I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.
One cannot be prepared for something while secretly believing it will not happen.
The brave man is not the one who has no fears, he is the one who triumphs over his fears.
May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.
A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it.
History will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children.
I will use the rest of my life to help the poor overcome the problems confronting them – poverty is the greatest challenge facing humanity. That is why I build schools; I want to free people from poverty and illiteracy.
Of course we desire education and we think it is a good thing, but you don’t have to have education in order to know that you want certain fundamental rights, you have got aspirations, you have got acclaims. It has nothing to do with education whatsoever.
I was neglected by my family because I had disappointed them – I’d run away from being forced into an arranged marriage, which was a big blow to them.
When I went to jail, I was a trained lawyer. And when the wardens received letters of demands or summonses, they didn’t have the resources to go to an attorney to help them. I would help them settle their cases, so they became attached to me and the other prisoners.
I discovered even before I went to jail that apartheid was not run by people who were monolithic in their approach. Some of them didn’t even believe in apartheid.
In many respects, people on the outside suffered more than those of us in jail. In prison, we ate three times a day, we had clothing, we had free medical services, and we could sleep for 12 hours.
It is important to not be hostile to what a greater part of society has embraced, whether as Christians, Hindus or Muslims. It is important to respect that because whether you believe or not in the existence of a superior being, humanity does believe in that.
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.
Individuals get caught up in the policy of their country. In prison, for instance, a warden or officer is not promoted if he doesn’t follow the policy of the government – though he himself does not believe in that policy.
Other people have qualities that may be better than your own. Let them express them.
The message of reconciliation, of nation-building, of granting amnesty, indemnity, has struck a powerful, favorable chord. And people can understand that we’re here not for purposes of retribution but to forget the past and to build our country.
My time in prison only deepened my resolve against apartheid. Even while I was in prison, I fought against it, teaching my cellmates about white supremacy and how to fight against it.
The laws that stopped blacks from voting were the worst, because they prevented blacks from voting someone into parliament who could change the other laws. Even though the blacks were the majority of the population, they were still not getting a say.
I told my cellmates about the oppression of the whites and apartheid. I helped organize hunger strikes and the like in my prison.