"This document [the Reconstruction and Development Programme] was translated into a simpler manifesto called 'A Better Life for All', which in turn became the ANC's campaign slogan."

"On the first day of school, my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name and said that from thenceforth that was the name we would answer to in school. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education."

"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."

"Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future."

"The names of Dingane and Bambata, Hintsa and Makana, Squngthi and Dalasile, Moshoeshoe and Sekhukhuni, were praised as the glory of the entire African nation. I hoped then that life might offer me the opportunity to serve my people and make my own humble contribution to their freedom struggle."

"Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they will face. So it's very important to give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country."

"I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself."

"Does anybody really think that they didn't get what they had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?"

"I am confident that nobody... will accuse me of selfishness if I ask to spend time, while I am still in good health, with my family, my friends and also with myself."

"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner."

"Lead from the back - and let others believe they are in front."

"Intervention only works when the people concerned seem to be keen for peace."

"It is not my ambition to marry a white woman or swim in a white pool. It is political equality that we want."

"Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence."

"There is no such thing as part freedom."

"If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness."

"Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes and apsirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry or savour their songs. I again realized that we were not different people with separate languages; we were one people, with different tongues."

"There is little to be said in favour of poverty, but it was often an incubator of true friendship. Many people will appear to befriend you when you are wealthy, but precious few will do the same when you are poor."

"Live life as though nobody is watching, and express yourself as though everyone is listening."

"If wealth is a magnet, poverty is a kind of repellent."

"I am not an optimist, but a great believer of hope."

"It reaffirmed my long-held belief that education was the enemy of prejudice. These were men and women of science, and science had no room for racism."

"Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me."

"We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right."

"A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed."

"Forget the past."

"It is a simple tale, but its message is an enduring one: virtue and generosity will be rewarded in ways that one cannot know."

"Lead from the front - but don t leave your base behind."

"A Nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but it's lowest ones."

"In the 1940s, traveling for an African was a complicated process. All Africans over the age of sixteen were compelled to carry 'Native passes' issued by the Native Affairs Department and were required to show that pass to any white policeman, civil servant, or employer. Failure to do so could mean arrest, trial, a jail sentence or fine."

"Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated."

"When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat."

"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."

"Sabotage did not involve loss of life, and it offered the best hope for future race relations. Bitterness would be kept to a minimum and, if the policy bore fruit, democratic government could become a reality."

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. 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 love playing and chatting with children...feeding and putting them to bed with a little story, and being away from the family has troubled me throughout my...life. i like relaxing at the house, reading quietly, taking in the sweet smell that comes from the pots, sitting around a table with the family and taking out my wife and children. when you can no longer enjoy these simple pleasures something valuable is taken away from your life and you feel it in your daily work."

"We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us it's in everyone."

"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."

"I would wear the blue overalls of the fieldworker and often wore round, rimless glasses known as Mazzawati teaglasses. I had a car, and I wore a chauffeur's cap with my overalls. The pose of chauffeur was convenient because I could travel under the pretext of driving my master's car."

"Where you stand depends on where you sit."

"Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another."

"I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism."

"When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw."

"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."

"I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders."

"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."

"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."

"Crime must be brought under control... Freedom without civility, freedom without the ability to live in peace, was not true freedom at all."

"When the women begin to take an active part in the struggle, no power on earth can stop us from achieving freedom in our lifetime."

"Of course you cannot know a man completely, his character, his principles, sense of judgement, not till he's shown his colors, run the people, making laws. Experience, there's the test."