Quotes About Transformation

You don't become a Christian by acting like one. You are not on a performance basis with God. He doesn't say, "Here are My standards, now you measure up." He knows you can't solve the problem of an old sinful self by simply improving your behavior. He must change your nature, give you an entirely new self—the life of Christ in you—which is the grace you need to measure up to His standards.

One new feature or fresh take can change everything.

And as an afterthought, this too must be told: Some people have taken pure bullshit and turned it into gold.

I used to walk like a giant on the land. Now I feel like a leaf floating in a stream

I'd rather keep changing and lose people along the way. If that's the price, I'll pay it.

It seemed incredible that it could be the same road, the same asphalt, that they had traveled so many times together. You thought that you were the permanent part of your own experience, the net that held it all together—until you discovered that there were many selves, dissolving into one another so quickly over time that the buildings and the trees and even the pavement turned out to have more substance than you did.

There is nothing like returing to a place that remains uncganged to find how you yourself have altered.

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

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

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.

One of the things I learned when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself, I could not change 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 was a useful reminder that all men, even the most seemingly cold-blooded, have a core of decency, and that if their heart is touched, they are capable of changing.

It is most unusual to return to a place that has changed in ways you yourself have altered.

I never lost hope that this great transformation would occur (...) I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there was mercy and generosity. 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. page 749

Niente come tornare in un luogo rimasto immutato ci fa scoprire quanto siamo cambiati...

L'éducation est l'arme la plus puissante que vous pouvez utiliser pour changer le monde. »

But as I got closer to the car that would take me away, I realized that when I went through that gate, if I still hated them, they would still have me. I wanted to be free. And so I let it go.

I was visited by my mother in spring 1968. I had not seen her since the end of the Rivonia Trial. Change is gradual and incremental, and when one lives in the midst of one's family, one rarely notices differences in them. But when one doesn't see one's family for many years at a time, the transformation can be striking. My mother suddenly seemed very old.

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

One of the most difficult things is not to change society — but to change yourself.

I was a hotheaded young man who attempted to make up for his ignorance with militancy.

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.

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.