Nelson Mandela Quotes About South Africa
-
The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices - submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means in our power in defence of our people, our future, and our freedom
→ -
Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way.
→ -
Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.
→ -
No one is born hating another person because of the color 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 are people here [in South Africa] who, whatever the debate is on a particular issue, their dominating idea is that at the end of the debate we must emerge stronger than we were before and closer to one another.
→ -
We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom. We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success. We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world. Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world. Let freedom reign.
→ -
There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty.
→ -
The time will come when our nation will honour the memory of all the sons, the daughters, the mothers, the fathers, the youth and the children who, by their thoughts and deeds, gave us the right to assert with pride that we are South Africans, that we are Africans, and that we are citizens of the world.
→ -
We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success.
→ -
Press Freedom will never be under threat in South Africa for as long as the ANC is the majority party
→ -
We have introduced a democratic constitution, which put suvery South African on an equal basis.
→ -
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
→ -
Greece is the mother of democracy and South Africa is its youngest daughter
→ -
South Africans must recall the terrible past so that we can deal with it, forgiving where forgiveness is necessary but never forgetting.
→ -
Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.
→ -
We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.
→ -
I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.
→ -
Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.
→ -
Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way. Universal suffrage on a common voters' roll in a united, democratic and non-racial South Africa is the only way to peace and racial harmony.
→ -
I've found that South Africa has produced good leaders. These are people who realize that when there is danger, they should be in the forefront and when there is victory to be celebrated, they should be in the background, allowing their colleagues and the ordinary civilians - the man in the street - to rejoice and to celebrate that victory.
→ -
The victory of democracy in South Africa is the common achievement of all humanity.
→ -
We, the people of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: That South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people.
→ -
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.
→ -
Before I went to jail, I was active in politics as a member of South Africa's leading organization - and I was generally busy from 7 A.M. until midnight. I never had time to sit and think.
→ -
We speak here of the challenge of the dichotomies of war and peace, violence and non-violence, racism and human dignity, oppression and repression and liberty and human rights, poverty and freedom from want.
→ -
I hate racial discrimination most intensely and all its manifestations. I have fought all my life; I fight now, and will do so until the end of my days. Even although I now happen to be tried by one, whose opinion I hold in high esteem, I detest most violently the set-up that surrounds me here. It makes me feel that I am a Black man in a White man's court. This should not be I should feel perfectly at ease and at home with the assurance that I am being tried by a fellow South African, who does not regard me as an inferior, entitled to a special type of justice.
→ -
We cannot blame other people for our troubles. We are not victims of the influx of foreign people into South Africa. We must remember that it was mainly due to the aggressive and hostile policies of the apartheid regime that the economic development of our neighbours was undermined.
→ -
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
→ -
We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity — a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.
→ -
Today we are a nation at peace with itself, united in our diversity, not only proclaiming but living out the contention that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. We take our place amongst the nations of the world, confident and proud in being an African country.
→
Nelson Mandela
- Born: July 18, 1918
- Died: December 5, 2013
- Occupation: Former President of South Africa
Related Authors
-
Fidel Castro Former Prime Minister of Cuba -
Barack Obama 44th U.S. President -
Mahatma Gandhi Civil rights leader -
Che Guevara Revolutionary -
Jacob Zuma President of South Africa -
Morgan Freeman Actor -
Thabo Mbeki South African Politician -
Malala Yousafzai Journalist -
Malcolm X Human rights activist -
Idris Elba Actor -
Rosa Parks Activist -
Frederik Willem de Klerk Former State President of South Africa -
Mother Teresa Saint -
Graca Machel Minister for Education and Culture of Mozambique -
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela South African Politician -
Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil rights activist -
Maya Angelou Author -
Abraham Lincoln 16th U.S. President -
Desmond Tutu Activist -
Kofi Annan Diplomat