Nelson Mandela
South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999 and is widely regarded as one of the great moral leaders of the twentieth century. Born in 1918 in Mvezo, he led the African National Congress's resistance to apartheid, was imprisoned for twenty-seven years (most of them on Robben Island), and emerged in 1990 to lead negotiations that ended white minority rule. His autobiography Long Walk to Freedom and his speeches — including the Rivonia Trial speech of 1964 ('I am prepared to die') and his 1994 inauguration address — are among the most-cited texts of modern political philosophy. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and died in Johannesburg in 2013.
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Quotes by Nelson Mandela
116 quotes“Many of us must pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.”
“It is in your hands to make a better world for all who live in it.”
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
“I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”
“There is no such thing as part freedom.”
“Difficulties break some men but make others.”
“No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying with all his might.”
“In my country we go to prison first and then become President.”
“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur.”
“You take the front line when there is danger.”
“Then people will appreciate your leadership.”
“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others.”
“I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say.”
“Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward.”
“Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.”
“Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.”
“There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
“Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front.”
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”
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