Nelson Mandela

The policy of apartheid created a deep and lasting wound in my country and my people. All of us will have to transcend that wound.

Peace is the greatest weapon for development that any person can have.

Like a seed that struggles to blossom, so must a people struggle against adversity for their human rights.

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

There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.

Water is the most precious resource on our planet. It is the foundation of all life.

Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else can.

I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward.

One of the things I learned when I was negotiating was that until you know your people and have won their hearts, you don't get to lead them.

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.

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

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination. I have fought against black domination.

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.

Non-racialism was a deeply felt commitment and not just a question of political expediency.

The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.

I regard myself as a brave man and a leader. I am not afraid of anybody.

Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won and sustained.

No amount of persuasion or explanation could shake the faith of the African people in their determination to achieve freedom.

The chains that bind us are forged not in iron, but in our minds.

Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of us are a threat to the freedom of all.