Nelson Mandela's phrases: aphorisms, quotes


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Quotes, aphorisms and sentences of Nelson Mandela who, at the head of the anti-apartheid movement, in the period in which the black majority of South Africa was denied political, social and civil rights, became the first non-white president of South Africa.


Quotes by Nelson Mandela

- A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination. (Nelson Mandela)

- There is nothing more encouraging for a political prisoner than knowing that his life was not wasted. (Nelson Mandela)


- The biggest part of our happiness or unhappiness depends on our character and not on circumstances. (Nelson Mandela)

- Difficulties bend some men but strengthen others. There is no ax sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who continues to try, armed only with hope, with the belief that he will eventually be able to get up. (Nelson Mandela)

- I developed an inner strength that made me forget the poverty I was in, the suffering, the loneliness and the frustration. (Nelson Mandela)


- Starting a revolution is easy, it is very difficult to carry it forward. (Nelson Mandela)

- Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your and my freedom cannot be separated. (Nelson Mandela)

- Only desktop politicians are immune to making mistakes. Mistakes are inherent in political action. (Nelson Mandela)


- I learned that courage is not the lack of fear, but the victory over fear. The brave man is not the one who does not feel fear but the one who manages to control it. (Nelson Mandela)

- When you want the cattle to move in a certain direction, you put yourself at the bottom with a stick and then make the more intelligent cows move in front and go that way. The rest of the herd will follow them, but in reality it will be you who leads them from behind. This is how a leader has to work. (Nelson Mandela)

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- Compromise is the art of leadership and compromises are made with opponents, not with friends. (Nelson Mandela)

- It is said that you do not really know a nation until you have been in its jails. A nation should be judged by how it treats not the most prestigious citizens but the most humble citizens. (Nelson Mandela)

- There is no easy way to freedom. (Nelson Mandela)

- The purpose of being husband and wife is to hug each other when hard times knock on the door. (Nelson Mandela)

- One of the most difficult things is not to change society, but to change yourself. (Nelson Mandela)

- If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don't care about human rights. (Nelson Mandela)

- When the proverbial lack of elasticity of the bureaucrat is combined with the meanness of racism, the result can shake the mind. (Nelson Mandela)


- When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw. (Nelson Mandela)

- Nothing like going back to a place that has remained unchanged makes us discover how much we have changed. (Nelson Mandela)

- In the life of any nation, there always comes a time when only two options remain: surrender or fight. (Nelson Mandela)

- Nothing lights up in this world if you retire, wither. (Nelson Mandela)

- A good brain and a pure heart are always a formidable match. But when you add a literary voice or pen to it, then you have something really special. (Nelson Mandela)

- If you fly low, you cannot serve the world well. (Nelson Mandela)


- Thinking is one of the most effective weapons when dealing with problems. (Nelson Mandela)

- We were born to witness the glory of God within us. (Nelson Mandela)

- You have to drive from behind letting others believe you are ahead. (Nelson Mandela)

Nelson Mandela's Aforsymes

- Courage must grow hand in hand with danger. (Nelson Mandela)

- Real leaders must be able to sacrifice everything for the sake of their people. (Nelson Mandela)

- In man, goodness is a flame that can remain hidden, but never completely extinguish. (Nelson Mandela)

- The struggle cannot be effectively conducted in isolation. (Nelson Mandela)

- I must confess that, as far as I'm concerned, the threat of death never aroused in me the desire to be a martyr. The will to live has never disappeared. (Nelson Mandela)

- Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot make contracts. (Nelson Mandela)

- If I could start over, I would do exactly the same. And so would any man who has the ambition to define himself as such. (Nelson Mandela)

- Peace is not a dream: it can become reality; but to guard it you must be able to dream. (Nelson Mandela)

- After climbing a mountain, one only realizes that there are many more to climb. (Nelson Mandela)


- If you are stimulated by what you do, you will never get tired. (Nelson Mandela)

- A government that uses force to maintain power teaches the oppressed to defend themselves by force. (Nelson Mandela)

- Ours was not a fight against whites as such but against white supremacy, a policy fully mirrored by the racial composition of the main organizational and governmental structures at national, provincial and local level. (Nelson Mandela)

- There are four forms of political violence: there is sabotage, there is guerrilla warfare, there is terrorism and there is the real revolution. (Nelson Mandela)

