"Peace is not just the absence of conflict; peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, class, caste or any other social markers of difference."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."

"Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement."

"I loved it in the unconditional way that children love their first home."

"Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies."

"In my country we go to prison first and then become President."

"I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man."

"Some men, under the pressure of incarceration, showed true mettle, while others revealed themselves as less than what they had appeared to be."

"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."

"I came across few whites as a boy at Qunu. The local magistrate, of course, was white, as was the nearest shopkeeper. Occasionally, white travelers or policemen passed through our area. These whites appeared as grand as gods to me, and I was aware that they were to be treated with a mixture of fear and respect."

"And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

"Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual."

"Where globalization means, as it so often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom."

"What I took out of them was that character was measured by facing up to difficult situations and that a hero was a man who would not break even under the most trying circumstances."

"I have retired, but if there's anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do."

"It was not lack of ability that limited my people, but lack of opportunity."

"Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all."

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."

"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

"I started to make a study of the art of war and revolution and, whilst abroad, underwent a course in military training. If there was to be guerrilla warfare, I wanted to be able to stand and fight with my people and to share the hazards of war with them."

"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... Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished."

"I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying."

"A leader. . .is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind."

"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."

"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison."

"After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb."

"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."

"Give a child love, laughter and peace, not AIDS."

"If I preached unity, I must act like a unifier, even at the risk of perhaps alienating some of my own colleagues."

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

"Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great, you can be that generation."

"May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears."

"It is said that 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."

"Communists have always played an active role in the fight by colonial countries for their freedom, because the short-term objects of Communism would always correspond with the long-term objects of freedom movements."

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."

"There are so many men and women who hold no distinctive positions but whose contribution towards the development of society has been enormous."

"If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers."

"When you are young and strong...you can stay alive on your hatred"....but realized later "They can take everything from me except my mind and heart"Nelson Mandela from Long Walk to Freedom."

"In judging our progress as individual we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one's social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one's success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these. But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one's development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others - qualites which are within reach of every soul - are the foundation of one's spiritual life."

"Whatever position I occupied, it was the result of colleagues - of my comrades in the movement - who had decided in their wisdom to use me for the purpose of focusing the attention of the country and the international community on me."

"At the outset, I want to say that the suggestion that the struggle in South Africa is under the influence of foreigners or communists is wholly incorrect. I have done whatever I did because of my experience in South Africa and my own proudly felt African background, and not because of what any outsider might have said."

"Prison is designed to break one's spirit and destroy one's resolve. To do this, the authorities attempt to exploit every weakness, demolish every initiative, negate all signs of individuality--all with the idea of stamping out that spark that makes each of us human and each of us who we are."

"People respond in accordance to how you relate to them. If you approach them on the basis of violence, that's how they'll react. But if you say, 'We want peace, we want stability,' we can then do a lot of things that will contribute towards the progress of our society."

"There is a universal respect and even admiration for those who are humble and simple by nature, and who have absolute confidence in all human beings irrespective of their social status."

"I AM THE MASTER OF MY FATE AND THE CAPTAIN OF MY DESTINY."

"Before I went to jail, I was active in politics as a member of South Africa's leading organization - and I was generally busy from 7 A.M. until midnight. I never had time to sit and think."

"It always seems impossible until it's done."

"I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses."

"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 only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended."

"Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace."