelson Mandela

322. “It is my greatest wish that the Children’s Fund should continue to be a beacon of hope and light.”

— Nelson Mandela

323. “The Children’s Hospital will be a credible demonstration of the commitment of African leaders to place the rights of children at the forefront. Nothing less would be enough.”

— Nelson Mandela

324. “I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.”

— Nelson Mandela

325. “Rhetoric is not important. Actions are.”

— Nelson Mandela

326. “I appeal to the Youth and those on the ground: start talking to each other across divisions of race and political organizations.”

— Nelson Mandela

327. “Adversity cleanses the lethargies of man.”

— Nelson Mandela

328. “Whose life testifies to the truth that there is no shame in being oppressed: Those who should be ashamed are they who oppress others.”

— Nelson Mandela

329. “My time in prison only deepened my resolve against apartheid. Even while I was in prison, I fought against it, teaching my cellmates about white supremacy and how to fight against it.”

— Nelson Mandela

330. “I started to make a study of the art of war and revolution and, whilst abroad, underwent a course in military training. If there was to be guerrilla warfare, I wanted to be able to stand and fight with my people and to share the hazards of war with them.”

— Nelson Mandela

331. “A movement without vision would be a movement without moral foundation.”

— Nelson Mandela

332. “Information is a basic human right and the fundamental foundation for the formation of democratic institutions.”

— Nelson Mandela

333. “I will use the rest of my life to help the poor overcome the problems confronting them – poverty is the greatest challenge facing humanity. That is why I build schools; I want to free people from poverty and illiteracy.”

— Nelson Mandela

334. “We can’t afford to be killing one another.”

— Nelson Mandela

335. “The call now is for each of us to ask ourselves: are we doing all we can to help build the country of our dreams?”

— Nelson Mandela

336. “There is nothing I fear more than waking up without a program that will help me bring a little happiness to those with no resources, those who are poor, illiterate, and ridden with terminal disease.”

— Nelson Mandela

337. “I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.”

— Nelson Mandela

338. “I am fundamentally an optimist.”

— Nelson Mandela

339. “I told my cellmates about the oppression of the whites and apartheid. I helped organize hunger strikes and the like in my prison.”

— Nelson Mandela

340. “The march to freedom is irreversible.”

— Nelson Mandela

341. “I pay tribute to the endless heroism of youth.”

— Nelson Mandela

342. “If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.”

— Nelson Mandela

343. “Success in politics demands that you must take your people into confidence about your views and state them very clearly, very politely, very calmly, but nevertheless, state them openly.”

— Nelson Mandela

344. “I’ve never had a single moment of depression, because I know my cause will triumph.”

— Nelson Mandela

345. “If you are stimulated by what you do, you never get tired.”

— Nelson Mandela

346. “There sit our sons”, he said, “young, healthy and handsome, the flower of the Xhosa tribe, the pride of our nation. We are here to promise them manhood, but it is an empty promise because we Xhosas and all black South Africans, are a conquered people.”

— Nelson Mandela

347. “The past is a rich resource on which we can draw in order to make decisions for the future, but it does not dictate our choices. We should look back at the past and select what is good, and leave behind what is bad.”

— Nelson Mandela

348. “If we do not do something to prevent it, Africa’s animals, and the places in which they live, will be lost to our world, and her children, forever. Before it is too late, we need your help to lay the foundation that will preserve this precious legacy long after we are gone.”

— Nelson Mandela

349. “When we dehumanise and demonise our opponents, we abandon the possibility of peacefully resolving our differences, and seek to justify violence against them.”

— Nelson Mandela

350. “I could not imagine that the future I was walking toward could compare in any way to the past that I was leaving behind.”

— Nelson Mandela