836 Nelson Mandela Quotes of All Time

Nelson Mandela (1918 to 2013 ) was the greatest African leader and a loyal advocate of peace, love, leadership, and forgiveness. He served as the first Democratic President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. This Nobel prize winner inspired countless individuals with his numerous words of wisdom. And here are some of the best Nelson Mandela Quotes that will remain evergreen.

Nelson Mandela’s Top Quotes

Fools multiply when wise men are silent.

Nelson Mandela

Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end.

Nelson Mandela

If you want the cooperation of humans around you, you must make them feel they are important – and you do that by being genuine and humble.

Nelson Mandela

It always seems impossible until it’s done.

Nelson Mandela

A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of.”

Nelson Mandela

Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.

Nelson Mandela

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Nelson Mandela

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

Nelson Mandela

If I had my time over I would do the same again. So would any man who dares call himself a man.

Nelson Mandela

I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.

Nelson Mandela

Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.

Nelson Mandela

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Nelson Mandela

Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.

Nelson Mandela

Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front.

Nelson Mandela

Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.

Nelson Mandela

I hate race discrimination most intensely and in all its manifestations. I have fought it all during my life; I fight it now, and will do so until the end of my days.

Nelson Mandela

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela Quotes on Education

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

Nelson Mandela

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Nelson Mandela

A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.

Nelson Mandela

We owe our children – the most vulnerable citizens in any society – a life free from violence and fear.

Nelson Mandela

No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.

Nelson Mandela

Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they will face. So it’s very important to give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela Quotes on Forgiveness

We forgive but not forgotten.

Nelson Mandela

Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die.

Nelson Mandela

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

Nelson Mandela

Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela Quotes on Freedom

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Nelson Mandela

I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. 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.

Nelson Mandela

Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.

Nelson Mandela

There is no such thing as part freedom.

Nelson Mandela

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

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.

Nelson Mandela

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Nelson Mandela

The names of Dingane and Bambata, Hintsa and Makana, Squngthi and Dalasile, Moshoeshoe and Sekhukhuni, were praised as the glory of the entire African nation. I hoped then that life might offer me the opportunity to serve my people and make my own humble contribution to their freedom struggle.

Nelson Mandela

Communists have always played an active role in the fight by colonial countries for their freedom, because the short-term objects of Communism would always correspond with the long-term objects of freedom movements.

Nelson Mandela

When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela Quotes on Inspiration

A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.

Nelson Mandela

May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.

Nelson Mandela

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Nelson Mandela

Where you stand depends on where you sit.

Nelson Mandela

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

Nelson Mandela

We should take heart from our own experience and performance. In a cynical world we have become an inspiration to many.

Nelson Mandela

Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead.

Nelson Mandela

Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front.

Nelson Mandela

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you
yourself have altered.

Nelson Mandela

It always seems impossible until it’s done.

Nelson Mandela

We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.

Nelson Mandela

When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.

Nelson Mandela

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

Nelson Mandela

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.

Nelson Mandela

Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for the eternity.

Nelson Mandela

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

Nelson Mandela

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

Nelson Mandela

A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela Quotes on Leadership

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

Nelson Mandela

Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front.

Nelson Mandela

I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.

Nelson Mandela

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.

Nelson Mandela

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.

Nelson Mandela

Be a life long student, read as many books as possible.

Nelson Mandela

I like a leader who can, while pointing out a mistake, bring up the good things the other person has done. If you do that, then the person sees that you have a complete picture of him. There is nobody more dangerous than one who has been humiliated, even when you humiliate him rightly.

Nelson Mandela

Unlike some politicians, I can admit to a mistake.

Nelson Mandela

It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.

Nelson Mandela

Appearances matter — and remember to smile.

Nelson Mandela

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

Nelson Mandela

As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

Nelson Mandela

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.

Nelson Mandela

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela Quotes on Love

Give a child love, laughter and peace, not AIDS.

Nelson Mandela

I do not deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the whites.

Nelson Mandela

There is nothing more important in life than giving. Tolerance is forged when people look beyond their own desires.

Nelson Mandela

Let the efforts of us all, prove that he [Martin Luther King] was not a mere dreamer when he spoke of the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace being more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.

Nelson Mandela

In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education… But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others – qualities which are within easy reach of every soul – are the foundation of one’s spiritual life.

Nelson Mandela

As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

Nelson Mandela

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

Nelson Mandela