Quotes from Nelson Mandela

Especially for those of us who lived in single cells, you had the time to sit down and think, and we discovered that sitting down just to think is one of the best ways of keeping yourself fresh and able, to be able to address the problems facing you, and you had the opportunity, also, of examining your past.

If there is one thing in this planet that has the power to bind people it is soccer.

I believe that in the end that it is kindness and accommodation that are all the catalysts for real change.

I would wear the blue overalls of the fieldworker and often wore round, rimless glasses known as Mazzawati teaglasses. I had a car, and I wore a chauffeur's cap with my overalls. The pose of chauffeur was convenient because I could travel under the pretext of driving my master's car.

My respect for human beings is based not on the colour of a man's skin nor authority he may wield, but purely on merit.

Since the dawn of history, mankind has honoured and respected brave and honest people.

Part of building a new nation means building a spirit of tolerance, love and respect amongst the people of this country.

Leaders will have to give clear and decisive leadership towards a world of tolerance and respect for difference, and an uncompromising commitment to peaceful solutions of conflicts and disputes.

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

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.

Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life . . .

The curious beauty of African music is that it uplifts even as it tells a sad tale. You may be poor, you may have only a ramshackle house, you may have lost your job, but that song gives you hope.