SOME WORDS OF INSPIRATION OF NELSON MANDELA

The light of Nelson Mandela will forever shine in the darkness of the world as an eternal universal example and model of true leadership and what greatness is. Goodbye Mandela ! Goodbye Madiba !!.

In honour of the great leader, I have put together some of his words celebrated to be inspiring below:

ON FACING DIFFICULTIES:

"Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end."

From a letter to wife, Winnie Mandela, from Robben Island, February 1975

ON PERSECUTION FOR STANDING FOR FREEDOM

 “If I had my time over I would do the same again, so would any man who dares call himself a man.”

After being convicted to five years hard labor, November 1962

"I was made, by the law, a criminal, not because of what I had done, but because of what I stood for, because of what I thought, because of my conscience.”

Statement during trial, 1962

“I can only say that I felt morally obliged to do what I did.”

 At the opening of his trial, April 20, 1964

ON HUMAN HAPPINESS:

“Social equality is the only basis of human happiness.”  

A letter written on August 1, 1970

ON HUMAN DIFFERENCES:

 “I came to accept that I have no right whatsoever to judge others in terms of my own customs.”

From his unpublished autobiographical manuscript, 1975)

“We are fighting for a society where people will cease thinking in terms of colour.”

March 8, 1993

ON SELF CONTROL:

"Great anger and violence can never build a nation. We are striving to proceed in a manner and towards a result, which will ensure that all our people, both black and white, emerge as victors.”

Speech to European Parliament, 1990

“It is never my custom to use words lightly. If twenty-seven years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die.”  

South Africa, July 14, 2000

ON DEMOCRACY:

“Without democracy there cannot be peace.”

South Africa, May 9, 1992

ON DEATH:

 “When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace.”  

Interview for Mandela, 1994

ON PEACE MAKING:

"Reconciliation means working together to correct the legacy of past injustice.”

December 16, 1995

"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner."

From Long Walk to Freedom, 1995

ON FREEDOM:

"I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended."

From Long Walk to Freedom, 1995

"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."

From Long Walk to Freedom, 1995

“Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.”

Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, April 25, 1998

"Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another…"

Nelson Mandela, Inaugural Address, Pretoria 9 May 1994.

"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. We must construct that people-centred society of freedom in such a manner that it guarantees the political liberties and the human rights of all our citizens."

Nelson Mandela, speech at the opening of the South African parliament, Cape Town 25 May 1994.

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

Nelson Mandela, A Long Walk To Freedom, 1994.

ON DOING GOOD:

"Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished."

From Long Walk to Freedom, 1995

ON DETERMINATION:

 "It always seems impossible until it's done."

“When people are determined they can overcome anything.”

Johannesburg, South Africa, Nov. 14, 2006

ON FRIENDSHIP:

"I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles."

ON LEADERSHIP:

 "Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people."

"Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front."

ON CONCERN FOR OTHERS:

 "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."

ON DEDICATION:

 "Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do."

ON EDUCATION:

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

ON COURAGE:

 "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."

ON RESENTMENT:

"Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies."

ON SUCCESS:

"Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again."

ON RACISM:

 "I hate race discrimination most intensely and in all its manifestations. I have fought it all during my life; I fight it now, and will do so until the end of my days."

"We are not anti-white, we are against white supremacy … we have condemned racialism no matter by whom it is professed."

Nelson Mandela, defence statement during his Treason Trial, 1961.

"If we had any hopes or illusions about the National Party before they came into office, we were disabused of them quickly…The arbitrary and meaningless tests to decide black form Coloured or Coloured from white often resulted in tragic cases…Where one was allowed to live and work could rest on such absurd distinctions as the curl of one's hair or the size of one's lips."

Nelson Mandela, Long Walk To Freedom, 1994.

ON HAVING A GOOD HEAD AND A GOOD HEART:

 "A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."

. ON RELATIONSHIP OF GOVERNMENT WITH ITS CITIZENS:

“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”

ON NATION BUILDING:

"We enter into a covenant that we shall build a society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without and fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world."

Nelson Mandela, Inaugural Address, Pretoria 9 May 1994.

"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. We must construct that people-centred society of freedom in such a manner that it guarantees the political liberties and the human rights of all our citizens."

Nelson Mandela, speech at the opening of the South African parliament, Cape Town 25 May 1994.

ON HIS DESTINY:

"I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for, and to see realised. But my Lord, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

Defence statement during the Rivonia Trial, 1964. Also repeated during the closing of his speech delivered in Cape Town on the day he was released from prison 27 years later, on 11 February 1990.