Quotes from Nelson Mandela

To the youth of today, I also have a wish to make: be the scriptwriters of your destiny and feature yourselves as stars that showed the way towards a brighter future.

We recall the joy and excitement of a nation that had found itself, the collective relief that we had stepped out of our restrictive past, and the expectant air of walking into a brighter future.

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.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

What counts in life 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.

It was the government that should have been told to refrain from its inhuman policy of violence and massacre, not the African people .... It was further argued that it is wrong and indefensible for a political Organization to repudiate picketing, whi

A leader is like a shepherd...staying behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.

We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.

As a leader... I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a con-sensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the axiom: a leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.

Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.

Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.

Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Reconciliation means working together to correct the legacy of past injustice.

Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.

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

I am confident that nobody... will accuse me of selfishness if I ask to spend time, while I am still in good health, with my family, my friends and also with myself.

Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts.

Give a child love, laughter and peace, not AIDS.

Nonviolence is a good policy when the conditions permit.

Without democracy there cannot be peace.

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.