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

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

304. “Our task is not to liberate the oppressed, but to liberate the oppressors.”

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

308. “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

309. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

311. “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

312. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

314. “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

315. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

317. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

319. “Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.”

— Nelson Mandela

320. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

322. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

325. “Adversity cleanses the lethargies of man.”

— Nelson Mandela

326. “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

327. “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

328. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

332. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

334. “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

335. “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

336. “I am fundamentally an optimist.”

— Nelson Mandela

337. “The march to freedom is irreversible.”

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

340. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

343. “The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices – submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means in our power in defence of our people, our future, and our freedom.”

— Nelson Mandela

344. “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

345. “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

346. “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

347. “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

348. “Out of the experience of extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud...”

— Nelson Mandela

349. “We don’t have to be victims of our past, that we can let go of our bitterness, and that all of us can achieve greatness.”

— Nelson Mandela

350. “Only 50 years ago persons with intellectual disabilities were scorned, isolated and neglected. Today, they are able to attend school, become employed and assimilate into their local community.”

— Nelson Mandela