“Ich bin ein Optimist. Ob das angeboren oder anerzogen ist, kann ich nicht sagen. Zum optimistisch sein gehört, das Gesicht der Sonne zuzuwenden und immer vorwärts zu gehen. Es gab viele dunkle Stunden, in denen mein Glaube an das Gute auf eine fürchterliche Probe gestellt wurde, aber ich wollte und konnte ihn (mich) nicht aufgeben. Dann hat man verloren. (Und stirbt)”
―
Nelson Mandela
“It was not lack of ability that limited my people, but lack of opportunity.”
―
Nelson Mandela
“I have never cared very much for personal prizes. A person does not become a freedom fighter in the hope of winning awards.”
―
Nelson Mandela
“He knew when to compromise. Yet he never compromised his principles. He was a militant. Yet a militant who knew how to plan, assess concrete situations and emerge with rational solutions to problems.”
―
Nelson Mandela
“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
―
Nelson Mandela
“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world”
―
Nelson Mandela
“You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.”
―
Nelson Mandela
“Success in politics demands that you must take your people into confidence about your views and state them very clearly, very politely, very calmly, but nevertheless, state them openly.”
―
Nelson Mandela
“If I had my time over I would do the same again, so would any man who dares call himself a man.”
―
Nelson Mandela
“We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.”
―
Nelson Mandela
“I do not deny, however, that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the Whites.”
―
Nelson Mandela
“los padres raramente conocen el lado romántico de la vida de sus hijos.”
―
Nelson Mandela
“Although Verwoerd thought Africans were lower than animals, his death did not yield us any pleasure. Political assassination is not something I or the ANC ever supported. It is a primitive way of contending with an opponent”
―
Nelson Mandela
