Take it upon yourself where you live to make people around you joyful and full of hope.
When we can sit in the face of insanity or dislikes and be free from the need to make it different, then we are free.
I would like to be remembered not as anyone unique or special, but as part of a great team in this country that has struggled for many years, for decades and even centuries. The greatest glory of living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall.
The cause of Communism is the greatest cause in the history of mankind!
There are few misfortunes in this world that you cannot turn into a personal trimuph if you have the iron will and the neccessary skill.
What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.
The suffering inflicted, and more often than not on the most vulnerable sectors of society, demeans all of us as humanity. That it is invariably women, children, the aged and disabled who suffer in these conflicts stands to the added shame of humankind.
The collapse of good conscience and the absence of accountability and public scrutiny have led to crimes against humanity and violations of international law.
We need to exert ourselves that much more, and break out of the vicious cycle of dependence imposed on us by the financially powerful: those in command of immense market power and those who dare to fashion the world in their own image.
To be the father of a nation is a great honor, but to be the father of a family is a greater joy.
Politics can be strengthened by music, but music has a potency that defies politics.
To truly lead one’s people, one must also truly know them.
I pay tribute to the endless heroism of youth.
I really wanted to retire and rest and spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and of course with my wife. But the problems are such that for anybody with a conscience who can use whatever influence he may have to try to bring about peace, it’s difficult to say no.
A garden was one of the few thing in prison that one could control. To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend it then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction. The sense of being the custodian of this small patch of earth offered a taste of freedom.
Democracy is based on the majority principle. This is especially true in a country such as ours where the vast majority have been systematically denied their rights. At the same time, democracy also requires that the rights of political and other minorities be safeguarded.
A new society cannot be created by reproducing the repugnant past, however refined or enticingly repackaged.
Whenever I am with energetic young people, I feel like a recharged battery.
You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself.
I always knew that someday I would once again feel the grass under my feet and walk in the sunshine as a free man.