- Our deepest fear is not to be inadequate: our deepest fear is to be powerful beyond measure. (Nelson Mandela)

- The ideological differences, for those who fight against oppression, are a luxury that cannot be afforded. (Nelson Mandela)

- To make peace with an enemy, you must work with this enemy, and this enemy will become your accomplice. (Nelson Mandela)

- The important thing is to give happiness to people. (Nelson Mandela)

- Sometimes it's up to a generation to be big. You can be that great generation. (Nelson Mandela)

- Join! Mobilize! Fight! Between the anvil of mass actions and the hammer of armed struggle we must annihilate apartheid. (Nelson Mandela)

- With the exception of the atrocities committed against Jews during the Second World War, there is no other crime worldwide that has been unanimously condemned as apartheid. (Nelson Mandela)

- It always seems impossible until it's done. (Nelson Mandela)


- A basic concern for others in our individual and community life can make the difference in making the world that best place we so passionately dream of. (Nelson Mandela)

- Feeling resentment is like drinking poison hoping that it will kill the enemy. (Nelson Mandela)

- A freedom fighter learns the hard lesson that is the oppressor to define the nature of the clash, and the oppressed sometimes has no choice but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor. At some point, one can only respond to fire with fire. (Nelson Mandela)

- For men, freedom in their land is the pinnacle of their aspirations. (Nelson Mandela)

- When the water starts to boil, it is foolish to put out the fire. (Nelson Mandela)

Nelson Mandela phrases

- More powerful than fear of the inhuman life of the prison is anger at the terrible conditions in which my people are subjected outside prisons. (Nelson Mandela)

- In my country, first you go to prison and then you become President. (Nelson Mandela)

- Nobody is born hating their own kind because of the race, religion or class to which they belong. Men learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can also learn to love, because love, for the human heart, is more natural than hatred. (Nelson Mandela)

- Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that a farmer's daughter can become a doctor, that a miner's son can become a mine manager, that a farmer's son can become president of a great nation. (Nelson Mandela)

- Do not judge me for my successes but for all those times that I fell and I managed to get up. (Nelson Mandela)

- Freedom without civilization, freedom without the possibility of living in peace is not true freedom. (Nelson Mandela)

- The most difficult task in life is to change yourself. (Nelson Mandela)


- There have been occasions when physical assault has not been as severe as the psychological oppression suffered by the black population during apartheid. It is a psychological torture impossible to describe in words. (Nelson Mandela)

- Being free doesn't just mean getting rid of your chains, but living in a way that respects and values ​​the freedom of others. (Nelson Mandela)

- I like friends with independent minds who allow you to see problems from different angles. (Nelson Mandela)

- We know what needs to be done: all that's missing is the will to do it.(Nelson Mandela)

- The brave man is not the one who does not feel fear, but the one who manages to overcome it. (Nelson Mandela)

- No one was born a slave, neither lord, nor to live in misery, but we were all born to be brothers. (Nelson Mandela)

- Those who deal with problems with an intolerant attitude are not suitable for struggle. (Nelson Mandela)

- There is no passion in living small, in planning a life that is inferior to the life you could live. (Nelson Mandela)

- Memory is the fabric of identity. (Nelson Mandela)

- A winner is a dreamer who has never given up. (Nelson Mandela)

- I knew that the oppressor was as slave as the oppressed, because whoever deprives others of freedom is a prisoner of hatred, is closed behind bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. The oppressor and the oppressed are both robbed of their humanity. (Nelson Mandela)

- Forgiveness frees the soul, removes fear. This is why forgiveness is a powerful weapon. (Nelson Mandela)


- Feeling resentment is like drinking poison hoping that it will kill the enemy. (Nelson Mandela)

- Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world. (Nelson Mandela)

- Everyone can improve in spite of circumstances and achieve success if they are passionate about what they do. (Nelson Mandela)

- It's our light, not our shadow, the one that scares us the most. (Nelson Mandela)

- Freedom is one: the chains imposed on one of us weigh on everyone's shoulders. (Nelson Mandela)

- I deeply hate racial discrimination, in all their manifestations. I fought them all my life, I keep fighting them and I will do it until the end of my days. (Nelson Mandela)

- Peace is a dream, it can become reality ... But to build it you must be able to dream. (Nelson Mandela)

61 Inspiring Quotes from Nelson Mandela (March 2024)


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