“Some people come in our life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons.”

“If you really want to be an uncommon leader, you’re going to have to find a way to get much of your vision seen, implemented, and added to by others.”

“For all find what they truly seek.”

“You never know what you might discover by thinking outside the box that culture, conformity, and critics have tried to impose.”

“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.”

“I did not have an unlimited library to choose from on Robben Island. We had access to many unremembered mysteries and detective novels and all the works of Daphne du Maurier, but little more.”

“If we make a decision and then continue to go back and forth in our mind about whether we did the right thing or not, we are unstable in our ways.” 

“We can say that we trust God all day long, but if we fear the unknown, then in reality, we don’t trust God.”

“We did live in dire poverty. And one of the things that I hated was poverty. Some people hate spiders. Some people hate snakes. I hated poverty. I couldn't stand it. My mother couldn't stand the fact that we were doing poorly in school, and she prayed and she asked God to give her wisdom. What could she do to get her young sons to understand the importance of developing their minds so that they control their own lives? God gave her the wisdom. At least in her opinion. My brother and I didn't think it was that wise. Turn off the TV, let us watch only two or three TV programs during the week. And with all that spare time read two books a piece from the Detroit Public Libraries and submit to her written book reports, which she couldn't read but we didn't know that. I just hated this. My friends were out having a good time. Her friends would criticize her. My mother didn't care. But after a while I actually began to enjoy reading those books. Because we were very poor, but between the covers of those books I could go anywhere. I could be anybody. I could do anything. I began to read about people of great accomplishment. And as I read those stories, I began to see a connecting thread. I began to see that the person who has the most to do with you, and what happens to you in life, is you. You make decisions. You decide how much energy you want to put behind that decision. And I came to understand that I had control of my own destiny. And at that point I didn't hate poverty anymore, because I knew it was only temporary. I knew I could change that. It was incredibly liberating for me. Made all the difference.” 

“Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.”

“Adapt to them—don’t expect them to adapt to you.”

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

“The purpose of influence is to speak up for those who don't have any influence.” 

“« L’éducation est l’arme la plus puissante que vous pouvez utiliser pour changer le monde. »”

“Leave the talking for others and live by walking. Go, go and go extra mile and you will be a true owner of what belongs to you”