Nelson Mandela

It is in your hands, to make a better world for all who live in it.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

The cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to learn to face your fears, to learn to be patient, to learn to be strong.

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

I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people.

Honour belongs to those who never forsake the truth even when things are difficult and bleak.

The ANC will not abandon the armed struggle until the government agrees to negotiate in good faith.

We must therefore act together as a united people, for reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world.

We must strive to be the best we can be, and to leave a legacy that will inspire future generations.

Let us work together for a future where all South Africans can live in peace, prosperity and dignity.

It is not beyond our power to create a world where all children have access to a good education.

The greatest weapon against injustice is education.

We must be prepared to make sacrifices for the sake of our freedom.

Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.

I am fundamentally an optimist. Weather I make it or not, I am an optimist.

There is no easy road to freedom. We must all walk it together.

We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. 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 any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.

The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children.

Let us negotiate, not fight.

'A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.'