At the southern tip of the continent, a rich reward is in the making, an invaluable gift is in the preparation, for those who suffered in the name of all humanity when they sacrificed everything - for liberty, peace, human dignity and human fulfillment.

Nelson Mandela

Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one's commitment.

Nelson Mandela

perseverance commitment needs

Gandhi rejects the Adam Smith notion of human nature as motivated by self-interest and brute needs and returns us to our spiritual dimension with its impulses for nonviolence, justice and equality. He exposes the fallacy of the claim that everyone can be rich and successful provided they work hard. He points to the millions who work themselves to the bone and still remain hungry.

Nelson Mandela

hard-work successful spiritual

No child in Africa, and in fact anywhere in the world, should be denied education.

Nelson Mandela

children facts world

As long as women are bound by poverty and as long as they are looked down upon, human rights will lack substance.

Nelson Mandela

substance rights long

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

Nelson Mandela

stupid inspiring water

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

Nelson Mandela

hair inspiring beautiful

Running taught me valuable lessons. In cross-country competition, training counted more than intrinsic ability, and I could compensate for a lack of natural aptitude with diligence and discipline. I applied this in everything I did.

Nelson Mandela

discipline running country

To be the father of a nation is a great honor, but to be the father of a family is a greater joy.

Nelson Mandela

honor joy father

We can't win a war, but we can win an election.

Nelson Mandela

election winning war

We raise our voices in holy gladness to celebrate the victory of the risen Christ over the terrible forces of death.

Nelson Mandela

victory voice christ

As the years progress one increasingly realises the importance of friendship and human solidarity. And if a 90-year-old may offer some unsolicited advice on this occasion, it would be that you, irrespective of your age, should place human solidarity, the concern for the other, at the centre of the values by which you live.

Nelson Mandela

progress advice years

Sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour, Desmond Tutu's voice will always be the voice of the voiceless.

Nelson Mandela

voiceless voice sometimes

Our freedom is also incomplete, dear compatriots, as long as we are denied our security by criminals who prey on our communities, who rob our businesses and undermine our economy, who ply their destructive trade in drugs in our schools, and who do violence against our women and children.

Nelson Mandela

long children school

As long as many of our people still live in utter poverty, as long as children still live under plastic covers, as long as many of our people are still without jobs, no South African should rest and wallow in the joy of freedom.

Nelson Mandela

jobs long children

The relations between a man and his or her god is a personal matter; you can't go out and challenge the belief of people in a superior being.

Nelson Mandela

challenges men people

Jinnah is a constant source of inspiration for all those who are fighting against racial and group discrimination.

Nelson Mandela

groups fighting inspiration

The question of education has nothing to do with the question of the vote. On numerous occasions it has been proved in history that people can enjoy the vote even if they have no education.

Nelson Mandela

vote enjoy people

You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.

Nelson Mandela

forgiveness leadership inspiring

There's one place where (Fidel Castro’s) Cuba stands out head and shoulders above the rest – that is in its love for human rights and liberty!

Nelson Mandela

cuba liberty rights

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.

Nelson Mandela

powerful responsibility mean