Discover the most popular and inspiring quotes and sayings on the topic of Mandela. Share them with your friends on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, and let the world be inspired by their powerful messages. Here are the Top 100 Mandela Quotes And Sayings by 70 Authors including Leymah Gbowee,Henry Rollins,George W. Bush,Malala Yousafzai,Justin Chadwick for you to enjoy and share.
Don't wait for a Gandhi, don't wait for a King, don't wait for a Mandela. You are your own Mandela, you are your own Gandhi, you are your own King.
Unsurprisingly, Nelson Mandela had and still has many detractors.
I heard somebody say, 'Where's (Nelson) Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead. Because Saddam killed all the Mandelas.
George W. Bush, on the former South African president, who is still very much alive, Washington, D.C., Sept. 20, 2007
Nelson Mandela is physically separated from us, but his soul and spirit will never die. He belongs to the whole world because he is an icon of equality, freedom and love, the values we need all the time everywhere.
Mandela was true to himself, to his people and his principles. He sacrificed everything because he was prepared to be true to his ideals. You can relate to him whether you come from Manchester or Soweto.
Very sad to hear about the passing of Nelson Mandela. He was a true inspiration for human rights and equality for South Africa and the reason apartheid no longer exists there. The world will never forget his capacity for forgiveness and magnanimity. RIP
I wrote this book for the Nelson Mandela's of our communities who are willing to stand up for change and people who are oppressed or suppressed from fulfilling their life's purpose
Nelson Mandela can rot in prison until he dies or I die, whichever takes longer.
My time in prison only deepened my resolve against apartheid. Even while I was in prison, I fought against it, teaching my cellmates about white supremacy and how to fight against it.
Nelson Mandela is, for me, the single statesman in the world. The single statesman, in that literal sense, who is not solving all his problems with guns. It's truly unbelievable.
Having been in the presidency from the time of Mandela to that of Zuma, I am one of the privileged few who has seen it all, rather than hearing it via the grapevine. The challenge is say 'the things I could not say' in a responsible way that helps the country to move forward rather than backwards.
The first time I was privileged to meet president Mandela was during his visit to Malawi ... shortly after he was released from prison. I was amazed by his humility and his great sense of leadership ... Mandela's character has shaped my life.
Reflecting on his years in prison, Nelson Mandela wrote that there were dark moments that tested his faith in humanity, but he refused to give up.
The legacy of Mandela is to have brought the country together ... South Africa can be one of the success stories of the 21st century.
I think even though he [Nelson Mandela] was feted and praised as he was, he always was at pains to say, I'm a human being.
My thoughts and love go out to the Mandela family. Rest in peace Madiba. You will be missed, but your impact on this world will live forever.
Mandela and his first wife, Evelyn, on their wedding day
It was fortunate in looking back for South Africa and its entire people that Mandela and I found it possible to work together even though big strains developed between us from time to time.
When I first met Mandela, we did not discuss anything of substance; we just felt each other out. He spent a long time expressing his admiration for the Boer generals and how ingenious they were during the Anglo-Boer war.
The political, social, and spiritual impact of the life example set by Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela might be measured in part by the profound and unique gestures made by people in different countries to honor his life upon learning of his death.
Nelson Mandela is a leader Barack Obama should try to emulate ...
He could start by spending 27 years in prison.
There were only 3 people that I wanted to meet in life, Nelson Mandela was one of them. What a life, what a journey, what a man. Thank you for passing this way! God bless your resting soul!
After Versace was murdered, the first person to call me was Mandela.
Nelson Mandela is my hero outside of football. I was fortunate enough to meet him a couple of times. He was really clued up on his football and he knew me, so that was just unbelievable. It really stuck with me.
[Mandela] had believed all his life that you are very much in control of your own body, and, in the process of healing, your mind had to be stronger than the medicines applied. You also had to have determination to get better.
What an honor it was to step into the shoes of Nelson Mandela and portray a man who defied odds, broke down barriers, and championed human rights before the eyes of the world.
Former South Africa President Nelson Mandela announced Tuesday he will begin writing his autobiography. He spent 25 years in prison before being elected to public office. In America, we do it the other way around.
This may be a dream, but I'll say it anyway: I was supposed to be married last year, and I bought a gown. When I meet Nelson Mandela, I shall put on this gown and have the train of it removed and put aside, and kiss the ground that he walks on and then kiss his feet.
