Nelson Mandela

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

I hate racial 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.

It is in the character of men to despise what they cannot understand.

When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for eternity.

I have walked a long road to freedom. It has been a lonely road, and it is not yet over. I have no regrets. I would do it again, and again, and again if I had to.

One of the things I learned when I was in prison was that one can change, but only if one wants to change.

The cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to learn to know your own mind and to learn to know your own heart.

The greatest weapon against injustice is not violence, but forgiveness.

It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.

I have retired, but if there's anything that would kill me it is to sit at home doing nothing.

I like to be frank and open. I don't like to hide anything.

When you are in prison, you are not supposed to have a sense of humor. But I always had one.

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

The cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to learn to understand your own mind and new ways of thinking.

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...

The very right to be a human being is now denied to us.

It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

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.

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 live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.