Nelson Mandela Quotes
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301. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

303. “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

304. “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

305. “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

306. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

308. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

312. “Adversity cleanses the lethargies of man.”

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

315. “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

316. “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

317. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

319. “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

320. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

322. “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

323. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

325. “I am fundamentally an optimist.”

— Nelson Mandela

326. “The march to freedom is irreversible.”

— Nelson Mandela

327. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

330. “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

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

— Nelson Mandela

332. “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

333. “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

334. “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

335. “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

336. “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

337. “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

338. “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

339. “Political division, based on color, is entirely artificial; and when it disappears, so will the domination of one color group by another.”

— Nelson Mandela

340. “One of the sad realities today is that very few people, especially young people, read books. Unless we can find imaginative ways of addressing this reality, future generations are in danger of losing their history.”

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

342. “Soccer is one of the most unifying activities amongst us.”

— Nelson Mandela

343. “A new society cannot be created by reproducing the repugnant past, however refined or enticingly repackaged.”

— Nelson Mandela

344. “The death sentence is a barbaric act.”

— Nelson Mandela

345. “The collapse of good conscience and the absence of accountability and public scrutiny have led to crimes against humanity and violations of international law.”

— Nelson Mandela

346. “Leaders will have to give clear and decisive leadership towards a world of tolerance and respect for difference, and an uncompromising commitment to peaceful solutions of conflicts and disputes.”

— Nelson Mandela

347. “Force is the only language the imperialists can hear, and no country became free without some sort of violence.”

— Nelson Mandela

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

— Nelson Mandela

349. “It is also the fate of leadership to be misunderstood. It is a grave error for any leader to be oversensitive in the face of criticism, to conduct discussions as if he or she is a schoolmaster talking to less informed and inexperienced learners.”

— Nelson Mandela

350. “There must be an end to white monopoly on political power, and a fundamental restructuring of our political and economic systems to ensure that the inequalities of apartheid are addressed and our society thoroughly democratized.”

— Nelson Mandela