Quotes from Nelson Mandela

I have always believed that exercise is not only a key to physical health but to peace of mind.

I discovered for the first time people of my own age firmly aligned with the liberation struggle, who were prepared, despite their relative privilege, to sacrifice themselves of the cause of the oppressed.

Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression.

I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments, produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people.

Para firmar la paz con un enemigo es necesario trabajar con él.

there was not a single act of violence on our side. The discipline of our resisters was exemplary.

Niente può essere più lontano dalla verità.

Tuve ocasión de aprender que el valor no consiste en no tener miedo, sino en ser capaz de vencerlo. He sentido miedo más veces de las que puedo recordar, pero siempre lo he ocultado tras una máscara de audacia. El hombre valiente no es el que no siente miedo, sino el que es capaz de conquistarlo. Jam

the idea of the black inferiority complex and castigated what he called the worship and idolization of the West and their ideas. The inferiority complex, he affirmed, was the greatest barrier to liberation

Siempre he sabido que en el fondo del corazón de todos los seres humanos hay misericordia y generosidad. Nadie nace odiando a otra persona por el color de su piel, su procedencia o su religión. El odio se aprende, y si es posible aprender a odiar, es posible aprender a amar, ya que el amor surge con mayor naturalidad en el corazón del hombre que el odio.

Bildung ist der Motor persönlicher Entwicklung. Durch Bildung wird aus der Tochter eines Bauers einen Ärztin, aus dem Sohn eines Mienenarbeiters deren Leiter, aus dem Kind eines Landarbeiter Präsident einer marken Nation. Was wir aus dem machen was uns mitgegeben wird, unterscheidet letztendlich erst einen Menschen vom anderen.

There is a stage in the life of every social reformer when he will thunder on platforms primarily to relieve himself of the scraps of undigested information that has accumulated in his head; an attempt to impress the crowds rather than to start a calm and simple exposition of principles and ideas whose universal truth is made evident by personal experience and deeper study.

What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made in the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.

People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love." - Nelson Mandela

Truth will rise like the sun from the morning clouds!

made a point of sitting in a Whites Only chair in the Whites Only waiting room.

learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.

No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. 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.

As I finally walked through those gates to enter a car on the other side, I felt - even at the age of seventy-one - that my life was beginning anew. My ten thousand days of imprisonment were over.

Although it was not published while I was in prison, it forms the spine of this memoir.

They reminded us that the freedom struggle was not merely a question of making speeches, holding meetings, passing resolutions, and sending deputations, but of meticulous organization, militant action, and, above all, the willingness to suffer and sacrifice.

It always seems impossible until it is done.

It had been twenty-one years since I had even touched my wife's hand.

A pesar de todo, yo no tenía la menor duda de que volvería a ser un hombre libre algún día.