Mandela's political evolution was gradual.
Mr. Chairman, when I contemplate the evils of apartheid, my heart bleeds and I am sure the heart of every true blooded African bleeds.
We have a revolutionary history to honor and uphold. Which was what Nelson Mandela did. He reminded us of that which we need to be reminded, over and over again, about our own best selves.
Afrikaans was the language of the white minority in South Africa, and the forced learning of it created resentment among blacks. Even so, Nelson Mandela made it a point to learn this language in prison in anticipation that it would help him lead the whole of South Africa.
Mandela's heroism is the heroism of a man who suffered so badly for what he thought of as freedom. And yet when he had the upper hand he has this incredible self-control and these incredible leadership qualities.
I discovered even before I went to jail that apartheid was not run by people who were monolithic in their approach. Some of them didn't even believe in apartheid.
Do you realize, when Mandela was inaugurated president, he invited as his special guests the white jailers from his Robben Island prison? He literally did forgive everybody.
I cherish my own freedom dearly, but I care even more for your freedom. From a response to an offer of conditional freedom, read by Zindzi Mandela at a rally, Jabulani Stadium, Soweto, South Africa,
It is of vital importance to [Mandela] to be courteous and grateful at all times, as we never know whether we will have the opportunity to thank people or pay respect whenever they have been good to you.
George W. Bush in Washington decided that Nobel Peace Prize winner and ex-president Nelson Mandela could probably be taken off the U.S. list of terrorists).
I spent a lot of time with President Mandela supporting his efforts in the peace process in Burundi. The thing that impressed me the most was his humility.
Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.
Around the world, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela
what they did was hard. It takes time. It takes more than a single term. It takes more than a single president. It takes more than a single individual.
Obviously because of my personal connection to Mandela and having had his story as part of my childhood, I knew how awesome he was.
When was in prison I admired him for his moral strength ...
Of his period in power I can see few results. Apartheid no longer exists, at least to all appearances, but no one understands what the new government in South Africa is doing.
I have spent all my life advocating on behalf of the poor, oppressed and marginalized. As a social justice and human rights activist, and now as President of the Republic of Malawi, I have a deep appreciation for the challenges of those on the margins of society.
The history of apartheid-era South Africa is incredibly sad and at times infuriatingly incomprehensible.
When my daughter was born, I called her Ella Bella Mandela, because she was born the day after Mandela was released from prison.
Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus?
I hadn't fought enough for the injustice of the Apartheid.
It was spine tingling, actually, when you saw how people kept saying, "Release Nelson Mandela," and meaning really, "Release all of our political prisoners."
I didn't survive, I prepared." Nelson Mandela's answer when Tony asked him, "Sir, how did you survive all those years in prison?
I like people who are minimalist with their words. Jack Nicholson thinks a lot then says something, and it's always spot on. Nelson Mandela is the same.
What in Mandela was seen as an almost saintly ability to conciliate could, in a lesser man, be read as weak-kneed populism.
Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.
[ Live 8 Concert, Mary Fitzgerald Square, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2 July 2005]
The kids growing up in the apartheid era were so restricted and angry - if they spoke out against it, they were thrown in jail.
Even after facing jail, Martin Luther King, Jr. courageously and boldly spoke out against racial inequality.
The deep inequalities that persist are visible reminders of the effects of apartheid and colonialism. Until these scars are healed, the vision of our Constitution will not have been achieved.
The Nation-state: apartheid without political incorrectness.
Mandela's commitment to democracy was ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power
I told my cellmates about the oppression of the whites and apartheid. I helped organize hunger strikes and the like in my prison.
Nelson's Mandela own sense of himself was a very humble reading, [different] from how the world read him. And, quite often, you had the sense that he was not comfortable with all the accolades that would be.
Reverend Jesse Jackson, President-for-Life of the People's Republic of Himself.
It is not too surprising that, having been involved in a policy as evil and dehumanizing as apartheid,
From the beginning, Mandela and Tambo was besieged with clients. We were not the only African lawyers in South Africa, but we were the only firm of African lawyers. For Africans, we were the firm of first choice and last resort.
