“We owe our children – the most vulnerable citizens in any society – a life free from violence and fear.”
―
Nelson Mandela
“What freedom am I being offered while the organization of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts,”
―
Nelson Mandela
“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
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Nelson Mandela
“I cherish my own freedom dearly, but I care even more for your freedom. From a response to an offer of conditional freedom, read by Zindzi Mandela at a rally, Jabulani Stadium, Soweto, South Africa,”
―
Nelson Mandela
“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
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Nelson Mandela
“...tenían ese gran respeto por la educación que tan a menudo muestran quienes carecen de ella...”
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Nelson Mandela
“ When you are young and strong...you can stay alive on your hatred"....but realized later "They can take everything from me except my mind and heart"
―
Nelson Mandela
“I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there was mercy and generosity.”
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Nelson Mandela
“It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”
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Nelson Mandela
“Een leider, zegt hij, is als een herder. Hij blijft achter de kudde en laat de behendigste voorlopen, waarop de anderen volgen, zonder te beseffen dat ze steeds vanuit de achterhoede worden geleid.”
―
Nelson Mandela
“May your choices reflect your hopes and not your fears.”
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Nelson Mandela
“It is most unusual to return to a place that has changed in ways you yourself have altered.”
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Nelson Mandela
“On the first day of school, my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name and said that from thenceforth that was the name we would answer to in school. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education. The education I received was a British education, in which British ideas, British culture, British institutions, were automatically assumed to be superior. There was no such thing as African culture. Africans of my generation—and even today—generally have both an English and an African name. Whites were either unable or unwilling to pronounce an African name, and considered it uncivilized to have one. That day, Miss Mdingane told me that my new name was Nelson. Why she bestowed this particular name upon me I have no idea. Perhaps it had something to do with the great British sea captain Lord Nelson, but that would be only a guess.”
―
Nelson Mandela