Top 500 Nelson Mandela Quotes (2025 Update)
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401. “Even if you have a terminal disease, you don’t have to sit down and mope. Enjoy life and challenge the illness that you have.”

— Nelson Mandela

402. “Those South Africans who berate me for being loyal to our friends, literally they can go and throw themselves into a pool. I am not going to betray the trust of those who helped us.”

— Nelson Mandela

403. “The calm and tolerant atmosphere that prevailed during the elections depicts the type of South Africa we can build. It set the tone for the future. We might have our differences, but we are one people with a common destiny in our rich variety of culture, race and tradition.”

— Nelson Mandela

404. “Sport has the power to overcome old divisions and create the bond of common aspirations.”

— Nelson Mandela

405. “He knew when to compromise. Yet he never compromised his principles. He was a militant. Yet a militant who knew how to plan, assess concrete situations and emerge with rational solutions to problems.”

— Nelson Mandela

406. “In prison, illusions can offer comfort.”

— Nelson Mandela

407. “We need a fundamental change of mindset with regards to the way we speak and behave about sex and sexuality. Boys and men have a particularly critical role in this regard, changing the chauvinist and demeaning ways sexuality and women were traditionally dealt with in both our actions and speaking.”

— Nelson Mandela

408. “I can’t pretend that I’m brave and that I can beat the whole world.”

— Nelson Mandela

409. “I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.”

— Nelson Mandela

410. “Unlike some politicians, I can admit to a mistake.”

— Nelson Mandela

411. “It is time for the next generations to continue our struggle against social injustice and for the rights of humanity. It is in your hands.”

— Nelson Mandela

412. “I came to accept that I have no right whatsoever to judge others in terms of my own customs, however much I may be proud of such customs.”

— Nelson Mandela

413. “To go to prison because of your convictions and be prepared to suffer for what you believe in, is something worthwhile. It is an achievement for a man to do his duty on earth irrespective of the consequences.”

— Nelson Mandela

414. “The suffering inflicted, and more often than not on the most vulnerable sectors of society, demeans all of us as humanity. That it is invariably women, children, the aged and disabled who suffer in these conflicts stands to the added shame of humankind.”

— Nelson Mandela

415. “I have retired, but if there’s anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.”

— Nelson Mandela

416. “The names of Dingane and Bambata, Hintsa and Makana, Squngthi and Dalasile, Moshoeshoe and Sekhukhuni, were praised as the glory of the entire African nation. I hoped then that life might offer me the opportunity to serve my people and make my own humble contribution to their freedom struggle.”

— Nelson Mandela

417. “If there is one thing in this planet that has the power to bind people it is soccer.”

— Nelson Mandela

418. “As long as outmoded ways of thinking prevent women from making a meaningful contribution to society, progress will be slow. As long as the nation refuses to acknowledge the equal role of more than half of itself, it is doomed to failure.”

— Nelson Mandela

419. “I have often wondered whether a person is justified in neglecting his own family to fight for opportunities for others.”

— Nelson Mandela

420. “As we judge others so are we judged by others. The suspicious will always be tormented by suspicion.”

— Nelson Mandela

421. “AIDS is our number one enemy. This enemy can be defeated. While the research for a cure continues, four principles – love, support, acceptance and care for those affected – can make us winners.”

— Nelson Mandela

422. “Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strenthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.”

— Nelson Mandela

423. “In human affairs, no single person, organisation or social formation ever has a final or an absolutely correct position. It is through conversation, debate and critical discussion that we approach positions that may provide workable solutions.”

— Nelson Mandela

424. “We raise our voices in holy gladness to celebrate the victory of the risen Christ over the terrible forces of death.”

— Nelson Mandela

425. “AIDS is no longer just a disease, it is a human rights issue.”

— Nelson Mandela

426. “Why is it that in this courtroom I face a white magistrate, am confronted by a white prosecutor and escorted into the dock by a white orderly? Can anyone honestly and seriously suggest that in this type of atmosphere the scales of justice are evenly balanced?”

— Nelson Mandela

427. “Sometimes, I feel like one who is on the sidelines, who has missed life itself.”

— Nelson Mandela

428. “I went as an observer, not a participant, for I do not think that I ever spoke. I wanted to understand the issues under discussion, evaluate the arguments, see the calibre of the men involved.”

— Nelson Mandela

429. “We now undertake that we cannot rest while millions of our people suffer the pain and indignity of poverty in all its forms.”

— Nelson Mandela

430. “Does anybody really think that they didn’t get what they had because they didn’t have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?”

— Nelson Mandela

431. “To a freedom fighter hope is what a lifebelt is to a swimmer – a guarantee that one will keep afloat and free from danger.”

— Nelson Mandela

432. “Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.”

— Nelson Mandela

433. “The greatest single challenge facing our globalised world is to combat and eradicate its disparities.”

— Nelson Mandela

434. “But the hard facts were that fifty years of non-violence had brought the African people nothing but more and more repressive legislation, and fewer and fewer rights.”

— Nelson Mandela

435. “The real meaning of the spoken word has to be demonstrated by practical deeds.”

— Nelson Mandela

436. “If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don’t ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.”

— Nelson Mandela

437. “I have always regarded myself, in the first place, as an African patriot.”

— Nelson Mandela

438. “The question of education has nothing to do with the question of the vote. On numerous occasions it has been proved in history that people can enjoy the vote even if they have no education.”

— Nelson Mandela

439. “No child in Africa, and in fact anywhere in the world, should be denied education.”

— Nelson Mandela

440. “Our motto should be: let us make peace so that we can concentrate on the really important work that needs to be done. That is, alleviating the plight of the poor and the defenceless, for as long as most of humanity feels the pain of poverty we all remain prisoners.”

— Nelson Mandela

441. “Whatever position I occupied, it was the result of colleagues – of my comrades in the movement – who had decided in their wisdom to use me for the purpose of focusing the attention of the country and the international community on me.”

— Nelson Mandela

442. “I have always admired men and women who used their talents to serve the community, and who were highly respected and admired for their efforts and sacrifices, even though they held no office whatsoever in government or society.”

— Nelson Mandela

443. “I would like to be remembered not as anyone unique or special, but as part of a great team in this country that has struggled for many years, for decades and even centuries. The greatest glory of living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall.”

— Nelson Mandela

444. “If you sit down and talk to a person, it’s easy to convince him that apartheid can never save a country and will lead to the slaughtering of innocent people – including his own people.”

— Nelson Mandela

445. “I did not enjoy the violence of boxing so much as the science of it. I was intrigued by how one moved one’s body to protect oneself, how one used a strategy both to attack and retreat, how one paced oneself over a match.”

— Nelson Mandela

446. “The authorities liked to say that we received a balanced diet; it was indeed balanced – between the unpalatable and the inedible.”

— Nelson Mandela

447. “Leaders in all spheres who are living with HIV should be encouraged, not coerced, to lead by example and disclose their HIV status.”

— Nelson Mandela

448. “I can’t help it if the ladies take note of me; I am not going to protest.”

— Nelson Mandela

449. “The relations between a man and his or her god is a personal matter; you can’t go out and challenge the belief of people in a superior being.”

— Nelson Mandela

450. “The titanic effort that has brought liberation to South Africa, and ensured the total liberation of Africa, constitutes an act of redemption for the black people of the world.”

— Nelson Mandela