Being the first black Nobel laureate, and the first African, the African world considered me personal property. I lost the remaining shreds of my anonymity, even to walk a few yards in London, Paris or Frankfurt without being stopped.
[Nelson] Mandela was very keen not to be understood as an exceptional person.
Almost overnight, white people have gone from being very powerful to potentially irrelevant. Their future in South Africa is not what many had envisaged, so it involves a lot of reinvention.
The titanic effort that has brought liberation to South Africa, and ensured the total liberation of Africa, constitutes an act of redemption for the black people of the world.
Through my years of working on war and peace in Africa, I have learned that there are solutions to some of the greatest human rights challenges, and we all can be a part of those solutions.
President Obama compared himself to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in the struggle to bring about change. The comparison is flawed. They spent years in jail before taking political power, while politicians from Chicago do it the other way around.
South Africans must recall the terrible past so that we can deal with it, forgiving where forgiveness is necessary but never forgetting.
Yet, thousands of africans and young african youths have failed to acknowledge the significant of what madiba gave them. To me, he be called the pride in black skin and the freedom we are enjoying
It must not be forgotten in fairness to the National Government that apartheid is not just a policy of oppression but an attempt - in my opinion an attempt doomed to failure - to find an alternative to a policy of racial integration which is fair to both white and black.
Louise Roth Fischer, for caring about the women in Klong Prem Prison and for supporting all South Africans incarcerated abroad.
I had the honor to meet Nelson Mandela, and I heard him explain his forgiveness of his captors of 27 years by saying hatred and bitterness is destructive - the power is in love and forgiveness.
Together we have travelled a long road to be where we are today. This has been a road of struggle against colonial and apartheid oppression.
Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.
Using the power you derive from the discovery of the truth about racism in South Africa, you will help us to remake our part of the world into a corner of the globe on which all - of which all of humanity can be proud.
The mistake the apartheid government made was they gave the black people nothing, so they had nothing to lose. But now a lot of the former freedom-fighters are big-time capitalists. They've been given directorships in every major company. They're billionaires!
It was an honour for me to have been able to work with Mr. Mandela in the process that led to the adoption of the interim constitution and our first democratic elections in April 1994.
There is a duality to South Africa, as in all of life itself, that is evident, and as stark as the inequality among its citizens
It was a hallmark of Nelson Mandela's leadership that being open to change made him appear not weaker, but even stronger.
Tolstoy to Gandhi to Martin Luther King to Me and You
One individual can begin a movement that turns the tide of history. Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement, Mohandas Ganhi in India, Nelson Mandela in South Africa are examples of people standing up with courage and non-violence to bring about needed changes.
Bob Marley stood for universal peace and love. He tried to break racial barriers.
Martin luther king ' A man who have not discovered something he will die for, is not fit to live.
Whenever anybody called Nelson Mandela a saint, he would say: "If by saint you mean a sinner who is trying to be better, then I'm a saint."
I used to do my Nelson Mandela voice to blag restaurant tables in Cape Town. It rarely worked. Now what a great city that is.
Gandhi: Ninny of the 20th Century.
Don't let anyone tell you that Apartheid has nothing to do with South Africa now. Those roots run deep and tangled and we'll be tripping over them for many generations to come.
It is very difficult now in South Africa to find anyone who ever supported apartheid.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of my personal heroes.
Martin Luther King demeans his race and retards the advancement of his people.
I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.
Because Mr. Mandela's early opponents invested so many resources into distorting the true nature of his advocacy, the singular historic moment millions now celebrate could have been tragically lost to guerrilla decontextualization.
Whose life testifies to the truth that there is no shame in being oppressed: Those who should be ashamed are they who oppress others.
By the way, I don't mean to pick nits here, but Obama has just ordered the flag at half-mast for 10 days for Mandela. He did not order the flag at half-mast at all for Lady Thatcher.
A new world will be won not by those who stand at a distance with their arms folded, but by those who are in the arena, whose garments are torn by storms and whose bodies are maimed in the course of the contest. From a letter to Winnie Mandela,
When I came to Johannesburg from the countryside, I knew nobody, but many strangers were very kind to me. I then was dragged into politics, and then, subsequently, I became a lawyer.
President Mandela was not a hands-on president at any time.
If you sit down and talk to a person, it's easy to convince him that apartheid can never save a country and will lead to the slaughtering of innocent people - including his own people.