“Umman Kudu: scissors-line of jaw muscles, chin like a boot toe - a man to be trusted because the captain's vices were known.”

“It is very rare for a child of God to find gold and crude oil on the floor to fetch. He/she must dig and dig deeply well!!!”

“On the first day of school, my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name and said that from thenceforth that was the name we would answer to in school. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education. The education I received was a British education, in which British ideas, British culture, British institutions, were automatically assumed to be superior. There was no such thing as African culture. Africans of my generation—and even today—generally have both an English and an African name. Whites were either unable or unwilling to pronounce an African name, and considered it uncivilized to have one. That day, Miss Mdingane told me that my new name was Nelson. Why she bestowed this particular name upon me I have no idea. Perhaps it had something to do with the great British sea captain Lord Nelson, but that would be only a guess.”

“If a man wants you, nothing can keep him away. If he doesn't want you, nothing can make him stay.”

“Don’t spend your time chasing blessings. Chase God, and the blessings will chase you.”

“Don't despise the little steps you know you can take every day. There are tiny miracles in each and every one of them.”

“Life is a classroom -- only those who are willing to be lifelong learners will move to the head of the class.”

“Help yourself warm up and prepare mentally by repeating, “I feel happy! I feel healthy! I feel terrific!” It is not possible for you to talk positively to yourself, using words like this, without immediately feeling happier and more confident.”

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

“God has spoken to us through a Book: the Bible.”

“We aren’t only called to become Christians; we are also called to be Christians.”

“The more your dreams evolve into reality, the closer you get to Destiny, the greater target you become for the negative opinions of others. People who don’t even know you may form impressions about who they think you are and what you do. They will critique whether you’re qualified, intelligent, attractive, competent, sophisticated, or savvy enough for whatever you’re doing. They’ll always conclude that you’re not enough and you have no business going after Destiny. You can’t please a hater.”

“We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion.”

“Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” 

“I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.”