Nelson Mandela

We must strive to be the best we can be, and to live our lives with integrity and purpose.

The oppressor and the oppressed alike are robbed of their humanity.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.

I am prepared to die.

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.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement!

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.

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

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

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

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.

Fools multiply when they are quiet.

Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

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

Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.

The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come.

We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation. Never, never and never again shall this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another.

I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.

No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin.

I had no specific belief except that our cause was just, an undoubting belief in our struggle and in the righteousness of our cause.