In 1962 Nelson Mandela was arrested and convicted of sabotage and other charges, and sentenced to life in prison. Mandela served 27 years in prison, spending many of these years on Robben Island. Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela led his party in the negotiations that led to multi-racial democracy in 1994. As president, Nelson Mandela frequently gave priority to reconciliation, while introducing policies aimed at combating poverty and inequality in South Africa. In 1999, Nelson Mandela stepped down as president and is campaigning against HIV/Aid.
Selected Quotes of Nelson Mandela are:
- Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into
contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.
- I detest racialism because I regard it as a barbaric thing,
whether it comes from a black man or a white man.
- Any man that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.
- The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in
rising every time we fall.
- I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to
falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered
the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that
there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to
rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to
look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a
moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not
linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.
- Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to
stand in our way. Universal suffrage on a common voters' roll in a
united, democratic and non-racial South Africa is the only way to
peace and racial harmony.
- Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to
change the world.
- Education is the great engine of personal development. It is
through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a
doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the
mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a
great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we
are given, that separates one person from another.
- In Natal, apartheid is a deadly cancer in our midst, setting
house against house, and eating away at the precious ties that bound
us together. This strife among ourselves wastes our energy and
destroys our unity. My message to those of you involved in this
battle of brother against brother is this: take your guns, your
knives, and your pangas, and throw them into the sea! Close down the
death factories. End this war now!
- It always seems impossible, until it is done.
- No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails.
A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens
but its lowest ones.
- The authorities liked to say that we received a balanced diet;
it was indeed balanced — between the unpalatable and the inedible.
- I hate race discrimination most intensely and in all its
manifestations. I have fought it all during my life; I fight it now,
and will do so until the end of my days. Even although I now happen
to be tried by one whose opinion I hold in high esteem, I detest
most violently the set-up that surrounds me here. It makes me feel
that I am a black man in a white man's court. This should not be.
- I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant
of you, the people. Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it
possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining
years of my life in your hands.
- A good head and a good heart are always a formidable
combination.
- Gandhi himself never ruled out violence absolutely and
unreservedly. He conceded the necessity of arms in certain
situations. He said, "Where choice is set between cowardice and
violence, I would advise violence... I prefer to use arms in defense
of honor rather than remain the vile witness of dishonor"
- No one is born hating another person because of the colour of
his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to
hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for
love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
- I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the
triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid,
but he who conquers that fear.
- 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. There were
many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I
would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays
defeat and death.
- That was one of the things that worried me — to be raised to the
position of a semi-god — because then you are no longer a human
being. I wanted to be known as Mandela, a man with weaknesses, some
of which are fundamental, and a man who is committed, but,
nevertheless, sometimes fails to live up to expectations.
- It's a tragedy what is happening, what Bush is doing. All Bush
wants is Iraqi oil. There is no doubt that the U.S. is behaving
badly. Why are they not seeking to confiscate weapons of mass
destruction from their ally Israel? This is just an excuse to get
Iraq’s oil.
- The victory of democracy in South Africa is the common
achievement of all humanity.
- Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience
and perseverance. It is above all a test of one's commitment.
- There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will
have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and
again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.
- Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful
land will again experience the oppression of one by another and
suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.
Let freedom reign!
The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement!
God bless Africa!
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