Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was on 18 July 1918 Madiba clan in the village of Mvezo, in the Eastern Cape and was died on 5 December 2013. He was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionist, political leader, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. Read here Nelson Mandela Quotes Collection.
He attended primary school in Qunu where the teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave him the name Nelson to him, following the custom of giving all schoolchildren “Christian” names. Nelson mother was Nonqaphi Nosekeni, and his father was Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela.
Mandela was the country’s first black leader of the state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government concentrated on destroying the legacy of apartheid by tackling systematized racism and fostering racial settlement.deologically an African nationalist and socialist, he worked as President of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.
Mandela went 27 years in jail, split between Robben Island, Pollsmoor Prison, and Victor Verster Prison. Mandela was a controversial character for much of his life. Although critics on the right criticized him as a communist terrorist and those on the far-left judged him too eager to settle and adjust with apartheid’s supporters, he gained international acclaim for his activism.
Generally regarded as a figure of democracy and social right, he got more than 250 honors—including the Nobel Peace Prize—and became the caption of a cult of personality. He is held in profound honor inside South Africa, where he is usually introduced to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, and called the “Father of the Nation.”
Nelson Mandela Quotes
Read 109 Powerful Nelson Mandela Quotes That Inspire A Positive Life. This Quotes on Love, Fear, Leadership, Forgiveness, Language, Courage and Never Loss.
Nelson Mandela Quotes About Love
Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.
We commit ourselves to the construction of a complete, just, and lasting peace.
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.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
There can be no greater gift than that of giving one’s time and energy to helping others without expecting anything in return.
May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.
Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.
What counts is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.
To deny people their human rights is to deny their very humanity.
We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
When people are determined they can overcome anything.
People respond in accordance to how you treat them.
I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all person live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
I never lose. I either win or learn.
Nelson Mandela Quotes Fear
It always seems impossible until it’s done.
Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity, it is an act of justice.
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you have altered.
When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.
Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward.
A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.
Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they will face. So it’s very important to give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country.
I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent.
While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.
I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed.
If you want the cooperation of humans around you, you must make them feel they are important, and you do that by being genuine and humble.
I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
And if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.
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.
Give a child love, laughter and peace.
The greatest glory in living is not in falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Nelson Mandela Quotes on Leadership
A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
After climbing a great hill. One only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
Action without vision is only passing time, vision without action is merely day dreaming, but vision with action can change the world.
We can change the world and make it a better place. It is in your hands to make a difference.
It is what we make out of what we have given, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.
Forget the past.
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere.
Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.
When a deep injury is done to us, we never heal until we forgive.
Extremists on all sides thrive, fed by the blood lust of centuries gone by For to be free is not merely to cast off ones chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
One cannot be prepared for something while secretly believing it will not happen.
We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.
As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.
For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
Nelson Mandela Quotes Forgiveness
People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Human beings have got the ability to adjust to anything.
A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.
Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division AMONG ST us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not There is no such thing as part freedom.
We too will die but that which we collectively contribute to our national cultural identity will live forever beyond us.
If wealth is a magnet, then poverty is a kind of repellent. Yet poverty often brings out the true generosity in others.
I could not imagine that the future I was walking toward could compare in any way to the past that I was leaving behind.
It is an achievement for a man to do his duty on Earth irrespective of the consequences.
When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.
Nelson Mandela Quotes I Am The Captain
Of course we desire education and we think it is a good thing, but you don’t have to have education in order to know that you want certain fundamental rights, you have got aspirations, you have got claims.
The Habit of attending to small things and of appreciating small courtesies is one of the important marks of a good person.
Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying.
We do not want freedom without bread, nor do we want bread without freedom.
Gone forever are the days when harsh and wicked laws provide the oppressors with years of peace and quiet.
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.
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.
In my country we go to prison first and then become President.
One of the things I learnt when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself, I could not change others.
You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.
If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.
The chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them. The chains on all of my people were the chains on me.
Nelson Mandela Quotes I Never Lose
It was during those long & lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my people became a hunger for the freedom of all people.
The death of a human being, whatever may be his station in life, is always a sad and painful affair.
I was made, by the law, a criminal, not because of what I had done, but because of what I stood for.
Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.
We must strive to be moved by a generosity of spirit that will enable us to outgrow the hatred and conflicts of the past.
You may succeed in delaying, but never in preventing the transition of South Africa to a democracy.
Our people have the right to hope, the right to a future, the right to life itself.
Together we must set out to correct the defects of the past.
Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way.
Nelson Mandela Quotes Our Deepest Fear
I detest racialism because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.
There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair.
It is in your hands, to make a better world for all who live in it.
You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.
Greed and power has turned brother against brother.
Where globalization means, as it so often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom.
In my country, we go to prison first and then become President.
As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.
Nelson Mandela Quotes Language
To go to prison because of your convictions and be prepared to suffer for what you believe in, is something worthwhile.
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
I have never cared very much for personal prizes. A person does not become a freedom fighter in the hope of winning awards.
Men and women, all over the world, right down the centuries, come and go. Some leave nothing behind. Not even their names.
I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say.
No one truly knows a nation until he has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest.
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
As a leader of a mass organization, one must listen to the people.
I have spent all my life dreaming of a golden age in which all problems will be solved and our wildest hopes fulfilled.
Every community in our country has a fundamental right to be free from fear.
Sometimes, it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.
Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
No single person can liberate a country. You can only liberate a country if you act as a collective.
There is no passion to be found playing small in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
Nelson Mandela Courage Quote
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.
Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.
Significant progress is always possible if we ourselves try to plan every detail of our lives and actions.
I have a special attachment to the people who befriended me during times of distress.
It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine worker can become the head of the mine.
Money won’t create success. The freedom to make it will I do not deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the whites.
Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.
