01UndatedA leader. . .is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
02UndatedTo deny people of their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
03UndatedOne day, I was on the front lawn of the property and aimed the gun at a sparrow perched high in a tree. Hazel Goldreich, Arthur's wife, was watching me and jokingly remarked that I would never hit the target. But she had hardly finished the sentence when the sparrow fell to the ground. I turned to her and was about to boast, when the Goldreichs' son Paul, then about five years old, turned to me with tears in his eyes and said, "David, why did you kill that bird? Its mother will be sad." My mood immediately shifted from one of pride to shame; I felt that this small boy had far more humanity than I did. It was an odd sensation for a man who was the leader of a nascent guerrilla army.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
04UndatedPeace is not just the absence of conflict; peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, class, caste or any other social markers of difference.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
05UndatedIf I preached unity, I must act like a unifier, even at the risk of perhaps alienating some of my own colleagues.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
06Undatedi love playing and chatting with children...feeding and putting them to bed with a little story, and being away from the family has troubled me throughout my...life. i like relaxing at the house, reading quietly, taking in the sweet smell that comes from the pots, sitting around a table with the family and taking out my wife and children. when you can no longer enjoy these simple pleasures something valuable is taken away from your life and you feel it in your daily work.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
08UndatedI loved it in the unconditional way that children love their first home.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
09UndatedAs I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
12UndatedThere is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
13UndatedThere is little to be said in favour of poverty, but it was often an incubator of true friendship. Many people will appear to befriend you when you are wealthy, but precious few will do the same when you are poorNelson Mandela / quote ↗
14UndatedOvercoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decentNelson Mandela / quote ↗
15UndatedIf you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
16UndatedWithout language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry, or savor their songs.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
17UndatedWithout language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes and apsirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry or savour their songs. I again realized that we were not different people with separate languages; we were one people, with different tongues.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
18UndatedIn judging our progress as individual we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one's social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one's success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these. But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one's development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others - qualites which are within reach of every soul - are the foundation of one's spiritual life.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
19UndatedIt is a simple tale, but its message is an enduring one: virtue and generosity will be rewarded in ways that one cannot know.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
20UndatedWhat I took out of them was that character was measured by facing up to difficult situations and that a hero was a man who would not break even under the most trying circumstances.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
21UndatedSome men, under the pressure of incarceration, showed true mettle, while others revealed themselves as less than what they had appeared to be.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
22UndatedI am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
23UndatedThere is a universal respect and even admiration for those who are humble and simple by nature, and who have absolute confidence in all human beings irrespective of their social status.Nelson Mandela / quote ↗
24UndatedWhen you are young and strong...you can stay alive on your hatred"....but realized later "They can take everything from me except my mind and heart"Nelson Mandela from Long Walk to FreedomNelson Mandela / quote ↗
