Quotes from Nelson Mandela

When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere.

We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way.

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.

With freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk has not ended yet.

Freedom alone is not enough without light to read at night, without time or access to water to irrigate your farm, without the ability to catch fish to feed your family.

I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed.

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

While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.

When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both.

The Liberty Bell is "a very significant symbol for the entire democratic world."

There is little favorable to be said about poverty, but it was often an incubator of true friendship.

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?

Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for the eternity.

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

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 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

In my country we go to prison first and then become President .

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.

There is no future without forgiveness

I could not imagine that the future I was walking toward could compare in any way to the past that I was leaving behind.

Let us give practical recognition to the injustices of the past,by building a future based on equality&social justice