Our list of Nelson Mandela Quotes
Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.
(2 minutes read)
The Nelson Mandela's quote says that we should not only look at a person's success but also at the process by which he arrived at it and observe how he could rise from difficult situations.
Success is realizing a worthwhile goal or ideal that we cannot get overnight. Instead, we must face countless difficulties and gain enough experience to overcome ourselves and rise higher and higher until we reach what we define as success.
People often look at a celebrity as a god descended to earth, infallible and inimitable.
The natural attitude we need to have is one of proper analysis. Observe how those celebrities have succeeded and understand where they could have done better. If we know where celebrities went wrong, then it means that we can replicate their success by failing less.
It always seems impossible until it's done.
Work in Progress...
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.
Work in Progress...
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Work in Progress...
There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
Work in Progress...
It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.
Work in Progress...
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
Work in Progress...
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
Work in Progress...
There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.
Work in Progress...
Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.
Work in Progress...
Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.
Work in Progress...
Where globalization means, as it so often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom.
Work in Progress...
To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.
Work in Progress...
A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
Work in Progress...
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.
Work in Progress...
As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.
Work in Progress...
A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.
Work in Progress...
We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.
Work in Progress...
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
Work in Progress...
I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people.
Work in Progress...
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.
Work in Progress...
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.
Work in Progress...
Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.
Work in Progress...
In my country we go to prison first and then become President.
Work in Progress...
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.
Work in Progress...
When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.
Work in Progress...
No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.
Work in Progress...
Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they will face. So it's very important to give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country.
Work in Progress...
Running taught me valuable lessons. In cross-country competition, training counted more than intrinsic ability, and I could compensate for a lack of natural aptitude with diligence and discipline. I applied this in everything I did.
Work in Progress...
Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.
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It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.
Work in Progress...
Forget the past.
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Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.
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There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
Work in Progress...
Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.
Work in Progress...
I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
Work in Progress...
There is no such thing as part freedom.
Work in Progress...
There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile to continue talking about peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people.
Work in Progress...
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?
Work in Progress...
Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.
Work in Progress...
People respond in accordance to how you relate to them. If you approach them on the basis of violence, that's how they'll react. But if you say, 'We want peace, we want stability,' we can then do a lot of things that will contribute towards the progress of our society.
Work in Progress...
Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.
Work in Progress...
I do not deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the whites.
Work in Progress...
There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.
Work in Progress...
If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America.
Work in Progress...
In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.
Work in Progress...
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.
Work in Progress...
When I came to Johannesburg from the countryside, I knew nobody, but many strangers were very kind to me. I then was dragged into politics, and then, subsequently, I became a lawyer.
Work in Progress...
I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.
Work in Progress...
I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.
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I was called a terrorist yesterday, but when I came out of jail, many people embraced me, including my enemies, and that is what I normally tell other people who say those who are struggling for liberation in their country are terrorists.
Work in Progress...
There is nothing I fear more than waking up without a program that will help me bring a little happiness to those with no resources, those who are poor, illiterate, and ridden with terminal disease.
Work in Progress...
I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.
Work in Progress...
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.
Work in Progress...
I have retired, but if there's anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.
Work in Progress...
If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.
Work in Progress...
I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.
Work in Progress...
Leaders in all spheres who are living with HIV should be encouraged, not coerced, to lead by example and disclose their HIV status.
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Nonviolence is a good policy when the conditions permit.
Work in Progress...
I would wear the blue overalls of the fieldworker and often wore round, rimless glasses known as Mazzawati teaglasses. I had a car, and I wore a chauffeur's cap with my overalls. The pose of chauffeur was convenient because I could travel under the pretext of driving my master's car.
Work in Progress...
I started to make a study of the art of war and revolution and, whilst abroad, underwent a course in military training. If there was to be guerrilla warfare, I wanted to be able to stand and fight with my people and to share the hazards of war with them.
Work in Progress...
After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent. The simple act of being able to control one's person.
Work in Progress...
Communists have always played an active role in the fight by colonial countries for their freedom, because the short-term objects of Communism would always correspond with the long-term objects of freedom movements.
Work in Progress...
I made a mistake by being ejected from the presidency. Next time, I will choose a Cabinet which will allow me to be life President.
Work in Progress...
Unlike some politicians, I can admit to a mistake.
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I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.
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The names of Dingane and Bambata, Hintsa and Makana, Squngthi and Dalasile, Moshoeshoe and Sekhukhuni, were praised as the glory of the entire African nation. I hoped then that life might offer me the opportunity to serve my people and make my own humble contribution to their freedom struggle.
Work in Progress...
