Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.
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.
I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.
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.
I have always regarded myself, in the first place, as an African patriot.
By ancestry, I was born to rule.
Leaders in all spheres who are living with HIV should be encouraged, not coerced, to lead by example and disclose their HIV status.
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.
Nonviolence is a good policy when the conditions permit.
I can’t pretend that I’m brave and that I can beat the whole world.
If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.
I was called a terrorist yesterday, but when I came out of jail, many people embraced me, including my enemies, and that is what I normally tell other people who say those who are struggling for liberation in their country are terrorists.
Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.
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.
There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.
There is no such thing as part freedom.
Give a child love, laughter and peace, not AIDS.
Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.
I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.
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.