Famous Nelson Mandela's quotes

“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.
 

“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.
 

“Our struggle for freedom and justice was a collective effort…it

is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it.
 

“Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.
 

“We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom. We know it well that none of us acting alone can acheive success. We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world.
 

“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their

very humanity. To impose on them a wretched life of hunger and deprivation is to dehumanize them. But such has been the terrible fate of all black persons in our country under the system of apartheid.
 

“People may say to spend 27 years in prison you have wasted your life. But the greatest thing for a politician is whether the ideas to which you’ve committed your life are still alive, whether these ideas are likely to triumph in the end, and everything that happened showed that we have not sacrificed in vain.
 

“I came to accept that I have no right whatsoever to

judge others in terms of my own customs, however much I may be proud of such customs.
 

“Only armchair politicians are immune from committing

mistakes.Errors are inherent in political action.
 

“Until I was jailed I never fully appreciated the capacity of memory, the endless string of information the head can carry.”

-pinch

Born in 1918, Nelson Mandela joined the African National Congress  in 1943, as a law student.

He and other ANC leaders campaigned against apartheid (white-only rule).

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964, but was released in 1990 after 27 years in jail on Robin Island as South Africa began to move away from strict racial segregation.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and was elected South Africa’s first black president in 1994. He stepped down after five years in office in 1999.

After leaving office, he became South Africa’s highest-profile ambassador, campaigning against HIV/Aids and helping to secure his country’s right to host the 2010 football World Cup.

He was also involved in peace negotiations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and other countries in Africa and elsewhere.