Prison life, fortunately, I spent a lot of years, about 18 years with other prisoners, and, as I say, they enriched your soul.
Work in Progress...
I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.
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Even if you have a terminal disease, you don't have to sit down and mope. Enjoy life and challenge the illness that you have.
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Intervention only works when the people concerned seem to be keen for peace.
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There are so many men and women who hold no distinctive positions but whose contribution towards the development of society has been enormous.
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Whatever position I occupied, it was the result of colleagues - of my comrades in the movement - who had decided in their wisdom to use me for the purpose of focusing the attention of the country and the international community on me.
Work in Progress...
Sabotage did not involve loss of life, and it offered the best hope for future race relations. Bitterness would be kept to a minimum and, if the policy bore fruit, democratic government could become a reality.
Work in Progress...
Give a child love, laughter and peace, not AIDS.
Work in Progress...
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.
Work in Progress...
If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.
Work in Progress...
I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.
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Sometimes, I feel like one who is on the sidelines, who has missed life itself.
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Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.
Work in Progress...
By ancestry, I was born to rule.
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Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.
Work in Progress...
Let us give publicity to H.I.V./AIDS and not hide it, because the only way to make it appear like a normal illness like TB, like cancer, is always to come out and say somebody has died because of H.I.V./AIDS, and people will stop regarding it as something extraordinary.
Work in Progress...
I can't pretend that I'm brave and that I can beat the whole world.
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Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual.
Work in Progress...
Apart from life, a strong constitution, and an abiding connection to the Thembu royal house, the only thing my father bestowed upon me at birth was a name, Rolihlahla.
Work in Progress...
I realized quickly what Mandela and Tambo meant to ordinary Africans. It was a place where they could come and find a sympathetic ear and a competent ally, a place where they would not be either turned away or cheated, a place where they might actually feel proud to be represented by men of their own skin color.
Work in Progress...
We can't afford to be killing one another.
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The United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken.
Work in Progress...
Especially for those of us who lived in single cells, you had the time to sit down and think, and we discovered that sitting down just to think is one of the best ways of keeping yourself fresh and able, to be able to address the problems facing you, and you had the opportunity, also, of examining your past.
Work in Progress...
As an attorney, I could be rather flamboyant in court. I did not act as though I were a black man in a white man's court, but as if everyone else - white and black - was a guest in my court. When trying a case, I often made sweeping gestures and used high-flown language.
Work in Progress...
You know, you can only lead them from behind.
Work in Progress...
I cannot say for certain if there is such a thing as love at first sight, but I do know that the moment I first glimpsed Winnie Nomzamo, I knew that I wanted to have her as my wife.
Work in Progress...
Before I went to jail, I was active in politics as a member of South Africa's leading organization - and I was generally busy from 7 A.M. until midnight. I never had time to sit and think.
Work in Progress...
I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.
Work in Progress...
I have always regarded myself, in the first place, as an African patriot.
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At the outset, I want to say that the suggestion that the struggle in South Africa is under the influence of foreigners or communists is wholly incorrect. I have done whatever I did because of my experience in South Africa and my own proudly felt African background, and not because of what any outsider might have said.
Work in Progress...
In the 1940s, traveling for an African was a complicated process. All Africans over the age of sixteen were compelled to carry 'Native passes' issued by the Native Affairs Department and were required to show that pass to any white policeman, civil servant, or employer. Failure to do so could mean arrest, trial, a jail sentence or fine.
Work in Progress...
The titanic effort that has brought liberation to South Africa, and ensured the total liberation of Africa, constitutes an act of redemption for the black people of the world.
Work in Progress...
From the beginning, Mandela and Tambo was besieged with clients. We were not the only African lawyers in South Africa, but we were the only firm of African lawyers. For Africans, we were the firm of first choice and last resort.
Work in Progress...
My son has died of AIDS.
Work in Progress...
I was first imprisoned in Pretoria, and then, thereafter, I was taken to Robben Island. I stayed there for a couple of weeks. I was taken back to Pretoria when I was charged in the Rivonia trial, when I was then sent to Robben Island for life.
Work in Progress...
I really wanted to retire and rest and spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and of course with my wife.
Work in Progress...
I came across few whites as a boy at Qunu. The local magistrate, of course, was white, as was the nearest shopkeeper. Occasionally, white travelers or policemen passed through our area. These whites appeared as grand as gods to me, and I was aware that they were to be treated with a mixture of fear and respect.
Work in Progress...
There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty.
Work in Progress...
Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.
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A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of.
Work in Progress...
Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.
Work in Progress...
Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.
Work in Progress...
I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.
Work in Progress...
Many people in this country have paid the price before me and many will pay the price after me.
Work in Progress...
